By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Maybe it’s smartphones. Or television and the 10-second soundbite. Maybe it’s all of that instant access to information.
But any way you look at it, the people who get microphones stuck in front of their faces these days just don’t seem as smart or pithy as they did a few decades — or centuries — ago.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The letter from my daughter’s longtime piano teacher gave a start.
“After being in the classroom for 31 years and working with children and youth for another nine-plus years, I have decided to retire at the end of this year,” wrote Debra Benson, who teaches at Charleston County School of the Arts (SOA). “As one of my colleagues said, ‘I have never worked as hard as I do at SOA’ but every minute has been rewarding because of the students we serve.”
For six years, Mrs. Benson has been a steady influence, a reassuring fixture in our family’s life. It’s hard to imagine her not being at SOA during my daughter’s senior year.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Every 10 years in spring like clockwork, the General Assembly is mired in the minutia of redrawing election lines as required by the U.S. Constitution.
Except this year because of a double-whammy that has delayed everything for months.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Getting immunized with a COVID-19 vaccine is a huge act of kindness to your community.
While being vaccinated will give one a high level of personal protection against the highly infectious disease, it also helps to dampen its spread around the state.
By Andy Brack | Normalcy is slowly approaching after the lost year of COVID-19. As of Thursday, the state had received 2.5 million doses of vaccine. Medical professionals so far have administered 1.8 million doses, which means the state has used 72 percent of the on-hand supply that is continuing to come into the Palmetto State.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Different day, same story: Man buys a handgun and goes on a same-day rampage, killing several people. Everyday citizens say they’re shocked, but how can they be? This is the umpteenth time this narrative has played out.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Media have gotten so streamlined that only one newspaper wrote a story earlier this month when the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee approved a $9.8 billion budget.
That’s billion with a “B.” And that “B” means that it matters. But without reporters meticulously covering what’s going on with your state tax dollars throughout the whole process — and not just at the end when all of the deals have been cut — then there’s a better likelihood that someone will stick a pet project or two in the budget.
By Dr. Robert Saul, special to Statehouse Report | Truth-telling is an essential skill for personal life, for interpersonal social interactions, for community activities and for governmental decision-making.
This obviously goes without saying, but I would argue that we are suffering from some of the recent ill effects of “less than truth-telling.”
Before everyone starts pointing fingers at each other or at the other political party, let’s settle back and just be honest with each other. Truth-telling can be hard at times (it has consequences) and listening to truth-telling can be hard at times (it can change our thoughts and actions). And it indeed takes a good deal of perseverance.
Truth is not in the eye of the beholder. Truth is a series of facts that often need to be proven or investigated. Truth is not an opinion. Truth is not a series of alternate facts because a series of alternate facts is a series of untruths. The search for truth can be frustrating but eventually leads to the correct way to live and to conduct oneself.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Our roadways are busy. Traffic is back. If you walk on downtown streets, there are more people than in a long time. Tourists are returning. Restaurants are opening. Airports are picking up steam.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re feeling stir crazy because of months of pandemic-related confinement to your home or hometown, there will be a day soon when travel will feel safe and comfortable again.
For most of us, it can’t come soon enough. For many, it may not matter exactly where the destination is. It’s just important that it not be at home.
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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