Charleston Currents – Special to Charleston Currents

Articles by: Special to Charleston Currents

FOCUS: Interest in Slavery to Freedom Tour spikes at Magnolia

By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents | With rapid-fire questions, Georgia nurse Leonza Hudson wanted to know where the enslaved people at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens attended church and cook and were the children taught to read.

He and his wife, pediatrician Tamara New-Hudson, directed their questions to Joseph McGill as he led the couple and eight others through four former slave dwellings open daily during Magnolia’s Slavery to Freedom Tour.

The African-American couple, who lives in Decater, Ga., said they were drawn to Charleston for its history. A Google search steered them specifically to Magnolia for a lesson on slavery. They said slavery was not taught in the all-white schools he attended in Michigan and at her school in Maine.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 09/21/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: Encountering hope during a pandemic

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | It is not over. This pandemic is still wreaking havoc with our lives.

* We still need to wear masks when we go into public places.
* We still need to wear masks anywhere when we are going to be closer than 6 feet from another person.
* We still need to wash our hands after doing any activity that has us touching things.
* We still must be careful about any socialization or eating out.
* We still must consider whether an activity will be indoors where ventilation is a key or outdoors where the air is free-flowing.

The difficult part of this is that the only certainty is uncertainty. How do we therefore determine what is important?

As we continue our journey of uncertainty, many of us experience “hedonic adaptation.” This is the capacity for human beings to adapt to their new circumstances, for better or for worse. Many studies show that we can quickly adapt to a new baseline — a new normal.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/17/2020 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news

WEST: To be or not be in person in the classroom

By Gary West, special to Charleston Currents | On July 15, 2020, Gov. Henry McMaster lobbied for opening schools for all of South Carolina’s children – full classrooms, full-time, five days a week – while the pandemic continues to spread faster and farther.

West

Each school district in South Carolina has been required to submit a reopening plan to the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE). And all those plans were required to have an option for parents to send their students to school.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/17/2020 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

GIBSON: It’s time to debunk the myth of school choice

By Jen Gibson, special to Charleston Currents | Normally this time of year, my son and I are on the hunt for new shoes and the perfect pencil pouch. This year, we are struggling with masks and stocking up on hand sanitizer.

Like most parents, our family is wrestling with decisions about our work schedules, our vulnerable parents, and our child’s academic and social needs. All of our energy is focused on supporting students, teachers and our community during this unprecedented crisis.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/10/2020 · 1 comment · My Turn, Views

Lewis, center, with Elizabeth Colbert Busch and Sam Skardon. Photo via Facebook.

FOCUS: Remembering the power of John Lewis and those chickens

By Sam Skardon, republished with permission | Not many people can say this, but in my first job, I proudly kept a copy of my boss’ mugshot on my desk. I’d look at it and wonder if the 21-year-old John Lewis in the picture, who had just been arrested on the Freedom Rides, thought it was possible that someday a framed version of it would be sitting on the desk of a 21-year-old aide in his office at the U.S. Capitol. He had a slight smile on his face in the picture, so maybe he had a hunch. I asked him about it once and he just flashed the same smirk from the mugshot back at me.

I wish I had counted the number of times I heard Mr. Lewis tell his life story. His voice would roar to life with that deep Alabama accent. He was a preacher and every audience quickly became his congregation. He had been doing it his whole life, as the crowd would quickly learn.

Growing up on a farm in Alabama, his job was to raise chickens. They were his first parishioners. …

by Special to Charleston Currents · 07/20/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

ELMORE: Medicaid failure shows lawmakers don’t value black lives

By Brian Elmore, special to Statehouse Report | For every George Floyd and Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor and Walter Scott, thousands of African-Americans and people of color die silently each year due to a lack of access to health care.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 06/15/2020 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

West Ashley High School Senior Heity Gonzalez. Source: Charleston County School District.

FOCUS: A few life lessons for new graduates

By Reba Hull Campbell, special to Charleston Currents | When May 23 rolls around every year, I put aside all the other renowned celebrations that fall on the same day — Eliza Doolittle Day, Pick Strawberries Day, Buy a Musical Instrument Day, or Weights and Measures Day — and take a few minutes to appreciate May 23 as the anniversary of when I started my first post-graduation job. I like to call it my “adultiversary.”

May 23, 1983, was the day I walked into 123 Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill sporting big hair, a shoulder-padded power suit and aspirations to be a press secretary working for a freshman congressman from Florence.

Each year on my adultiversary, I’m grateful for the fact I was able to land my dream job as my first job. This year, however, this milestone feels a bit bittersweet as I see all the new graduates flooding the market with no jobs to absorb them.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 05/25/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

LOFTIS: Maintain good financial habits during pandemic

By State Treasurer Curts Loftis | It’s no secret that money has a significant influence on our lives. While this is frequently made obvious in our daily routines, nothing underscores that sentiment quite like the current crisis.

Loftis

The emergence of COVID-19 has resulted in a societal spike of anxiety and fear, with many Americans rightfully concerned about their health during this time. Weighing just as heavily on our minds, though, are the economic consequences we are being confronted with.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/27/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news, My Turn

PHOTO ESSAY: The beauty of Crab Bank

The folks at the S.C. Coastal Conservation League shared some great photos over email over the weekend to relieve cabin fever and to show the wildlife that remains at Crab Bank in Charleston harbor. “Crab Bank is one of the few places on the Atlantic coast where you can watch sea and shorebirds nesting—and we’re lucky enough to have it […]

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/20/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Photo Essay, Photos

FOCUS, Smith: Pandemic lesson: Time to stop the asphalt gravy train

By Charlie Smith, special to Charleston Currents | When the coronavirus quarantine is over, let’s be sure to remember one of the most important lessons that we have learned: Let’s remember what it was like living in Charleston without traffic.

The lesson we should learn from this experience is that it’s time to stop building bigger and bigger roads that only invite more and more cars and trucks that divide our community and diminish the health and well-being of our citizens.

Smith

It’s time to tell our General Assembly and our county and city governments that equitable mobility is what the public is entitled to, not just more asphalt. Tell them that it’s time to break up the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and create an agency that can focus on mass transit, inter-city rail, “Complete Streets” and multi-modal transit for all citizens, not just on more wasteful inefficient projects for the benefit of road contractors.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/06/2020 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news