Lucas needs to do homework
As a retired educator, Carol Lucas should understand the importance of using primary sources. That she wrote her column about J.D. Vance without having read his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” is evident. The first chapter of Vance’s book describes his Scots-Irish Appalachian heritage, a culture that his grandparents brought from Kentucky to Ohio when they and many thousands of fellow Appalachian residents migrated north for jobs following World War II.
The father that left him and his mother was named “Bowman,” hence the first iteration of his name. One of his mother’s husbands had the name “Hamel,” and adopted J.D., giving him the second iteration. As JD was a child when these events happened, he had no say in the matter. As an adult, he took his maternal grandfather’s name, “Vance,” as his own. His Mamaw and Papaw essentially raised him, and he wanted to forever connect with them.
NewsNation reports that J.D. Vance’s stance on abortion has moderated in the last two years. His position is that abortion policies should be left to the states. Vance asserted that he is 100% pro-life, but he has qualified his views to allow exceptions such as the life of the mother and in cases of rape (NewsNation quoting a December 2023 CNN interview).
Lucas does cite a source, Jay Kuo, CEO of the Social Edge, playwright, and board member of the Human Rights Campaign which supports LBGTQ+ issues, and has endorsed Kamala Harris for president. He probably joins with NBC in calling a white guy with a wife and three small (bi-racial) children who is pro-life and supports families “Weird.”
— Louise Mathews, Beaufort
America is evolving; is your thinking?
Contributor Jim Dickson doesn’t seem to know quite how to deal with a strong woman as a candidate for President, so he starts by muddying the immigration water with tiresome inaccurate scaremongering. Jim and others inaccurately claim “… millions of ILLEGAL aliens are … flooding in …” We do not have a “completely open border.” Do some still cross illegally and evade capture and deportation, yes — but NOT millions!
We have a process by which border agents screen, and person-by-person determine nationality, potential eligibility for asylum, and act accordingly. Until Congress can act to create a better system, action long thwarted by obstructionist Republicans, a patchwork of border enforcement exists. But, Jim, and dear readers, please humanize your view of this. People from all the world wish to come here, for many reasons. If you look nationality-by-nationality at border entry figures, it might awaken your compassion.
Support the Ukrainians in their fight against Russia’s illegal incursion? Then you would support those Ukrainian families here allowed temporarily to escape war, and that is only one example. And we have not yet resolved the terrible limbo of DACA applicants. Neither has the U.S. or the world created policies to deal with future impending waves of climate refugees. There is much to be done. Stop scaremongering, suggest solutions, but above all, look at the human lives involved and not statistics ignorant of the suffering of the people seeking shelter here.
— Timothy Dodds, Beaufort
Trump is delusional
Please, please! Would those pussyfooting, mealymouthed, spineless excuses that pass for “mainstream media” come out of the closet and call it what it is — Donald Trump is a stone cold mental case. He’s not lying all the time. He’s delusional. Quit covering his “news conferences like you are covering a “normal politician.” Any other person who exhibits seriously unhinged behavior not named Trump would have been institutionalized long ago.
The public needs to know if they vote for Trump they are voting for the demise of this country and democracy as we know it today. The plans for a second Trump administration are laid out in a document known as “Project 2025”, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. These plans are so frightening they would scare Valdimir Putin. Is this what you want for your children and grandchildren?
The election should not be close. It is between Trump, a lunatic, and a biracial woman, Kamala Harris. Is it too much to ask of the public to choose between insanity and sanity? Under Trump, God forbid, life as we know it will no longer exist. Wake up, MAGA republicans and everyone else before it is too late!
— Terry Gibson, Beaufort
Death with dignity
I am among the 67 percent of U.S. residents (Susquehanna Polling & Research Poll, 11/2021) who support medical aid in dying. Medical aid in dying allows terminally ill adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live, as affirmed by two physicians, to request a prescription for medication they can decide to self-ingest to die peacefully in their sleep.
This practice is entirely optional for patients and providers. No person is required to use it. No doctor is mandated to provide it. It is illegal to force someone to use it.
Death is a universal fact of life. The process of dying, however, is very individual and too often a misery for both patient and family. It is immoral, not to say cruel, to deny medical aid in dying when the individual asks for it.
I urge anyone who agrees with the above to contact our legislators to advance medical aid-in-dying legislation in South Carolina. For more information on the subject, go to compassionandchoices.org
— Carol Brown, Beaufort
