By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The guy from Long Island smoking a big cigar didn’t think historic statues and memorials should be removed. To do so would be a way for the present generation to try to whitewash the history of the past — to rid these tributes from the state’s collective conscience and keep people from remembering how things were.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you want to understand the stark difference between business and government, look to NASCAR.
Just two days after Bubba Wallace, the racing sport’s only black driver, said it was time to remove the Confederate flag from NASCAR’s events and properties, the sport’s operating company did so. Two days. To get rid of the painful symbol of the South that’s been a visible feature at racing events for generations.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Gov. Nikki Haley took a victory lap around a legislature Wednesday with which she didn’t always get along.
“When I was first elected, I heard over and again from governors around the country that this would be the best job I would ever have,” she said in her final State of the State address prior to expected confirmation soon as the new ambassador to the United Nations. “I didn’t understand what they meant back then – and if I’m honest, some days, especially during the legislative session, I didn’t agree with them.”
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds is the gift that keeps on giving for Gov. Nikki Haley.
Not only will she receive a major leadership award Jan. 12 from Furman’s Riley Institute for her role in taking down the flag, she’s been tapped to give the national GOP response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address.
Cynics easily spin the speech as little more than an attempt to illustrate that Republicans can be brown and female, not just white and male. Others may take it a step further and say the nationally-televised response is political payback.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds doesn’t confront something lurking in rooms across South Carolina for generations — the elephant of racial division.
So that made us wonder — how can the state move forward to reconcile and heal generations of slights, violence, fear, prejudice and deaths? What can be done to level the playing field, to thwart dreams lost because of skin color or poverty?
“Using any measure, the prospects of success for an affluent white baby born today in South Carolina are significantly higher than those of a baby whose skin color is not white and whose parents are poor,” says Steve Skardon, head of the Palmetto Project.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Not enough praise can be heaped on state Rep. Jenny Horne, R-Summerville, for her moving, emotional plea on Wednesday night that refocused House colleagues after hours of debate on removing the Confederate flag off of the Statehouse grounds.
By Andy Brack | In the midst of the pall cast over the state following the Charleston church massacre, you might have missed last week’s Miss South Carolina pageant.
Ten days after the shootings that left nine dead and shocked the world, the show went on in Township Auditorium in Columbia. What came out of it highlights the stuff South Carolina is really made of.
IN THIS ISSUE
PHOTO: America’s flag
FOCUS: Increasing youth mentoring
BRACK: Fear must not win in S.C.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Kaynard Photography
SENIORS: What Medicaid covers and what it doesn’t
PALMETTO POEM: “Officials Are Optimistic,” by Gilbert Allen
GOOD NEWS: A Community United event, more
FEEDBACK: Send us your letters
CALENDAR: Redux event, Ansari reading, more
REVIEW: Death by Darjeeling, by Laura Childs
MYSTERY: Kind of creepy looking
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Gov. Cole Blease
June 29, 2015+: July 4 fun, park meeting, flag film, more
Excellent piece (above) on the confluence of events that helped South Carolinians — and hopefully a lot more people who treated old South enthusiasts like their dotty Uncle Fred but let them get away with their delusions by ignoring them — to begin folding the flag.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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