Now the most reasonable response to this headline is “Are you nuts? Isn’t Mexican politics riddled with corruption? What could we possibly learn from them?

The answers to these three questions are — “no,” “yes” and “a lot.”

I suppose that there are some who would argue that the answer to the first question is “yes,” but I haven’t been locked up yet, so give me the benefit of the doubt on this one and let’s skip to the more important questions.

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Yes, Mexican politics is shot through with corruption at most every level. The ethical history of politics in this country is not something that the League of Women Voters would want us to emulate but it has only been with the recent flood of drug money that politics has gone from shady to utterly corrupt.

How bad is it? Really bad.

There is a popular saying that most folks take as an article of faith that says: ‘’He who doesn’t cheat does not get ahead.” (I’ve heard the same sentiment expressed around the Statehouse in Columbia.)

What has happened in Mexico is that the corruption in government has now spilled over into violence and dirty tricks that would make even George Wallace and Richard Nixon recoil. The whole political system is in the process of breaking down.

So, you might ask, what does this have to do with South Carolina and why would we possibly want to import any of this to our state?

Well, the answer is that we would certainly not want to import any of this political disease, but we might want to consider importing some of the political cure that is starting to bubble up from the grass roots.

Let me explain. In the midst of all this corruption, something happened — the people began to take matters into their own hands. Mexican law requires that if enough citizens sign on to a legislative petition, the National Congress has to take up the measure. The law requires 120,000 signatures and to date over 630,000 citizens have signed on to a measure that would make lawmakers report their personal finances.

The initiative is called ‘3 out of 3’ and it requires government officials to 1) reveal all of their financial assets, 2) report any conflicts of interest and 3) prove they are paying their taxes.

As would be expected in a system as adverse to ethics reform as is Mexico the legislation is stalled and going no place. (Sound familiar?)

But, as a result of this citizens’ initiative something has happened in Mexico that would go a long way toward providing ethics reform in South Carolina — some Mexican politicians have begun to voluntarily divulge their financial information even before any legislation is passed requiring them to do so.

Thus far, 560 public servants have disclosed this information including 13 percent of the national Senate and 21 percent of the Chamber of Deputies (like our House of Representatives), 12 state governors and one member of the President’s cabinet.

So now let’s get back to ethics reform in South Carolina. For the third year in a row, the legislature has refused to pass any meaningful ethics reform. (And even the measures they are considering are really ‘Swiss cheese reform’ — more holes than cheese.)

We have seen lots of self-righteous posturing and speeches by Governor Haley and some statehouse politicians about the need for ethics reform — they always blame someone else for the failure of reform efforts to pass.

So, I’d say to these S.C. politicians, follow the Mexican example and voluntarily disclose — 1) your income and assets — how much and from whom, 2) conflicts of interest — what deals are you and your family in, and 3) release your state and federal income taxes — for all the years you are in office.

By percentage, if our Legislature were as ethical as Mexico’s, then six S.C. Senators, 25 members of the House and one member of Gov. Haley’s cabinet would have disclosed this information.

The people of South Carolina should say to the Statehouse politicians: don’t talk about ethics reform — just do it.

The politicians talk the talk, but won’t walk the walk. There is a one word description for this — hypocrite.

A growing number of Mexican politicians have passed the test. To date, best I know, the current number of S.C. politicians who have voluntarily disclosed such complete information is zero.

Yes indeed, let’s bring Mexican political ethics to South Carolina.

Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and President of the S.C. New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley to bring change and reform. He can be reached at phil@philnoble.com.

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Playing the judgment card

Dear Editor,

When someone is told the truth about something they are guilty of, they sometimes will counter with, “Don’t judge me!”

I call this playing the judgment card. All that has been done is the truth has been shared with them, and obviously they can’t face it. Telling the truth is not passing judgment.

