Charleston Currents

My Turn

MY TURN, Sakran: The power of optimism

By Jason Sakran, special to Charleston Currents | If I didn’t know better, it would appear Charleston is suffering from so many problems and shortcomings that some believe our best days are behind us.

Sakran

Based on the tone and tenor of some elected officials, candidates, and citizens — issues like flooding, affordable housing, crime, and over-development have become so powerful in themselves, they seem to drown out any discussion about hope, optimism and defining what our vision for Charleston 2050 is?

by Special to Charleston Currents · 10/07/2019 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

MY TURN: How to beat the Charleston heat

By Mike Robertson, College of Charleston | There’s hot, and then there’s Charleston hot – the kind of heavy, suffocating hot that has residents wondering why they live here and visitors knowing why they don’t. Yep, Charleston knows hot. It also knows what it’s like when you add a nice thick layer of humidity to that hot. In the South, we call it summer. And, while most of us have adapted to the summer heat, even Southerners are susceptible to the dangerous and even life-threatening effects that extreme heat can have on our bodies.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 07/01/2019 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

FRAZIER: The women of Magnolia share a love of nature and beauty

By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents | Decades ago when Magnolia Plantation and Gardens only opened the gates during the azalea-bloom season, Nona Hastie Valiunas and one of her cousins hid in the bushes then jumped out to scare the tourists. It was a playful time for young Nona who now shares ownership of the gardens that has been in her family for more than three centuries.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/08/2019 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

ADAMS: Hike is a long series of 8-mile camping trips

By Jerry Adams, contributing editor, March 14, 2019 | Taking an unexpected day off, wary of the weather and listening to my body and giving it a day rest.

This isn’t playing out the way it did eight years ago, but, then, I am not the same man who did this incredible journey eight years ago. Not even close. My sensei might have phrased it thus: “You must empty the cup, grasshopper. You must empty the cup.” Translation – you must give up a lot of what you think you know so that you have room to learn more.

by Andy Brack · 03/18/2019 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

MY TURN, Felkel: Bush had a life well-lived

By Chip Felkel, special to Charleston Currents | One of my heroes is gone and hopefully not the ambition, desire and commitment to see our country through this lens.

A text early last Saturday from an old friend (a loyal Democrat who understands it’s not about partisanship, it is about people) informed me that President George H.W. Bush had died. It was no real shock or surprise. He was, after all, 94, and just like my own parents who shared a long loving marriage, he was likely to soon follow his beloved Barb.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 12/10/2018 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

FOCUS: MUSC approves a turkey of an idea

By Lynn Bailey, special to Statehouse Report | This week, I guess in honor of the turkey, the Medical University of South Carolina Board of Trustees approved a turkey of an idea: the acquisition of four poorly-performing hospitals from Community Health Systems (CHS), a for-profit health company that is rapidly selling off its underperforming assets.

The hospitals to be acquired are: Chester Hospital in Chester County, Springs Memorial Hospital in Lancaster County, Marion Hospital in Marion County and Carolinas Hospital in Florence. Except for Carolinas Hospital in Florence, all of the hospitals are located in rural counties and are in serious danger of bankruptcy and closing.

Bailey
Additionally, CHS is unloading some more loser hospitals in the Upstate to Spartanburg Regional Health Center: Mary Black Health System in Spartanburg and Mary Black Health System in Gaffney. Spartanburg Regional Health Center is also a public health system controlled by Spartanburg County.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 11/26/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news, My Turn

FOCUS, Wentworth: From Nuremberg to Pittsburgh

By Marjory Wentworth, contributing editor | In 2016, the lawyers from the International Criminal Court asked me to write a poem for the 70th Anniversary of the closing of the military tribunals at Nuremberg. At the time, I was finishing writing the book We Are Charleston, Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, immersed in the unfathomable grief of the families and survivors. Charleston was still recovering from one of the worst hate crimes in American history

The links between racism and anti-Semitism are innumerable. In fact, the NAACP has Jewish roots. The organization was founded by both black and white civil rights activists, including a Jewish man named Henry Moskowitz. …

by Special to Charleston Currents · 11/12/2018 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news, My Turn

MY TURN, Saul: Reject president’s course of not loving thy neighbor

By Dr. Robert A. Saul, special to Charleston Currents | “Love thy neighbor.”

This quote from Matthew 22:39 is explicit in its instruction. After the primary commandment to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” the second commandment states “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

by Special to Charleston Currents · 10/08/2018 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

MY TURN, Read: Our education system is failing our children

By John C. Read, special to Charleston Currents | Our responsibility at Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative (TCCC) is to report on the state of education across Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester, as we have done for the past five years.

Read
The data we analyze and the collaborative work we do all say the same thing: public education in our region is failing to educate substantial numbers of our children. The differences among counties, districts and schools are only differences in degree; the cost in human potential is excessive.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 08/27/2018 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

MORRIS: Rules have changed on using 529 plans to fund education

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | No longer limited to college funding, 529 plans can now be applied for private elementary and secondary education. While this addition sounds like a good idea, it does introduce some new complexities. This new feature using 529 plans to fund secondary and elementary education requires a fresh lens to be fully appreciated. We’ll take a look at the new developments of this plan, the state’s position and what this could mean for your family.

by Kyra Morris · 05/21/2018 · 1 comment · Money, My Turn, Views