Michael Kaynard, Charleston: “Over the past 18 months or so, our country has had to endure some of the most polarizing rhetoric in recent history. I have tortured myself by listening to an overload of trash talk that resulted in the election of Donald Trump as our next president. There has been a great deal of anguish over this result and many seem to have lost hope.”
Staff reports (with 12 photos) | Up to 3,000 participants braved chilly, rainy Saturday weather to march from city parking garages to Brittlebank Park in Charleston to show local support for a national march for women’s rights in Washington. An estimated 500,000 marched in D.C. More than a million marched is events around the world, according to media reports.
For longtime Charleston leader Linda Ketner, the local march was a phenomenal start to future organizing to get more women in public office, including those who think, “not me.”
“The people who say ‘not me’ are generally those who will be motivated not by self-aggrandizement but by justice and public service,” Ketner told Charleston Currents. “Women need to be where the decisions are being made — now largely without our voices.
Staff reports | Charleston Young Professionals, a division of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, is partnering with Be A Mentor, a nonprofit organization headquartered in North Charleston, to encourage young professionals’ involvement in the development of our region’s future leaders.
Also in Good News: Mount Pleasant’s new library; Remembering the late Sen. Clementa Pinckney; RiverDogs and reading; Romantic garden walk at Magnolia Plantation; Crafts deadline; Charleston Animal Society grant; Lowcountry AIDS grant.
Drive a few hours south and you might have seen this building, recently photographed by contributing photographer Michael Kaynard. Where is it? Send your best guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com — and make sure to include the name of the town in which you live.
Lots of events on the calendar for the coming weeks: MLK events, two oyster roads, Taste of Folly, jazz, more.
George Graf: What a fabulous program. Getting children to enter pre-school or kindergarten on a much more level playing field is key to helping the early disadvantaged to keep up with their peers. Pouring money into school “catch up” programs for the lives of the disadvantaged students only seems to make a small dent in closing their peer gap.
By Marjory Wentworth, poet laureate of South Carolina | I am guessing there won’t be a poem at this week’s presidential inauguration. Too bad, because now is the time to think like a poet.
Through empathy, precise language and imagery, poets connect us to the things of this world and to one another. No one understood this better than the late Winston Churchill, who hand-wrote his speeches in iambic pentameter. This five stress line of verse is essentially the length of the average sentence written in the English language and can be said in one breath. Churchill had to inspire a nation under attack, and he accomplished this in ways that will be remembered forever.
Staff reports | The Institute of International Education (IIE) has ranked College of Charleston as the No. 4 institution in the United States among the top 40 master’s level colleges and universities for the total number of study abroad participants for the 2014-2015 academic year, according to a press release.
Talented Columbia cartoonist and Statehouse Report fan Robert Ariail sent along this Charleston-centric cartoon, blending the demolition of a historic house that can’t be saved with the ever-present shroud that developers keep erecting more hotels on the peninsula, leaving many residents feeling that the historic area is becoming more of a museum than a city. Thanks, Robert!
Veteran photo sleuth George Graf of Palmyra, Va., sent along this mystery photo that looks like it could be in Charleston, but is it? (Hint: Probably not.) But where is it? Send your best guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com — and make sure to include the name of the town in which you live.
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.
Charleston Currents is brought to you free of charge thanks to the generosity of our underwriters:
Charleston City Paper, an alt-weekly seen by more than 100,000 people, offers the latest on news, views, arts, dining and music. Sign up for newsletters that will keep you up-to-date all week.
Statehouse Report is a renowned statewide policy and politics forecast published every Friday that informs South Carolina’s opinion leaders with key insights and news.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Use our feed
Send us your comments
Recent Comments