Passing judgment to my understanding would be something like oh, say, a ragged man walked in and you say, “look at that bum.” For all you know, he could be a millionaire. That’s passing judgment, because you are giving a personal opinion not the truth.

The truth will stand when the world is on fire. In other words, should the world come to an end or the universe as well, still the truth would remain for all of eternity. Truth is reality, unlike a lie, which is something that never has or ever will be.

The truth isn’t called bitter or said to hurt for nothing, while a lie is called sweet.

When faced with the truth, own up to it or not, the truth won’t change even if stood up at the gates of Hell. Don’t be playing the judgment card — you’ll lose every time.

Eddie Boggs

Westminster

Advertising along the Doodle Trail

Dear Editor,

Perhaps our Easley and Pickens city councils could look into the increasing placement of advertising signs on our beautiful Doodle Trail.

I think trail users enjoy getting away from the near-constant barrage of advertising in our lives, and don’t want the Doodle to become another advertising venue akin to billboards along the highways.

On Friday, I saw signs advertising food, drink, garbage disposal, roofing, job offers and church activities, among others. I also saw at least one political advertisement chalked on the trail’s pavement. Perhaps the “rules” signs posted along the trail should include “commercial uses, including advertising signs, are prohibited.”

Don Youngblood

Easley

As you ride around this county, you see signs everywhere (literally) that an election is looming.

You see advertisements and see Facebook posts promoting new ideas, change and things that need to be improved.

I applaud every candidate who has put himself out there and done more than just “talk,” but filed to run for a political office and try to make a difference.

Back in 2013, I ran for mayor, and I told folks I don’t have any idea what a mayor does or what all the job entails, but I loved Liberty and I wanted to make a difference. After I got elected, I quickly realized I knew even less than nothing about being a mayor and everything that goes along with it.

It is much more than proclamations, ribbon-cuttings and council meetings. It is constant phone calls with department heads, handling citizen complaints, speaking at various events, making decisions that impact today and the future and not only council meetings, but meeting after meeting after meeting — and the list goes on and on.

It is a thankless job with many hours and little pay — you do this because you have a servant’s heart, not because you will get paid handsomely to do it.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that the world of politics is difficult and the wheels turn very slowly. You can see something that needs to be done, know how to do it, but guess what — you can’t just do it. You need approvals, and then jump through 12 hoops — and then MAYBE it gets done.

I may run again in 2017, or I may not. I ran in 2013 because I knew God had that planned for my life, and if He wants me to run again I certainly will.

I just want to encourage the public to educate themselves on how this works. Attend city council meetings, county council meetings and communicate with our state leaders.

There are bad politicians, just as there are bad folks in all walks of life, but sometimes it is not as cut and dry as it may appear. We need now more than ever before to come together and get out of our little groups that promote individual agendas and get behind and support our elected leaders in office currently and any who go in after this election.

Just my two cents!

Eric Boughman has been the mayor of Liberty since his election in 2013.

Recently in Charleston a large mural of Rev. Clementa Pinckney was unveiled. It was done by 28-year-old Columbia artist Tripp Barnes. It is big and colorful and covers the whole outside wall of a building on St. Phillips Street, a few blocks from my house and from Emanuel AME Church.

In addition to his likeness, the mural also has a short but powerful quote by Clem: “Across the South, we have a deep appreciation of history — we haven’t always had a deep appreciation of each other’s history.”

President Obama quoted these words at Clem’s funeral and it seems that these lines are increasingly being used to define at least part of Clem’s legacy.

So, in the spirit of all of us trying to better understand each other’s history, I’d like to offer a few bits and pieces of a common history — Clem’s and mine — about our shared interest in religion, politics and our neighborhood.

I live at the corner of Pitt and Bull Street right near the College of Charleston. My house was built in about 1886 as the parsonage or home of the ministers of the next door Plymouth Congregational Church. In 1887 over 100 African Americans founded Plymouth and it’s one of the oldest black congregational churches in the South. It is an example of independent black churches formed at the dawn of Emancipation. An early pastor was Francis L. Cardozo (more on him later) and he was also involved in the founding of Avery Normal Institute, an early school for black children.

