Charleston Currents

My Turn

MY TURN: Both sides need to stop gerrymandering

By Elliott Brack, special to Charleston Currents | Gerrymandering is nothing less than a majority government being unfair to the minority of its citizens in a particular area.

It is also an obvious case of bullying by the majority government. If it happened on the playground, people would yell, holler and stop it.

Yet it’s happened repeatedly in our halls of government, and no major challenge has risen to outlaw this practice. Why can’t our legislators understand this unfairness, and move to outlaw it?

by Special to Charleston Currents · 11/20/2017 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

MY TURN: Let’s evacuate better next time by adding rail

By Fred Palm, special to Charleston Currents | Every emergency is different and each one gives rise to the opportunity to study and improve our responses in the next one. Try this for a moment.

Can South Carolina use the existing rail system to evacuate people, especially Charleston? Read more.

by Charleston Currents · 10/30/2017 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

PALM: Time to take sea-level rise, I-526 planning more seriously

By Fred Palm, special to Charleston Currents | The Union of Concerned Scientists study headlined in in the July 12, 2017, edition of The Post and Courier points to a need to act on factoring sea level rise into the county’s long-range capital plan and beyond its present horizon.

Palm
The foundation of Charleston’s present and future economy and the elements identified in the Charleston County Comprehensive Plan rests on water as many of the county’s other challenges — traffic, housing affordability, balancing a thriving tourism industry with a high quality of life, economic development etc. — is directly and indirectly affected by flooding, storm surge and in our future, varying estimates of sea level rise.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 07/17/2017 · 2 comments · My Turn, Views

OUR TURN: 7 secrets for dealing with press interviews

By Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, republished with permission | We’ve been conducting interviews for an alarmingly long time and the last 25 years of have been largely devoted to talking with state, county and city officials. Based exclusively on personal experience, we’ve developed a solid sense of the things that our interviewees can do that will optimize their chances of communicating their message well.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 06/26/2017 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

FANNING: What poison ivy can teach you about burnout

By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | You can learn a lot about work burnout from poison ivy.

My neighbor once pointed out the itch causing, three-leaf plant at my daughter’s birthday party. I acted surprised that it was there, but really I just was embarrassed I hadn’t done anything about it yet. I’d seen it there before (I’m an Eagle Scout, for goodness sake), but it just seemed like it was too much trouble to deal with at the time.

by Ben Fanning · 06/19/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Careers, My Turn, Views

KAYNARD: Customer service has left the building

By Michael Kaynard, special to Charleston Currents | Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 30 years, you have undoubtedly noticed that good customer service is a thing of the past. In most places, you could set off firecrackers and not one employee would respond.

Kaynard
Perhaps some small mom and pop stores still value service but the larger, corporate businesses have too few employees and many are untrained about their products. Most could not care less whether you buy.

by Michael Kaynard · 06/12/2017 · 4 comments · My Turn, Views

GILLESPIE: Dylann Roof “and justice for all”

By J. David Gillespie, special to Statehouse Report | The verdict came in around mid-afternoon Thursday, just a couple of hours after the lawyers completed their closing statements and the judge gave his charge to the jury. U.S. v. Dylann Storm Roof: Guilty on all charges. Given the complexity of the indictment—33 counts, many of them alleging hate crimes—the brief time it took was remarkable. The verdict itself was anything but surprising.

by Charleston Currents · 12/19/2016 · 3 comments · My Turn, Views

WEATHERFORD: Five things Donald Trump can learn from Genghis Khan

By Jack Weatherford, republished with permission | In stark contrast to the United States, with its scattered mini-wars around the globe, Genghis Khan always fought with one single, clear goal: victory. Total victory, not a qualified, partial, negotiated or hyphenated victory.

by Charleston Currents · 12/11/2016 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

KAYNARD: A great way to end Thanksgiving

By Michael Kaynard, contributing photographer | One of the most important things about my being a photographer has been when people enjoy my work, and seeing the happiness it brings. The money has never been as important.

Now that my selling days are quickly coming to a close, I received one of the nicest compliments about my work.

by Michael Kaynard · 11/28/2016 · 1 comment · My Turn, Views

RENTIERS: An evening that changed my perspective

By Michael Rentiers, special to Statehouse Report | Something happened to me recently that helped bring home a problem in our society. A problem that I believe is exacerbated in our digital lives. It dovetails on a blog Wesley [Donehue] posted recently called,“How the Internet is Fueling Hate.”

I say it happened to me, but that’s not right. It happened to other people and, for whatever reason, I was there to play a part in it. It was a living nightmare.

by Charleston Currents · 10/09/2016 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views