Category Archives: Opinions
Courier letters to the editor 1-22-20
Sitting on the fence
Dear Editor,
I am thinking that closing our primaries in South Carolina still won’t fix the problem of RINOs in the Republican Party. These RINOs have a huge following of what they prefer to be called “moderates” or “centrists.”
These people are abundantly found in Greenville, Easley and Clemson and are showing up in Pickens, Six Mile, Central and Liberty as well. Why is that? I will tell you why — the failure of our church leaders and our public schools who refuse to stand up for conservative Christian
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The cure for what ails you?
When I found out that a study released last month showed that people who eat chili peppers at least four times a week are 40 percent less likely to die from heart attack and 60 percent less likely to die from a stroke, it brought 
to mind a subject I’ve been wanting to write about for quite a while.
If food is medicine — and the truth is, it really is — there’s a place in Easley where you can get your prescription filled with locally grown, unadulterated fruits and veggies just about any time of year, and it’s called the Farmacy.
I had been wondering about this little store at the fork in the road between South B Street and East 3rd Avenue ever since it opened about two and a half years ago. Of course the name is what caught my eye.
It was pretty obvious that they were selling a lot of good fresh produce, but being a creature of habit and always in a hurry, I never took the time to stop in and check it out until a
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The case of the missing polecat
Does anybody out there remember Pepé Le Pew? He was a fascinating cartoon skunk who was passionately in love with a kitty cat.
Sometimes, love is blind. Poor Pepé didn’t realize that his feline darling couldn’t bear to be around him because of his unfortunate scent.
Anyone who has ever encountered a skunk who has sprayed knows how she felt.
A mystery has developed on Fowler Farm. Upon reaching home rather late in the evening, I was surprised to see what looked like a
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Courier Letters to the Editor 1-15-20
Don’t lose sight or we all lose
Dear Editor,
I saw a Facebook post about people “celebrating” our military actions in Iraq, and it made me think. It reminded me of the apocryphal pictures of Muslims dancing in the streets on 9/11.
Remember, regardless of your politics, the military actions occurring in Iraq are costing real people their lives. Unlike video games, there is no reset button when it’s game over for these young men and women.
Remember that they are operating in harm’s way under direction of people who are safely thousands of miles away.
Before you start cheering about the latest bombing raid or missile strike, imagine being the mother or father of
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What is your vision for Liberty’s future?
Imagine this, if you will: Developers, recognizing that Easley has reached the maximum level of residential growth it can handle under the existing infrastructure, cast their eyes to the west.
They begin putting up new subdivisions in Liberty, a town that has become newly attractive by turning its abandoned textile mill sites into parks and affordable housing lots, and connecting them with recreational trails.
Meanwhile, industrial growth continues in the Pickens County Commerce Park, just outside Liberty’s city limits, and a multi-use trail connects it with the quaint downtown, which has gained regional attention for its replica of the Liberty Bell and the numerous festivals and events it offers celebrating South Carolina’s patriotic heritage, offering Revolutionary War era re-
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County council has 2020 vision
While many of us were immersed in the holiday spirit — focused on our families and Christmas festivities — Pickens County Council has been hard at work in formulating a vision for the coming year.
At their annual workshop at the Capt. Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library in Easley on Nov. 11, council members set six goals and objectives for 2020. These goals represent council at the peak of its authority, providing specific work directives to county staff for the coming year. My role as acting administrator is to take these directives from council and develop implementation strategies for the coming months. To a large extent, my effectiveness and performance as administrator should be judged on how well
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Don’t miss out on the wonders of the world
We all heard about people who’ve lived in New York all their lives but have never been to see the Statue of Liberty, and we’ll comment about how amazing that is.
But I have no room to talk.
There are interesting and unique places throughout the region that I’ve said I want to go see and yet have never done so.
When the subject comes up, we always comment, “Oh, we’ll go and see that or do that one of these days.”
But we don’t act on that statement.
This year we finally did it. We drove the few miles up the road to Sassafras Mountain to see the observation deck built on top of the mountain.
We went on Christmas Eve, an unusually beautiful day this year. It
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Courier Letters to the Editor 1-8-20
Honoring those who’ve come before
Dear Editor,
The new year has me thinking about a time in our great country when we honored our parents and grandparents by joining the family business, small or major corporation, or a long line of independent professionals. It honored what our family taught us. We have two American presidents early in our history who personified that for us.
We’ve been a great country capable of enriching our lives by both formal education and informal, with individual mentoring by teachers, community and family. We’re proud to say we’ve followed in our family’s footsteps. What greater way is there to honor those we respect and love and who came before us?
As a more than 30-year resident of Pickens County and, specifically, Liberty, I’ve watched our young people
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Welcome to a new decade
Welcome to the 2020s!
Yes, hard as it may be to believe, it looks like we’re forging ahead into the third decade of the 21st century.
I can remember back in 1971, when I read the book “Nineteen Eighty Four,” 1984 seemed like a very futuristic date. Well, like 2032 sounds like to us now.
I remember when the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” came out, 2001 seemed like a distant time, when space travel would be commonplace and a computer named “HAL” might be able to override your command to decommission it. That’s certainly not what I recall when I think about the year 2001, now nearly two decades ago.
It must seem really odd to my parents, going into the ‘20s, because they were
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Why can’t we all be purple?
If only we lived in a world that didn’t demand our allegiance to either the red party or the blue party. What if we could choose to be part of a new party? The Purple Party.
If it were possible, I’d join the Purple Party, where we would be allowed to be kind to each other.
In the Purple Party, we wouldn’t sit in judgment, but actually would “Do unto others as you would have them do unto
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