Over the years, Plymouth pastors who lived in my house were active in anti-lynching and equal rights campaigns. Plymouth also hosted a number of prominent back figures; W.E.B. Du Bois, a founding NAACP member, visited in 1925. Singer and activist Paul Robeson (more on him later, too) stayed here while campaigning for presidential candidate Henry Wallace in 1948. (Full disclosure: the above info is from a state historic marker I helped get erected a few years ago.)

Rev. Francis L. Cardoza was the first African American elected to statewide office in America. He was born in Charleston, the son of Lydia Weston, a free woman of color, and Isaac Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew who worked at the federal customhouse. They had a common-law marriage, as state law prevented their marrying.

Cardozo worked as a carpenter and a shipbuilder and in 1858, he matriculated at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and he later attended seminaries in Edinburgh and London. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister. (So much for stereotypes — then and now — that all Reconstruction Era black politicians were uneducated louts, straight out of the fields.)

He became the first African-American elected to statewide office when he was elected S.C. secretary of state in 1868. He was later elected state treasurer in 1872 and was re-elected twice. When Cardozo was elected treasurer, African-Americans held four of eight statewide executive offices (but not governor) and four of five congressional seats.

Just down Bull Street is the home of Denmark Vesey, the self-freed former slave who was accused of plotting a slave insurrection in 1822. Vesey was pastor of Emanuel AME Church and when the alleged plot was discovered, he and 30 others were hanged and the church burned.

The rebuilt church was the same church where Rev. Pinckney was pastor and where the killings occurred on June 17 — the same date as the planned Vesey rebellion. Vesey’s home at 56 Bull Street is now designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Down Pitt Street in the next block from my house, is the home of Alonso J. Ransier. He was born in Charleston in 1834 as a free person of color. He was elected in 1868 to the S.C. House of Representatives and was also a member of the 1868 state constitutional convention that authorized for the first time a state public school system.

In 1869, Ransier was chosen as head of the S.C. Republican Party after his predecessor, Benjamin F. Randolph, was shot and killed while canvasing the Upstate districts for the presidential campaign of 1868.

In 1870 Ransier was elected the 54th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina and in 1872 was elected to the U.S. Congress. After leaving Congress in 1875, Ransier was appointed by Republicans as a collector for the Internal Revenue Service. With the end of Reconstruction, he was relegated to menial work and at his death in 1882, he was working as a Charleston street cleaner.

Now for Paul Robeson. The son of a run-away slave, Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers where he became an All-American football player. Then while playing in the NFL, he earned a law degree from Columbia University. He then became a renowned singer and then a stage and screen actor. He toured worldwide and became a global celebrity and was known as “the most famous Negro in the world.”

In 1948, former Vice President Henry Wallace ran for president on the newly formed Progressive Party ticket and he offered the Progressive Vice Presidential nomination to Robeson — but he refused. It was the Truman and Dewey election and Wallace had formed the Progressive Party partly in response to the breakaway anti-civil rights Dixiecrats Party and their candidate for President Strom Thurmond.

When Robeson came to speak at Plymouth, he was campaigning “in the belly of the beast” i.e. Dixiecrat Charleston. His unpopular leftist views had made him a pariah to some and no hotel — black or white — would give him a room. He stayed at the parsonage where upon an angry crowd gathered and threw rocks through the front window. Ironically, Robeson’s wife was the granddaughter of Rev. Cardoza.

So, there you have it, a little bit of Clem’s history — and my history — from our neighborhood.

In South Carolina we have “each other’s” history and we have our shared history, and we need to all try to understand both.

Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and president of the S.C. New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley to bring change and reform. He can be reached at phil@philnoble.com.

