By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Protest is just fine. Violence as a means of protest is just wrong, 100 times over. It accomplishes nothing positive. It emboldens evil.
Here and across the country, racial injustice is splitting America, much like it did five centuries ago. This week, just like in 1968, Americans watched a rocket blast into space and saw cities burn following the grisly murder of an African American man.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The woman and her two children walked into the house, quickly closing the door because it was a blustery winter day. They arrived to celebrate a daughter’s birthday.
The boy joined the other kids. The little girl, much younger, stuck near her mother. She was wearing a coat but had bare feet. Mucus bubbled around her nose. She was whiny. And obviously sick.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Buried beneath the headlines of coronavirus doom and gloom, you can still find a little good news.
Case in point: Renewable energy produced in the U.S. this year may yield more electricity than power that comes from coal-fired plants for the first time ever. Why? Because more people are at home and businesses have been empty, drained by people hunkering down in the pandemic.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | In these pandemic times, the state doesn’t want large groups of people to congregate. Yet it hasn’t expanded rules to allow people who want to shelter in place to vote by absentee ballot on June 9.
This makes absolutely no sense for anyone who has stood in long lines on election day, particularly now that there are more barriers to voting with identification requirements and new electronic machines still unfamiliar to many voters. More absentee voting would limit human contact — and potentially thwart the spread of coronavirus.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With Americans burning up Zoom to conduct business meetings online and keep up with what’s happening in this year of an invisible enemy, you’ve got to wonder why state lawmakers mostly wasted the 2020 legislative session.
By cutting class for two months due to the novel coronavirus, they missed big opportunities to deal with Santee Cooper’s future, state pension shortfalls, teacher pay, educational improvement, the problems of vaping, gun loopholes, opioids and tax reform. The list drags on.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The right mouth of government obviously has no idea what the left mouth is saying. And because government can’t get its message straight, we’re all confused.
On one hand, Gov. Henry McMaster says some businesses can now open in South Carolina, although it’s no clearer why a craft shop or a florist is “essential” in the curious way a gun shop has been for the last few weeks. Grocery stores we understand. But gun shops?
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 Andy Brack, editor and publisher | This coronavirus pandemic is causing a lot of misery with kids stuck at home with online school, parents missing work that puts food on the table, companies closing. And there’s nothing left to watch on television.
But amidst the gloom are bright spots of kindness. Neighbors you haven’t spoken with in months are saying hello. You let someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store. Manners seem to be back everywhere except in Washington, D.C.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | So what happens when Americans start getting their $1,200 federal coronavirus checks or small business owners start receiving tens of thousands of dollars of rescue money?
Will they finally wake up and realize government isn’t the enemy, despite four decades of self-serving GOP rhetoric dedicated to drowning it in a bathtub? Will they finally remove political blinders and realize an ideology devoted to personal wealth and greed has hoodwinked them and taken away countless opportunities?
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | We’ll get through this coronavirus crisis. But, Lord have mercy, it’s going to be fraught with pain, suffering, fear and sadness.
Too many people are going to die as our unprepared nation grapples with a microbial invader that is devastating lives, jobs, routines and the stability of our social, political and economic institutions.
Doctors, nurses and health care workers are understandably frightened, worried they’ll bring the virus from soon-to-be-overloaded hospitals into their homes.
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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