Charleston Currents

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FANNING: Make your self-doubt become an advantage

By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | I know sometimes you doubt yourself. I know that you loose sleep sometimes when you’re taking on a taking a business risk, preparing an important presentation, or when your back is up against the wall with the looming deadline of an ambitiously project.

And I know the familiar questions that probably come up in your head. Can I really do this? What if I fail? What if I make a mistake that cost me my job or business?

by Ben Fanning · 07/17/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Careers, Views

FOCUS: One Region targets infrastructure, education, housing

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | The Charleston area is our home. This area includes Charleston County, Berkeley County and Dorchester County. It’s changing, and it’s happening quickly. The passive approach is to sit back and simply marvel, or perhaps we can complain at the increase in traffic with poor road conditions, the high cost of housing and the quality of our educational system. The active approach is to get involved.

The Charleston Regional Development Alliance (CRDA) and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce (CMCC) joined together to form a collaborative initiative. The purpose is to create a multi-fibered think tank representing the public sector, private sector, nonprofit and educational organizations within our region to further enhance and sustain our economy while maintaining the quality of life we all cherish. They call this initiative One Region: A Global Competitive Strategy.

by Kyra Morris · 07/04/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news, Money

BRACK: South Carolina played critical role in American independence

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | While many visitors to South Carolina focus on its part in the Civil War, they might be surprised to realize that without the Palmetto State’s leading role in American independence, our nation might not have been formed at all.

Not only was South Carolina home to the first major patriot victory on June 28, 1776 at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, but South Carolina had more battles and skirmishes during the Revolutionary War — some 254 engagements — than any other state. From a tactical standpoint, all of those conflicts had a draining impact on the patriots’ foes, the British. They were forced to battle on two fronts — the South and the North — which extended supply lines and sapped strength.

by Andy Brack · 07/04/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

FOCUS: How to get people to listen to you

By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | What do you do when you have the solution but no one is listening to you? Do you say it louder, tell the boss or keep saying it until you just give up in resentment?

If you’ve experienced this frustration, I’ve got a much easier approach to share with you. Try using the language of success to increase:

* Effective communication
* Openness to your ideas
* Acceptance of your requests.

In life, it seems easier to rely on job titles and organizational authority to get things done. This shows up whenever someone at a higher level in the organization asks (makes) someone else at a lower level do something, for example, when the CEO tells a manager to implement a new system or program. This can be effective short term, especially in a crisis when every second counts. But when it’s used repeatedly, this approach starts to lose its power.

by Ben Fanning · 06/27/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Careers, Views

BRACK: Start now to fix gerrymandering’s ills

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | A visitor argued during breakfast this week about how politics could change dramatically in the South if progressive politicians spread messages of economic populism to communicate how the current system is stacked against them.

Won’t work, I explained, until South Carolina and neighboring states deal with the scourge of gerrymandering — the intentional manipulation of electoral district lines for political advantage.

by Andy Brack · 06/27/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

SUMMEY: The Emanuel Nine, one year later

By Elliott Summey | June 17, 2015, was a night that changed Charleston’s history and landscape forever. Although it started as a normal weekday for most of us as we tended to our families, late meetings and dinner, it became anything but normal.

While at a local hospital visiting a family member who had a stroke less than 24 hours before, I received a phone call about the events that had just unfolded at the Mother Emanuel AME Church. What was said on that phone call would never explain the sights and sounds that our first responders and those on the scene heard and saw firsthand.

by Charleston Currents · 06/27/2016 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

BRACK: The time to do nothing on guns has passed

By Andy Brack | 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 · 06/20/2016 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

Dozens of bouquets lined a sidewalk last year outside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

BRACK: The remarkable story of forgiveness in Charleston

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Almost a year later, the remarkable words of family members in pain still ring in our ears.

“I forgive you,” one said in a crowded courtroom. “May God have mercy on you,” another added. “Hate won’t win,” said a third.

One after another, five people squeezed by turmoil forgave an accused killer, who stood pancake-faced in shackles in a separate room and watched his bond hearing on a television screen.

by Andy Brack · 06/13/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

UPDATE: Where’s Waldo … err, Senn?

Commentary by Andy Brack | The crazy case of where GOP Senate District 41 candidate Sandy Senn actually lives has taken even more quirky turns.

Not only has a state judge issued an injunction postponing a hearing on a challenge to Senn’s residency, but a letter has turned up that seems to make it even more confusing about when she actually moved from a home outside the Senate district to a townhouse inside it.

It’s enough to make you do a triple take.

by Andy Brack · 06/09/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Squishy residency law challenged in Senate District 41 race

Commentary by Andy Brack, editor and publisher | GOP District 41 Senate candidate Sandy Senn seems to have thinner skin than Donald Trump.

You may recall a May 16 commentary in which we called on the state legislature to fix squishy campaign residency laws so candidates couldn’t cherry-pick districts to move into near elections to try to win legislative office. In the column, we highlighted how Senn, a Charleston attorney, “lived in Folly Beach until the fall, when she took an in-district townhouse in West Ashley, now listed by candidacy records as her residence.” Property records show she owns a house in a gated Folly Beach community about four miles outside the Senate district.

The column went on to emphasize that Senn, who said she had been gerrymandered out of a district she had lived in for years, had done nothing wrong by changing residences. She faces three opponents in the June 14 GOP primary.

by Andy Brack · 06/06/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views