Support for Saitta

Dear Editor,

I will vote for Alex Saitta for county council. As readers to the Pickens County Courier have seen, Alex does more than any other elected official to inform the public. And he explains it in such a way most can understand.

His finance expertise is apparent, and he does research the issues to their core. I do believe we still need him on the school board, but the county council does have its share of troubles he will help with. I would vote for him for both offices if I could.

Our government has run amok. For years, Alex has spoken out for the public and voiced the frustration so many feel with our government that is not doing what the people want. He had the common sense to oppose closing the Albert R. Lewis and Holly Springs elementary schools. We need more with such common sense.

Ken Horbinski

Pickens

Memorial Day thoughts

Dear Editor,

Many times throughout each year, I reflect on the blessings of being an American. We get to enjoy living in the greatest nation on this Earth, but how often do we show our gratitude?

By God’s grace, we were born in the United States of America and have the freedoms to worship freely and achieve our own piece of the American dream.

I thank my grandparents’ generation, who fought for our freedoms and liberating other nations as well and were willing to sacrifice their very life for these freedoms. Many gave their lives for their country, and Pickens County has one of our nation’s richest heritages for sacrificing for our American freedoms.

We have four Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from our county — per capita, more than any other county in America. These men — Furman L. Smith, William M. McWhorter, Charles H. Barker and James D. Howe — paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country and our freedoms while serving in America’s military.

I make sure my children know who these four men were and have taken them to visit the memorial behind our Pickens County Courthouse. I grew up at Rice’s Creek Baptist Church, where the Howe family were members. I cross the James D. Howe bridge often in Liberty, near Calumet Baptist Church, going to my children’s ballgames at Liberty High.

As we embark on this Memorial Day weekend of 2016, I would like to encourage all Pickens County residents to visit this memorial, our county museum and visit your local church of choice this Sunday, as we honor our fallen heroes. We will be honoring these soldiers and our veterans this Sunday at Enon Baptist Church in Easley and invite you to join us.

May we all take time to remember the cost of freedom this Memorial Day and remember the greatest sacrifice made for all mankind. This price was paid by Jesus Christ, upon Mount Calvary, more than 2,000 years ago. I pray you know Him, and enjoy the blessed assurance of a home in glory. As John 8:32 tells us, “Ye shall know the truth and His truth shall make you free.”

True freedom can only come from knowing Jesus, and I pray you have this true freedom.

Brad Dover

Liberty

Make them fear the people

Dear Editor,

I am convinced the only way our elected officials are going to listen to we the people is when they fear us! The only way to strike fear in their hearts is to rise up and get to the voting poll … and kick them to the curb and show them you mean business and will not tolerate them having any liberal bone in their body.

You will not tolerate them voting against the will of the conservative mindset of the people they represent.

We have to get rid of the elected officials that don’t respect their bosses! We are their boss! When we go to the voting booth and kick them to the curb … then and only then will the next person elected realize, “Hey, if I don’t do what they elected me to do, they will kick me out next election cycle, too.” That is the only way to control elected people.

Get to the voting poll and vote them out. No votes for turncoats! No votes for people who are going to raise your taxes! No votes for people who think they have a mandate to do whatever “they” think is best and refuse to listen to their constituents!

Pickens County people, listen up. Do not re-elect Larry Martin. Do not re-elect Neal Collins. Do not re-elect David Hiott. Do not re-elect Gary Clary! Put their challengers in office!

And when the time comes to vote for new school board members in Pickens County, make sure they are true conservatives and will follow the will of the people and not raise your taxes or close more rural small schools!

It is up to you the citizen to make our elected leaders fear you! They don’t listen to “please” and they don’t care about your emails to them. But they will care when you oust them. And the others who are elected will see that we the people are their boss — not the other way around!

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens

We’ve owned many Chihuahuas in our time, but we’ve never owned one like Toby Lee Fowler. They’ve all been intelligent little dogs, but he is perhaps the smartest of all. He is certainly the most willful and manipulative dog we’ve ever had, and he definitely has his own agenda.

