Category Archives: Opinions
Let every heart prepare Him room
The author of this story is unknown and has been told by many people throughout the years. The gentleman to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, but a kind, decent man and generous to his family and upright in
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Appliances not what they used to be
Long gone are the days when our 15-year-old coffee pot died and we could confidently run to the store and buy another just 
like it. Things are different now. That coffee pot (or any other older appliance) might not be manufactured anymore, or at least not in any recognizable format. The brand names we used to
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Breaking news from the kitchen
There’s a houseplant in the kitchen that was moved there from the dining room. It has had a difficult life. Beautiful early in its life, it went 
through a drought when we went on vacation and began a cycle of “failure to thrive on neglect.”
I thought it was nearly dead, so I over-watered it. Then it lay down in its pot.
So in a last-ditch effort to save it, I cut it down. Then it was left to live or die on its own. Oddly enough, it came back beautifully.
When the children were here at Thanksgiving, Katherine moved it
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Letter to the Editor
Morals don’t mean anything
Dear Editor,
Why are people demanding Senator Franken and Congressman Conyers resign for improper sexual behavior, but these same people are not demanding President Trump resign for his past behaviors?
Trump has bragged about sexually assaulting women. Multiple (16) women have come forth and accused him of sexual misbehavior. So why the double standard? Why haven’t we demanded the president undergo an ethics investigation or ask him to step down for these allegations?
Why aren’t Democrats, Republicans — all people — demanding Trump resign?
Why is the moral and Christian outrage missing when it comes to Trump?
Also, Trump and the Republicans are backing the accused child molester Roy Moore, only because they want his GOP (Greedy Ole Perverts) vote for Trump’s BIG tax cuts for corporate America.
Apparently, morals don’t mean anything to the Christian portion of the RNC, or even to Trump when it comes to putting the Republican Party above morals and country.
Glenda Allen
Easley
Tony Elliott making a difference
Dear Editor,
As I entered my senior year of high school, I had one scholarship offer for college football. It was from South Carolina State University.
The 2017 Broyles Award winner for the nation’s best college football assistant coach is Clemson’s Tony Elliott, and he is the first African-American coach from South Carolina to win the prestigious award.
As an assistant coach at South Carolina State when I received my offer, Coach Elliott introduced himself, and to his surprise I was already familiar with him.
My brother’s roommate, Brent Smith, was Elliott’s college teammate at Clemson University, and my brother, Richard Elliott, had the same major (industrial engineering) he had.
I was offered the scholarship after he saw me run the 40-yard dash during my high school’s spring football workouts of my junior year. I ran a 4.7, which was faster than the NFL average for defensive ends, which was a 4.88. I didn’t have many football scholarship offers, but I was familiar with the recruiting process.
As a matter of fact, Clemson University was the first college to give me a recruiting questionnaire when I was a freshman in high school at Tommy Bowden’s football camp in 2004. I didn’t hear back from the Clemson football program until spring 2008. My high school coach, Dr. Jerry Brown, told Clemson coach Bowden during a visit to my high school to see high school All-American recruit and current NFL player Andre Ellington that I was coming to Clemson as a walk-on.
I had a bolt from the blue, because I wasn’t going to be accepted to Clemson. Some of my friends were getting calls from Clemson’s minority recruitment office. I had higher standardized test scores, more quality extracurricular activities and I was a university legacy, but my phone never rang with a call from their office. Some of my friends received acceptance letters from Clemson University that same week. My mailbox was empty, and I was prepared for rejection, which ended up happening.
On the other hand, Coach Elliott proved to me how good of a mentor and leader he could be to a student-athlete. He was a good tour guide for S.C. State’s homecoming in 2007 and came to my family reunion in Florence that summer. Coach Elliott brought the Power 5 conference coaching attitude wherever he went, and it is making a positive difference in countless lives.
Jordan Cooper
Clemson
State’s judicial screening process worked this time
Something remarkable happened in South Carolina legal and political circles on Dec. 5. A sitting circuit judge running unopposed for 
reelection withdrew her candidacy before the Judicial Screening Commission.
News reports have focused on the unfavorable comments made by lawyers regarding Judge Kristi Harrington in an anonymous survey. The surveys revealed that many lawyers who had appeared before this judge thought she was unqualified by temperament to serve. Those survey
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Front-row seats to magic
It’s not the floats I remember, although there were quite a few. Looking back, they were simple and predictable, but we wrung every 
ounce of enjoyment from them.
First came the car with officials to open the parade. We recognized them all, because it was not a very large town. Convertibles, tops down, with beautiful girls seated atop them dressed in jewel-colored evening gowns and tiaras rolled down Main Street. Miss Merry Christmas, the Cotton Queen, Miss Scotland County. They all waved with hands encased in long white
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Letters to the Editor
The true reason for the season
Dear Editor,
When I was a child, Christmas was the biggest day of the year for me.
It meant a lot of gifts and seeing beautiful decorations put up. We always cut a live tree off of our property to decorate. Seemed like there was a joyous spirit in the air. People would act better toward each
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Let us exalt His name together
I’ve always enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family but many times I become distracted from the intended purpose. I also confess that sadly 
between football, conversations and pumpkin pie there is not always a lot mentioned about being thankful. Unfortunately, many have forgotten or maybe they have never known the history of human suffering that is associated with the Pilgrims. It’s been recorded that the new colony were focused on giving God thanks for His blessings and protection as
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Walking in winter
Walking is one of the best exercises seniors can do. It helps with depression, blood pressure, mental acuity, muscle strength, bone mass, joint support, balance and more. For some of us, however, walking outdoors can be a problem now that cold weather has arrived. Along with freezing temperatures, snow and ice on sidewalks can be treacherous.
There are ways around that, however. You only need to think of indoor
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Come visit Holly Springs Saturday
We’re excited about Saturday’s opening of the Birchwood Artisan Gallery at the Holly Springs Center. The grand opening of the gallery 
will be in March, but Saturday the gallery will be introduced to the public at the Holly Springs Craft Fare from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
The gallery will offer fine arts and crafts for sale to the public. It’s designed to be a regional marketplace for artists and craftsmen of traditional and contemporary arts of this region.
We’ve all worked very hard to locate quality works from regional
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