Thank you Editor Mike McCombs
I wanted to reach out and thank you for last week’s article on U.S. veterans of the Jewish faith and our need to support Israel. It was not only excellent but also timely.
This is an uncertain time and knowledge is vital. It does not go unnoticed and is greatly appreciated that The Island News seems to be doing its part to help our military men and women, veterans and their families.
– Elizabeth Marshall, MD, MBA, U.S. Air Force Veteran
The pace of change
Would the word “inexorable” be accurate? I do not want to believe that some change simply cannot be thwarted. Maybe climate and rising seas threaten such dire prospects? Just visit the “boneyard” on South Beach at Hunting Island and you will weekly see that unstoppable force marching the beach westward.
I confess, this is just a segue that leads me to the pace of development on Lady’s Island (and everywhere). Searching for a way to measure impact of this seeming runaway force, I wonder about one effect: the loss of history.
To paraphrase words of Ehren Foley, history professor at the University of South Carolina: we suffer from “a historical amnesia that prevents us from reckoning with our past in a way that could help us to move forward in the future …”
Yes, we are blessed to have the Reconstruction Era National Park serve this issue, but could we get more specific? On Lady’s Island, my focus because I live here, there were at one time about 31 plantations, most with slaves, though small in scale. I seek to name them, define at least their approximate geographic outlines, so anyone sensitive to history might become aware how their house may sit within the energy of slavery’s history.
Development proceeds, blind to the fact that lying buried but typically unmarked are those who came before, whose memory is thus erased. This has proven a difficult project, involving library research and patience. If you or someone you know may have knowledge of this history, on Lady’s Island, I’d be happy to hear from you. (Tturtledodds@aol.com)
We may not stop the bulldozers or thwart the County’s machinery wedded to “growth,” but we can at least remember what came before. The ocean will continue its inexorable erosion of our shores, but memory can be our bridge from past to future.
– Tim Dodds, Lady’s Island
Open letter to Port Royal
An open letter to the Town of Port Royal, Safe Harbor, the S.C. Ports Authority, Sen. George E Campsen III and Rep. Shannon Erickson:
I am writing this open letter to address the unsettling situation over the contamination concerns of the property being developed by Safe Harbor. The subject of the contamination levels of the property needs to be addressed. The contamination report needs to be made public and published unredacted.
The town of Port Royal needs to address properties beyond the Ports. There is no invisible wall that has kept any type of contamination just within the Ports property. There are way too many questions about what types of contamination has been found and what levels were found.
The citizens of Port Royal want transparency and accountability. I am calling on the South Carolina Ports Authority, Safe Harbor and the Town of Port Royal to release all information regarding contamination for the entire Safe Harbor property, formally South Carolina Port Authority. Once the entire unredacted contamination report is released, the Town of Port Royal, Safe Harbor and the S.C. Ports Authority need to make themselves available for a public town hall question-and-answer meeting. The citizens of Port Royal deserve to know what was found and what levels were discovered. The citizens also deserve to know if any contamination lies beyond the Ports property.
Again, there is no invisible wall to keep contamination over the years from spilling into others areas of our town. The citizens of Port Royal await the release of the entire contamination report.
– Antoinette Perry, a Town of Port Royal resident for more than 56 years
The means to do so
In a recent op-ed, Carol Lucas was justly anguished by the mass shooting in Maine. However, like many others who despise guns and the Second Amendment, she is either greatly misinformed or is intentionally avoiding some facts.
Few people own an assault rifle. Fully automatic guns are, extremely expensive. Our Government has investigated and approved each owner. An AR rifle is nothing more than a semi-automatic firearm that except for its “evil” appearance is no different than rifles commonly used for more than 100 years.
Rifles are used in less than 2% of gun crimes. More people are killed annually by hands and feet than with guns.
The NRA lobbies our Government. Is she not aware of the powerful unions, Big Pharma, agriculture, manufacturers, etc. that spend millions to gain favorable treatment?
Of course the Founders did not conceive of semi or fully automatic weapons. They didn’t conceive of computers, TV, or radio either. Should the first Amendment be ignored because of too much offensive or dangerous free speech?
At the time of the Constitution’s writing the “militia” was all able bodied men from teens to middle age. “Well regulated” meant well trained.
Courts have repeatedly ruled that police have no duty to protect anyone. From 1.5 to 3 million times per year gun owners protect themselves, family, or others by having – yet rarely having to fire – a gun. The Second amendment provides the means to do so. If change is needed, the Constitution itself provides the means to do so.
– L. Vinny Francese, Beaufort