The dog guide that tells you how to train your puppy has proved useless with Toby Lee. Obviously, he thinks the book should be banned. He certainly ignores everything in it.

It’s very like the baby book they used to give you when you were ready to bring the new baby home from the hospital filled with hope and expectations. And then your baby cries and cries, and nothing in the baby book works.

Well, Toby’s issue is with obedience. He pretends to be deaf when he is called. He won’t even turn your way, but continues to stroll about the yard looking at grass and sniffing the plants. He might glance at you as if to say, “what’s your problem?,” but clearly it has nothing to do with him.

And it’s not as though he doesn’t understand what you’re saying. He does. If it’s something he wants to do, then he’s Johnny on the spot.

But if it’s something unimportant to him, he ignores you.

Most of our previous Chihuahuas were very picky eaters. He is also an exception to that rule. We once had a Chihuahua, Tinkerbell, who went on a three-day hunger strike, refusing to eat her dog food. We finally had to feed her egg yolk, honey and canned milk, because she’d gotten so weak she couldn’t walk. She simply wouldn’t eat dry dog food, so we had to feed her canned dog food. And she never ate a whole lot of that. But she was affectionate and cooperative in every other way.

Choco was a sweetheart. She would eat just to please us, but never seemed really hungry. Sometimes the children would offer her tidbits from their plates. She wouldn’t eat them, but would take them away and hide them, just to be polite.

Cheetah was a lovey dove. She would eat puppy chow, but for a long time she’d only eat a few tidbits every now and. She enjoyed playing with her dry food and would toss it into the air and try to catch it.

But Toby Lee Fowler would probably eat a rock if you had one on your plate. He is a shameless beggar and will carry on as though he has been starved. If you relent and give him anything, it’s all over. Occasionally he’ll be given a pork chop bone — not by me — and he’ll carry it around and put it in his bed and gnaw it and keep it safe. If an attempt is made to take it away, he’ll run with it and a chase will take place. He’s pretty fast and maneuvers like nothing you’ve ever seen. When he runs really fast, his ears go straight back and he’s just a blur.

He always has a plan. When he’s ready to go to bed at night, he will attempt to make you cut off TV and go upstairs. He’ll run from the TV to you and then to the foot of the stairs. He’ll bark, and if you ignore that, he’ll attempt to talk, facing you and moving his mouth around to try to form words. He’ll keep this up until he gets his way. He has more stamina than I and will wear me down.

I no longer have the energy to stay on top of a Chihuahua. Apparently there’s been a role reversal. But he is an engaging little scamp and is loving and loyal. All in all, we’re happy with the little devil. He’s certainly one of the most entertaining little dogs we’ve ever owned. He may not be perfect, but he’s ours and we love him.

Suggestions for the creed

Dear Editor,

The Oconee County Republican Party has recently opened a headquarters office on Townville Street in Seneca. Prominently displayed in the storefront window is a document titled “The Republican Creed.” It consists largely of a list of the writer’s choices of “rather thans” in conducting his affairs (opportunity rather than security; incentive rather than dole; fulfillment rather than utopia; freedom rather than beneficence, etc.).

The writer might consider a choice between two other alternatives: originality rather than plagiarism. The content of the “creed” is apparently lifted almost verbatim from a piece by Dean Alfange (or, going back further, maybe Thomas Paine).

We would all like to see the Republicans adopt a “creed” that includes such things as: their constructive participation, rather than overt obstructionism, in the conduct of our nation’s affairs; working toward increasing voter participation in elections, rather than the disenfranchisement of thousands through repressive and unnecessary voter identification requirements; working toward every American having health insurance, rather than refusing to allow hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians to have insurance that is readily available for them; working toward solutions to real problems, like our disintegrating infrastructure, rather than frittering away their time and effort on such foolishness as legislation to ban Sharia law in South Carolina.

