Category Archives: Opinions
Courier Letters to the Editor 3-26-26
In support of Counts for House
Dear Editor,
It is with great pleasure and anticipation that I endorse Clay Counts, who is running for Pickens County’s S.C. House District 4 seat since Davey Hiott is not seeking reelection. In talking with Clay, I feel he has a good understanding of the needs not just of the residents of Pickens County, but of the state as a whole.
Clay has worked closely with Rep. Hiott through the years and has gained the proper insight and ability to represent our
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A slimmed-down VA
The staffing cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs continue. As of today, another 585 non-mission-critical or duplicate contracts are terminated, out of 90,000 existing contracts totaling $67 billion. This will put $900 million back in the kitty 
to be spent on veterans, their caregivers, families and survivors.
That’s a lot of money.
It makes me wonder how those contracts came to be in the first place. The canceled contracts covered such services as taking minutes at meetings,
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God’s commandment is God’s enablement
Every Christian has been given a mission and some type of ministry. Gifts, talents, and special abilities are distributed from God within the personal blueprint of our calling. Yes, all of God’s people have the responsibility to pray and obey, but like 
our fingerprints, each mission is unique. Helen Keller is quoted as saying, “The only thing worse than being physically blind is not having spiritual vision.”
It’s imperative that we examine our hearts and become familiar with our destiny. When we speak of ministry, we often think of what type of special ability we have, however, the level of our skill is not our highest form of
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Never cut a den tree
Psalm 91: 1-2 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”
Yesterday I was cutting along a wooded area to clear for building a fence. Nearing the end of the fence line, about to cut a mostly dead oak, I noticed two holes in a (ten inch) limb about 20 feet up.
The holes were worn around their edges and immediately the thought came
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Senior scams are worsening
Data breaches and financial scams against seniors are at all-time highs. What was bad before is apparently even worse now.
Why do scammers target seniors? Here are the top reasons:
— They perceive that we have a lot of money. After all, we worked all those
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The VA by the numbers
According to a recent headline, the Department of Veterans Affairs processed one million disability claims two weeks faster than they did in the last fiscal year.
The VA has been averaging 10,000 claims processed each week. Recently on one day alone they processed 12,000 claims, the highest number they’ve ever reached. By January they’d processed benefit payments
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The enduring foundation of social and economic progress
The progress of humanity is founded upon moral integrity. History teaches us that nations and societies fail as they experience moral decline.
Currently, all humanity is gripped in a moral crisis. Governments and institutions are discredited by corruption and inadequacy. Societies are afflicted by the erosion of standards of right and wrong. Truth and knowledge are ignored, derided and ridiculed. Waning basic decency plagues politics and communities. These
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Read the warning label
Mark 9:43-44 “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
Matthew 13:42 “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
It may have been about 1990 that I had an intensive salt craving. Walking into a local grocery, my first inclination was to indulge
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What does ‘let your glory fall’ mean?
Some Christians might think this is a silly question because asking for God’s glory to fall is such a popular phrase in church environments.
Since we notice entire congregations singing about it in their worship services, we assume that everyone knows what it means, right? It depends on the depth of an individual’s knowledge and personal
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Community Calendar 3-12-25
• Medicaid cutbacks or expansion in SC
The League of Women Voters Oconee and Pickens Counties will hear from a representative from CoverSC in Columbia. CoverSC is a coalition of 92 S.C. organizations working for an expanded program to cover the uninsured. The meeting will be Tuesday, March 18, at 4 p.m. at the United Methodist Church at 300 Frontage Road in Clemson. The public is welcome.
• Pickens Rotary meets Wednesdays
The Rotary Club of Pickens meets at 12:30 p.m. every Wednesday at the Pickens County Museum.
