By Karen Byko, special to Charleston Currents | Separated and confined to my yard, excluding the short walks around my neighborhood with the dogs, I have had to challenge myself to rediscover the extraordinary gifts of beauty that surround me every day.
By Janet Segal, special to Charleston Currents | Here’s an idea: Local governments and the state — the county, its libraries, technical colleges and the like — should put idle 3-D printers to use now to print masks to keep our medical workers safe.
I am self-quarantining at home with two sewing machines, fabric, a pattern from the internet and I have been sewing facemasks.
According to my nursing friends, these will be helpful for elderly patients and their caregivers and for people outside the home who must go shopping. But they will fall apart after multiple washings. They are well-made but not designed for long-term use.
There are, however, masks that can stand up to repeated sterilizing — those made of plastic on 3-D printers.
By Frank Knapp, special to Charleston Currents | The City of Charleston has implemented a shelter-in-place order. Columbia has done the same. There are even calls for Gov. Henry McMaster to do so for all of South Carolina.
As a result of all governments’ actions and instructions to citizens for containing COVID-19 from spreading, small businesses are in crisis.
By Dave Echols | What we are excited about is when we look into the future and see the opportunities for us to continue to grow with our community. Alongside our partners with the city, we have some exciting facility upgrades to share for 2020, including new group areas, such as the “Dugout” themed group area you see here, and an overhaul of the ballpark’s telecom capabilities.
Chief among the updates is the city’s upgrading of the ballpark light structures and converting those lights to LED bulbs around the ballpark. Not only is this solution a significant improvement in energy efficiency, it also provides us with the opportunity to liven up the game day presentation.
As we look even further into the future, there’s no shortage of ideas we can continue to work on to keep the ballpark one of the best in the country, even 25-plus years after its construction. Projects like the completion of a 360-degree boardwalk-style concourse behind the outfield wall make us all excited about the possibilities of how this ballpark can serve this community.
By Herb Frazier | In honor of Black History Month, Tri-County First Steps has placed in the Children’s Garden at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens the book “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
This book is a tribute to Tubman’s strength, humility, and ability to navigate nature and the outdoors. It is the perfect book for children 5- to 8-years old. Scan a QR code on the book’s cover to hear an interactive storytelling session narrative by Dorchester County First Steps Director Crystal Campbell.
Parents can listen to the story using their cellphones to enjoy Campbell’s lyrical story that brings the full radiance of Tubman’s life. Pages of the book have been placed on 16 story boards along a winding path in the garden.
By Eugene Platt
“Paris horrified” hollers the headline
of my faraway city’s daily the day after
a wartime-like fire jolts the joie de vivre of spring
and ravages the regal Notre-Dame de Paris.
By Cynthia Bledsoe, special to Charleston Currents | We traveled from Vienna to Melk and Linz, Austria and then into Germany, stopping in Passau, Regensburg and Nuremberg. Each town was decorated with different lights and festive Christmas decorations and the markets were filled to the brim with food, ornaments and lovingly hand-crafted goods.
By Joy Campbell, special to Charleston Currents | In fiscal year 2020-21, the state of South Carolina expects to have a $2 billion surplus and our policymakers face political challenges in determining priorities for the use of those funds. Unfortunately, some issues and agencies often have a tough time gaining their attention.
RELATED: Editor and Publisher Andy Brack’s latest commentary is on a related subject: How to spend the state’s $1.8 billion tax windfall.
Campbell
The agencies that serve children don’t get what they need because they lack the powerful lobbying interests that others enjoy. Children don’t contribute to political coffers or go to the polls. Therefore advocates and social services agencies voices are drowned and children’s needs are subverted by the voices of well-funded special interest groups with powerful constituencies and capital to expend.
By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents | Chinese lanterns will glow for four months beginning Nov. 15 at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, illuminating America’s oldest garden at night for the first time in its 343-year history.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has partnered with the Zigong Lantern Group in China to present “Lights of Magnolia: Reflections of a Cultural Exchange.” The lantern festival includes custom-designed installations of large-scale thematically unified lanterns, a fusion of historic Chinese cultural symbols and images that represent the flora and fauna of Magnolia.
The lantern festival, the first ever at a public garden in North America for Zigong, places Magnolia in a position to play a prominent role in supporting Charleston’s tourism traffic, said Tom Johnson, the garden’s executive director. “We are expecting record-breaking attendance for this visually stimulating display of stunning Chinese art that will glow in the night,” he said.
S.C. Encyclopedia | South Carolina barbecue is slowly cooked, hand-pulled or shredded pork that is flavored with a tangy sauce and usually served with side dishes such as rice, hash, coleslaw, sweet pickles, white bread, and iced tea. Barbecue often is served on festive occasions such as holidays, family reunions, weddings, church and community fundraisers, football tailgating parties, and political meetings. It varies widely across the state with respect to cooking methods, cuts of pork, sauce type, and side dishes served. Barbecue is often the topic of friendly debate since many South Carolinians have strong preferences for particular types that reflect the cultural character and identity of specific regions or places.
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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