My party’s Oconee County headquarters office is across the street from the Republican office. If the writer of “The Republican Creed” would like to participate in a sincere, constructive effort in dealing with the nation’s governance, he might consider joining us.

John Landers

Liberty

Someday you will fly

Dear Editor,

“Born in Hell, live in Hell, die and go to Hell.” These words were written on the wall of a local laundromat. I was 15 years old, and upon reading those words I never forgot them.

What we have here is a person who has given up on life, probably because they thought all life is like what they grew up around. I remember when I was growing up I caught a lot of flak and grief from those I grew up with. I kept telling myself that there was a better world somewhere and I would find it.

It gave me hope and helped me keep my sanity.

Two things that were my strength, no matter how rough it got, were my faith and my dreams.

Faith in a higher power — God, who takes His vengeance on our enemies. Truly he does. As for my dreams, I used to draw and paint. Never did make it as a cartoonist, but it kept me sane.

Any child or young person reading this, I want you not to give up. Smoking your brain cells out on marijuana or crawling in a liquior bottle to drown your sorrows only adds to the problem.

I left school the night of graduation, and after going to summer school left forever.

You can find your little bit of Heaven someday. Life does not end at 18. At least it didn’t for me. My best years came later, as I had believed. After leaving school, I lost my job and had to work in another town. I found I was right — that not everywhere is the same as where you grow up.

These people were rank strangers who took me in.

After a while, they became my friends, and shortly thereafter, they became family.

I worked in Walhalla for 32 years and lived there for two years in the late ‘70s.

I’ve since had to leave for another job in another place.

God has been good. I have always had good people to work with, as with the people at the new place I work at. It’s been 10 years, and I can’t complain. These people are family, too. So glad I didn’t give up like so many do. There is a better world out there. Don’t give up — your time to celebrate will come. Just stay straight and keep hoping. To give up hope is to be defeated.

Don’t ever give up — you will make it someday if you don’t ever give up. Someday, as the eagle, you, too, will spread your wings and fly.

Eddie Boggs

Westminster

It is such a simple word. Why are we afraid to use it? The word is no. It has always been challenging for some of us to use the word in certain situations. Sometimes we get overextended and wracked with guilt because we hate to turn down requests for help.

There are so many worthy organizations out there who need help. Just as it’s not possible to donate money to everyone, it is not possible to donate time to everyone.

Volunteering for worthy causes is a good thing, but how many worthy causes can you reasonably give time to without neglecting your family or yourself?

That’s when it’s time to sit down and give a long, hard look at time management and personal responsibility.

We all want to help where we can. But we know we can’t help everybody. So how do we decide?

Remember every time you take on one more responsibility, you are taking time away from something else in your life.

So saying yes to more and more requests for help means saying no to other things in your life, because the truth is, we can’t do it all.

I’m not superwoman. None of us are. But we’re taught to think we should be.

Are we doing something for an organization that is a feel-good project, or is it a do-good project? Are we agreeing to do something out of a sense of obligation or guilt? Are we taking on responsibility for a task someone else is supposed to be doing?

Each case is different, but I’ve decided it’s important to make my time count when I volunteer. How can I be most effective?

There are certain things to guard against. We can all be manipulated, flattered or guilted into taking on more responsibility.

It’s important to be aware. Here are some red flags:

“Oh, you always do such a wonderful job. We just can’t do it as well. Won’t you please do this one little thing? We’d appreciate it so much.”

This is the flattery card.

“I guess we’ll just have to discontinue the program if you can’t do this.”

“All the other mothers are doing it.”

Both of these are the guilt card.

“I agreed to do it, but something has come up and I just can’t. Would you be a sweetie and take over for me?”

This is the manipulation card.

All of these ring warning bells for me. The only legitimate reason for taking on volunteer duties is because you feel called to do it and are able to commit time to it.

