Charleston Currents

BRACK: Let’s confront the ghosts of our past and calm things down

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The ghosts of our past are boiling in a cauldron that is spewing fury and distress across America like lava jolting from a volcano.

And just like climate change, many deny or ignore how different segments of our society are colliding, getting hotter and hotter week after week. There’s an increasing sense that America is out of control, preferring dysfunction and confrontation to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

by Andy Brack · 02/11/2019 · 1 comment · 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

BRACK: Being proud to be Southern ain’t going away anytime soon

In “The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of its People” [UNC Press, $29.95], the authors argue the notion of being “Southern” is alive and well, despite years of massive changes in society from the end of institutionalized segregation and increasing urbanization to the influx of millions of people not born in the South, now the nation’s largest region with 121 million people.

Many argue, the authors write, the region’s identity is becoming less important because of years of these changes. Yet they found the opposite in a 134-page study that includes reviews of academic literature, polling data and discussions with focus groups.

by Andy Brack · 02/20/2017 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views