Category Archives: Opinions
Courier Letters to the Editor 10-11-17
Applauding The Courier
Dear Editor,
The Oct. 4 Pickens County Courier was really good, as usual.
Olivia Fowler’s article “Champagne days of fall” was excellent. It was a tear jerker — I was crying when I finished reading it. Go Olivia!
The letter to the editor by Alex Saitta about our local council spending money and not managing it was really important. He should have been elected for office. The sound advice he gives in his letters is brilliant and should be adhered to.
Also, Eddie Boggs’ letters are always good, giving honor and praise to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. His letter “Supernatural does exist” was very interesting. Yes, it does exist.
This month is Halloween, and Christians should not celebrate it because it’s about the devil, our enemy.
Also, I enjoy the weekly CryptoQuote. I only ask you to print it larger, if possible, to make it easier to solve.
Lastly, thank your for being pink this month for breast cancer awareness. Maybe it will save someone’s life.
Diane Finley
Easley
Time for Medicare open enrollment
Medicare has open enrollment every year between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7. It’s the only time you can make changes to your existing plans. Making decisions about Medicare can be tough because once you make any changes, you have to live with them for a year. Here are a few things to 
know:
• When you sign up during open enrollment, coverage will start Jan. 1, 2018.
• If you’ve already had Medicare, you’ll receive a Medicare & You booklet in the mail. Spend the time between now and December reviewing it and deciding if you need to make any changes.
• By now you should have received notices in the mail as well, either a Notice of Change or
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Despite name, Cadillac tax will harm poor and ill most
A massive blow to South Carolina’s families is being overlooked in the current national debate on repealing the Affordable Care Act: the impending implementation of the 40 percent 
Cadillac tax.
Americans were told that the excise tax on health insurance plans exceeding a certain price was integral to making Obamacare work financially. In reality, the tax punishes 177 million Americans for the sin of having employer-sponsored health insurance.
The tax, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2020, will likely harm more than 2.2 million South Carolinians. Forty-six percent of the state’s residents face paying higher premiums for
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Champagne days of fall
This time of year, I think of those clear bright October afternoons of long ago. Grandmama called them the champagne days, because she said they sparkled. When the bus stopped on the 
road in front of Sycamore Hill, we’d hop up from our seats and carry ourbooks with us down the steps. Then we’d walk through the bright afternoon sunshine up the long, winding, sandy drive to Grandmama’s front porch.
Once inside, we’d taste sweet freedom, dump our books on the couch in the front hall and run into our rooms to change clothes. Then down the hallway we’d go, back to the kitchen, where I think Grandmama almost lived.
This was a day she’d tell us it was time to make
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Drink coffee, live longer
Once again, new studies have shown that drinking coffee helps us live longer. This time they’ve taken it a step further — it doesn’t matter how you make it.
Neither of the two studies was small. In the first, researchers tracked 210,000 people in 10 European countries for some 16 years. Coffee drinkers had lower risk of liver disease, lower rates of diseases of the circulatory and digestive systems (in men) and lower rates of cancer (in women). That’s quite a list. Those who drank three cups per day had a lower risk than those who didn’t drink coffee at all, and it didn’t matter in which country.
One reason they chose Europe was the various methods of coffee preparation across the
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.
Letters to the Editors
Spending money, not managing it
Dear Editor,
I have long supported building a new and bigger jail. However, I do not support the way the new council is funding it by borrowing a ton and raising taxes at the end of next year to pay for it.
The old council saved about $25 million. It decided to build the new jail, put down about $17
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Grow old along with me
There are 14 left. It’s hard to believe seven of us aren’t there anymore. At least in life. Their graduation pictures were mounted at the memorial table, 
and they were just as I remembered them, young and full of life.
And though I know they grew older, just as the rest of us did, and they became a little battered by life, I’ll always remember them as young, laughing and full of energy.
The rest of us are for the most part recognizable. Solid citizens all, who have led and are still leading productive lives. Yes, there are wrinkles, vanishing hair
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Courier Letters to the Editor
Spreading the word
Dear Editor,
I just want to talk about what a great place Pickens County is and what we have going for us.
There’s one really cool thing, and that’s tourism. We have a great museum,
Why tax reform is necessary
Then your tax code is 10 times longer than the Bible, you have a problem. Our current tax code is simply not benefiting American families — as I’ve 
said for far too long, Washington does not have an income problem, it has a spending problem.
Due to our overly complicated and antiquated tax code, there are Americans who have not seen a raise in decades. We can and must do better. We need to tackle tax reform head-on to create a tax code tailored for the 21st century. That means lowering taxes for middle- and lower-income Americans and coming
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Regaining a positive attitude
Bonnie:
My attitude is changing, and I don’t like it. I am getting more and more depressed and feel that I am stuck in a rut. I’ve been taking care of my husband for three years. I no longer think about going out and having fun. I 
just put one foot in front of the day trying my hardest to survive. This is not the way to live. How can I regain a positive attitude?
Answer:
First and foremost, you are not alone. When you try to do everything yourself, life gets very tough and fun seems a distance away.
The first solution is to find respite (a temporary replacement for you from
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