The very word volunteer means that you are a person who is willing and able to take on responsibility and will honor that commitment.

If you feel guilted, flattered or manipulated into donning something, it has no meaning and just keeps you exhausted and unfulfilled.

So, the next time someone pressures you to do something you really don’t feel called to do, just say no. You don’t have to make excuses or explain your reasons. Just say no. Such a simple word that opens the door to freedom.

This coming Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., everyone who ever attended or was faculty or staff or parent or neighbor or just a well-wisher of Holly Springs Elementary School is invited to come join a gathering to say goodbye. By the Pickens County School Board’s decree, the cheerful and highly effective little school will pass away, in the best of health, when the doors close behind the current student crop this spring.

Its sister school, A.R. Lewis Elementary, also being closed in the prime of life, for similar reasons (whatever, in fact, those reasons really are) held its farewell exercises on May 7. Thus we will add two more vacant school buildings to the sad list of darkened, rotting structures in the county, and several more school buses to the highways every day. This, we are told, is to save money during a financial crisis — which the school board’s finance expert has denied exists.

And this, despite the fact that the taxpayers will still be re-paying — until 2032 — a $6 million debt incurred a few years ago to repair and upgrade these very buildings where dust and cobwebs soon will prevail. Meanwhile, several hundred kids, including about 20 K-4s, will get to spend another couple of hours daily on a school bus, on the road.

Why this? Mr. Phil Bowers, the board member who seemed most determined that these two schools be closed, responded at one of those recent board meetings where the public was not allowed to talk. He felt like he was cheating the taxpayers, he said, by permitting these small schools to operate when some of their classes numbered fewer than a “standard” 21.5 students. (Since no one in the audience was permitted to respond, faculty present could not tell him that some classes had up to 28 or more students — and that the 13-member class that kept popping up as an example of dreadful waste possibly was a special-needs class, where only fewer could be taught to best effect.

But that 21.5-student count rule, the earnest Mr. Bowers adamantly clung to, while as a parent, the writer cringed to consider how that five-tenths of a student might be delivered to each classroom with only 21. Brian Swords, in explaining his own stand in “getting this over with,” implied that right or wrong, the board had voted several months ago to close these schools, and it was time to do it. Kind of like, “Yeah, we know now this guy is not guilty, and the killer’s still at large — but the jury said to hang him, so on with it!”

There is so much more that should be said, about the reasoning of this board. We have suffered through this current term at the hands of some of the most challenged persons one can imagine setting public policy. Ruinous decisions have been made. And how could we anticipate such a thing, at the time of elections? Especially when at least half the seat-winners hold advanced college degrees?

What is agonizingly lacking here is the recourse to correct a problem when it jumps up and bites us. Several years ago, an elected official was a suspect in some jail-able crime. What were we to do, if the miscreant actually went to the pen? The responsible official in Columbia replied, “You can vote him out of office next time around.”

We have got to do something, friends and neighbors. We have been told, “THEY are in charge, and there’s nothing YOU can do,” till we have forgotten that America is supposed to be altogether different. We cannot go to the polls, and designate someone else to be totally responsible for all civic and moral issues — with us off the hook. We have got to pay attention. Anyone who has gone to a recent school board meeting, and observed the behavior of the four members who pushed these school closings — while the two others tried, aghast, to stop them — will know there is something terribly wrong. Something does not work.

Sen. Larry Martin is working on some remedial legislation, to set up some recourse. We need to consult him about it, and help however we can. In the end, we ARE responsible.

Meanwhile, we can gather on Saturday, at Holly Springs School, hear superb music from kids who learned to pick and fiddle at Holly Springs, eat barbecue, play on the school yard, and hear a wondrous presentation by Dennis and Jane Chastain on a school history that reaches back into the 1880s.

And after that, we can resolve to pay attention.

Award-winning author and journalist Dot Jackson is a co-founder of the Pickens-based Birchwood Center for Arts and Folklife.