By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If there ever were someone who understands how something said by a politician was “just a joke,” you’re reading a column by him.
You see, I once worked as the press secretary for former U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, an outstanding South Carolinian known far and wide for a great wit, biting and otherwise.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | State legislators should be demanding, in the loudest possible voices, that our state acquire new voting machines now to assure citizens their votes count. To do otherwise would give a silent nod to a state and national political culture marked by unacceptable levels of spineless do-nothingness.
A call for new machines is not to suggest South Carolina’s 13,000 touchscreen machines don’t work. They do. They’re safe, as we’ve written in the past. But they’re old and past their lifespan.
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.
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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 Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With hundreds of thousands of South Carolina students headed back to classrooms now, here’s hoping that it will be their best year ever, a year in which they exceed the expectations of their parents and teachers, a year in which they work harder to achieve excellence.
If we all exceed expectations, we’ll change the places where we learn, work and play. Imagine if 700,000 public school students did better in the classroom.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Good old-fashioned decency in political discourse is a rarity in these times of electronic and highly-partisan discontent.
But good old-fashioned decency was on full display Aug. 6 in Columbia as the University of South Carolina commemorated the life and work of former Gov. and U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley during the official opening of his political collection. Part of it is now on public exhibition in the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library and includes thousands of photographs, speeches, notes and more that give insights into Riley, a quiet lion of a leader.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Summertime and vacation conjure images of spending time with a light novel – a “beach read” – to while away the time and recharge the brain’s batteries.
But what if someone wanted to read something a little more substantive to learn about South Carolina’s history or politics? Or read a great novel that inspires?
At the top of the history list should be “The Palmetto State: The Making of Modern South Carolina,” a 2009 examination of modern South Carolina history by Jack Bass and Scott Poole that gives context to everything going on today.
![Part of the Equal Justice Initiative memorial to people who were lynched in Alabama because of their color. An Alabama museum tells the story of injustice and terror endured by people of color during long struggle from slavery until today. Photo by Bill Sutton (Lynched in Alabama eji, Montgomery) [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons](https://charlestoncurrents.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/18.0727.eji_memorial1-200x150.jpg)
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | As part of Renaissance Weekend several years ago in Charleston, some participants gave downtown walking tours to visitors wanting to know more about the Holy City.
Mine was called the “Liar’s Tour.” The dozen people in the group were told that everything they heard on the tour was true – except for one thing. Their job was to figure out the lie.
So they heard about the Big Brick, a high-end brothel on Fulton Street that now is a fancy restaurant. They learned about the fire that destroyed a Catholic cathedral in 1861, an inn that was home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Four Corners of Law and the nation’s oldest theater.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | It’s been pretty easy to vote Republican in South Carolina for the last two decades thanks to the recurring mantra about less government and lower taxes.
But now with President Donald Trump’s European Summer Vacation blitzkrieg across Brussels, London, Scotland and Helsinki, mainstream, old-school Republicans are finding support of the Trump GOP to be somewhat uncomfortable.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | While the world marveled at the miraculous rescue of 12 Thai boys and their coach, the drowning deaths of three South Carolinians years ago haunted my thoughts.
In June 1989, three girls and a boy played in the Edisto River in Charleston County about four miles upstream of U.S. Highway 17. It was hot. Suddenly, three girls, all cousins, got pulled into a swift undercurrent where the 3-foot-deep water sharply dropped. One of the girls’ father jumped in to try to save them. Two other men pulled an 11-year-old girl from the river. The 13-year-old boy got out on his own.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | President Donald Trump is the bully in the China shop of global trade. If a new trade war sparked by tariffs on goods from China, Canada, Mexico and our European allies continues, South Carolinians will lose jobs – lots of jobs.
“The South Carolina economy is placed at high risk in the current tough talk about trade,” said economist C. Bruce Yandle, dean emeritus of the Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Science.
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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