The other four-letter word

Dear Editor,

Although it is very small, with only four letters total, it is very powerful just the same. It can lift your soul from the depths of Hell and put it on the mountaintops of Heaven.

So powerful that if it’s the true kind, Satan and all the demons of Hell can’t destroy it. It can also do just the opposite. Many graveyards are full of those who encountered the wrong kind.

Some have given their lives for it or taken others’ lives because of it. In the right hands, it calms the most violent of souls, but in the wrong it can enrage the most timid and bring on great destruction.

It can make a complete fool out of even the most learned or wise. More songs, poems, stories and books have been composed, written or told about it through all of history than anything.

It has brought down kings and queens and many a politician.

Be very careful if you encounter it, for as with fire, you may get burned, and as with life, there are no guarantees. Pray if you find it, and few are they that do, that it is the true kind.

The one kind that can bring more happiness than great riches or worldly fame. Only four letters — this the other four-letter word — so small yet powerful just the same.

Yes, a word spelled simply, L-O-V- E.

Something to think about in this month associated with love. Better yet, think on it all year long and be careful, be very careful, who you fall in love with, for not all love stories end with happily ever after as in the fairy tales.

Eddie Boggs

Westminster

When the sun showed its face after too many days of back-to-back winter, we were jubilant. It’s amazing what a difference a little sunshine can make to a person’s outlook. I am so thankful to see it.

There are so many things about this winter snowstorm, thankfully over, to celebrate.

First of all, we didn’t lose electricity. We are fortunate enough to have our electricity supplied by a rural cooperative. Our lines are well-maintained, and underlying brush and trees are kept in check. Although downed power lines and outages do occur, there aren’t as many outages as seem to happen with some other suppliers.

Next, our water didn’t freeze. And that is wonderful. If you’ve ever experienced that, you know how miserable it is to have no water supply and to have that coupled with no heat in the house. Plus, when you have farm animals, keeping them supplied with fresh water can be a brutal chore in inclement weather.

I don’t have to do that part. Fowler makes sure the horses and chickens have water each day. That involves dumping frozen water from the hen house and refilling containers in freezing temperatures, draining the hose each day after each use and coiling it up so water doesn’t freeze inside it, and weatherizing all outside spigots. We filled the bird feeders, and during the longest day of snow, ice and cold enjoyed watching a multitude of birds at the feeders.

Sparrows and wrens, red birds and chickadees ate together. A few crows fed on the ground. The only bullies were the blue jays, who are so aggressive, but they are beautiful, too.

There are also the horses and the dogs and cats.

Fowler keeps a fire going in the wood stove in the shop, and the dogs and cats all enjoy that. When he’s trudging around out there doing chores, he can go into the shop to warm up his hands.

Also, he has installed heat lamps in all the dog houses so they are comfortable at night.

And we were still able to cook. In this weather, hot soup is a requirement in order to keep going.

We were fortunate to be able to get to the grocery store before the storm and had enough food to last through the three days we were unable to get out.

We normally don’t watch daytime TV, because there’s always so much to do, but the afternoon of the heaviest snow I sat and watched two back-to-back episodes of “Gunsmoke.” That was all I could stand. I’m not used to being confined to the house, and finally hauled out the rubber boots from Ocracoke Island and dragged on all the layers of clothing necessary to survival for 30 minutes outside.

I was given a pair of bib coveralls one year for Christmas, and they usually come into service each winter. They are wonderfully warm, but getting into them takes an act of congress. It’s important to wait to put on your boots after you’ve got the coveralls on, or I assure you, you will find yourself in a predicament.

Tramping through the snowfall was invigorating, and after the Chihuahua and I had patrolled the yard and checked the feeders, we were ready to go back inside. He had more of a challenge than I did, as the snow came up to his chest. But he soldiered on. I finally carried him back to the house.

But now it’s all over. I hope this was our first and last winter storm of the season. Not that I’m complaining. Just a few more weeks and spring will come. It comes every year. I have faith.

Thank you to Blue Ridge employees

Dear Editor,

My wife and I have been on Blue Ridge Electric Co-op our entire marriage of 43 years. The co-op has been great about getting our power back on in a timely manner. Only once or twice has it been off for about three days. Those times everywhere looked like a war zone.

Over the past years I knew many of the Blue Ridge employees, but like me, most are now retired. However, they have done a great job training the new ones who followed them.

