Charleston Currents

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CAREERS: How to use anxiety to your advantage

By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | There is a lot of information out there sharing the steps to deal with anxiety. It’s all mostly geared to help you reduce it.

However, I’m going to offer you something today that will show you how to use anxiety to your advantage. A few years ago, I picked up this tip from a friend at a barbecue restaurant…a place where I often gather pearls of wisdom.

Me: “I found myself waking up at 2 a.m. every morning.”

Friend: “Me too. That’s when I get around to my to-do list.”

Me: “Huh?”

by Ben Fanning · 10/16/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Careers, Views

COMMENTARY, Brack: Demand real gun control now

y Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Let me be crystal clear: It is time for real gun control.

No more pussyfooting around the edges. No more talk and blather as more people are killed in mass shootings in churches, schools, nightclubs and music festivals.

Real. Gun. Control.

Let me also be clear: This does not mean the government is going to take away your guns. Remember when President Obama got elected president and the nutcases shouted and screamed that he would take away guns? Did he? No. Instead, a vocal sub-minority of zealots pitched an NRA-led fit to make people believe authorities would take away their guns. And the violence continued.

by Andy Brack · 10/09/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: More gun violence prompts reprint of 2016 column

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | After the Orlando shootings, my wife wrote a letter to several newspaper editors that made me think.

She boiled all of the back and forth about escalating gun violence in America into a simple, salient point that many seem to have missed: It’s become an issue of national security.

The glut of guns solely made for killing people — handguns and assault rifles — is changing America into a country where fearful people feel they need more and bigger guns to protect themselves. They respond to patronizing rhetoric from groups like the National Rifle Association who taunt that the federal government is going to take away people’s guns. Throughout the seven years of President Obama’s term, we’ve heard such chants time and time again, yet Obama hasn’t taken away guns.

by Andy Brack · 10/02/2017 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

COMMENTARY, Brack: Alexander offers a lesson of poetry’s power

Kwame Alexander was the keynote speaker of Saturday’s Black Ink, a gathering of four dozen writers celebrating African American writing in a six-hour book festival that filled the main library. The festival, now in its second year, reportedly did very well, with writers selling two or three times as many books to hundreds of attendees.

In a poignant talk about memories ranging from a boyhood spent selling books for his father to his mother’s recent death, Alexander kept his audience spellbound with his passionate, strong voice.

But an extended version of a relatively new poem, “Take a Knee,” cut to the core. It showed how a rat-a-tat-tat of common-day phrases starting with the word “take” can generate real emotion and lead, perhaps, to new ways of considering issues.

by Andy Brack · 09/25/2017 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

COMMENTARY, Brack: My, how things have changed over 100 years

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | One hundred years ago yesterday, my great-grandfather, weakened by the flu, died of what’s believed to have been a ruptured appendix. He was 38 years old. The season’s cash crop, cotton, was about ready to pop in the fields.

Charles Columbus Brack left a 31-year-old widow and six children, aged 1 to 10. They lived in rural middle Georgia in an unpainted house five miles from the nearest town. It was only a mile from their Baptist church where a family reunion of sorts occurred yesterday.

Tables in the church hall showcased just about every sort of Southern food – from fried chicken and roast beef to at least four kinds of beans, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, rice salad, and plain salad salad. The dessert table was almost as long with the 16-layer chocolate cake being the talk of the room.

by Andy Brack · 09/18/2017 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

REAL ESTATE: A lot more attention for the Charleston area

By Doug Holmes, contributing editor | The total eclipse brought a lot more national attention to Charleston. Not that we really needed it. Being voted the number one city in the United States so many times has taken care of that.

Our real estate market has responded by building new homes all over the tri-county area. New construction is certainly a favorite among buyers. Currently one third of the homes under contract are new construction. In certain areas, that percentage is well over 50 percent. Year to date in 2017, we are up 6.8 percent in number of transactions over the same time period of 2016. It looks like we may sell 18,000 homes for the first time in our history.

by Doug Holmes · 09/18/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Real estate, Views

State emergency management officials hunkered down Friday to plan for Irma's impact. Photo provided.

BRACK: What government gets right and what needs more work

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With a storm breathing down the state’s neck, people turn to state and local governments for leadership, safety and solutions. While government gets scrutiny year-round, maybe we should look at what’s working so we appreciate it more – and examine what may need some help so that it works better.

by Andy Brack · 09/11/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

Statue of Confederate Gen. Wade Hampton is pointed toward the S.C. Statehouse.

BRACK: Let’s take new middle path on Confederate monuments

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Mention the word “Confederate” these days and you sound like you’re itching for an argument. It shouldn’t be that way.

For months across the South, there have been calls to remove Confederate monuments or to rename buildings or streets honoring long dead Confederate soldiers. At the same time, others have said to leave the statues and names alone.

by Andy Brack · 09/05/2017 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Redrawing political lines is best hope for better legislature

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | State lawmakers have the power to alter the way the legislature works to make it more representative of all South Carolina and, in turn, boost the potential for compromise and better outcomes for taxpayers.

But to do so, they’ll have to do something that’s very hard – hold their egos and political futures in check by redrawing district lines that are more competitive and less self-serving.

by Andy Brack · 08/28/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

CAREERS: What Michelangelo can teach you about your dream job

By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | When my family and I went to Italy in the fall, my 5-year-old daughter was completely captivated with the statue of David. She sat at the feet the huge sculpture and sketched it.

Fanning
I was inspired by its beauty and its interesting story.

Sometimes career inspiration comes from unexpected places. When I learned the story, I had the idea of a “job artist.” A job artist is someone who chooses to see the potential masterpiece in their current job situation.

by Ben Fanning · 08/21/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Careers, Views