Just a few days ago when I spoke with Angela, I told her I thought they already knew we were out of power. She very pleasantly told me they did, but she would still tell them I called.

With several people losing power, our power was only off from 6:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Thanks again, Blue Ridge Electric employees!

David and Barbara Holcombe

Sunset

Saitta speaks on potential closings

Dear Editor,

At the start of the school district’s building program, there were 110 portable classrooms. Everyone was tired of looking at portables and hearing stories of teachers with their classrooms on carts going from portable to portable because they didn’t have their own classroom.

There was a fear with all the money being spent, no one wanted to see portables cropping up in just a few years. So the district administration and school board set out to make sure there wouldn’t be a need for portables for another 20 years. So by design, a ton of extra capacity was added to the schools.

It was an all-at-once building program, and no one knew where the capacity would be most needed in the decade or two to come, so lots of capacity was added throughout. Some of the schools they now cite with too much extra space had a lot of space added to them during the building program. For instance, Ben Hagood added 7,000 square feet, Holly Springs added 10,000 square feet, Ambler added 12,000 square feet, A.R. Lewis added 11,000 square feet, McKissick added 25,000 square feet and Central added 13,000 square feet. A total of 800,000 square feet was added district-wide, or a 38 percent increase.

The old district administration is gone, and more than half of the old board as well. Naturally, those looking at the figures today see all this extra capacity and ask why. Now there is an effort to wring out some of that extra capacity that was recently added.

Millions of dollars were spent to add these classrooms and extra capacity, so it makes little sense to spend millions more trying to wring it out. It would be like one boss paying someone to dig a hole and then the new boss paying someone to fill the hole back in.

Second, this is not a simple operations decision like rewriting policy or passing an annual calendar. Closing Ben Hagood or any school will uproot a significant part of peoples’ lives. You close a school in only a disastrous and unfortunate situation, and this is not one of those. The board and administration should manage the extra capacity the previous board built in, knowing if it is ever needed, it is there.

Finally, in 2011, 2012 and 2013, the financial situation was bad, and we didn’t have to close schools then. The financial situation has improved significantly, and the school district is experiencing its strongest revenue growth since 2008. The money is there to keep all schools operating if it is just managed wisely.

Alex Saitta

School board trustee

Pickens

Numbers vs. people

Dear Editor,

NUMBERS: Numbers can be changed; decimals can be moved without long-lasting effects to people’s lives and emotional well-being. It happens all the time in business and government.

Sure, some people may get upset because of a small increase at first, but then they move on, and after time it’s forgotten and another issue takes its place.

PEOPLE: When people — our children/students, teachers and administration — are given a job to do and are assigned a school to do it in, then asked to take “pride” in that school, it becomes a part of who they are physically and emotionally.

Hagood Elementary people have that “school pride” and an emotional connection to our school. Closing Hagood would not just be closing a building, but it would be closing down a way of life for Hagood people. How can we as parents and community let a part of our children this important be taken away and ever ask them to take pride in anything again without them having a fear of it being taken away? With children in this age group, I do not see how this can be anything but emotionally devastating — not forgetting the lives of the teachers, administration and their families financially and emotionally being changed forever. When you have such a caring staff assembled, it would be a huge loss to Hagood students and our community to have that bond broken over a few dollars.

I ask you, if the Pickens County School Board members cannot see beyond the numbers and realize the long-lasting effects of the closing of Hagood Elementary School to our children and community at large, do we not need new school board members? They found the money to build new schools when they wanted and money to renovate others. They are brilliant people, I am sure, and can find a way to keep Hagood Elementary without devastating Hagood students and scarring them emotionally for the rest of their lives. It would be the same as separating a family and putting them in different foster homes as far as I am concerned. Save Hagood Elementary!

Scott Oglesby

Pickens

Save Hagood Elementary

Dear Editor,

The School District of Pickens County’s website says its vision is “to prepare students for success beyond the classroom” and that it has a belief “students are our first priority.”

How can either of these statements be fulfilled when they are placing the students and the students’ parents in distress?

How can closing this local school help foster success by putting them in a classroom with more students?

How can closing this local school place students’ needs first, given what our present economic situation is?

Average incomes are down, federal spending is outpacing federal income, food prices are up, our governor is pushing a gas tax hike, Obamacare premiums are going up, and nearly one out of every four people in Pickens County is at poverty level. Zillow.com lists 314 homes in foreclosure in Pickens County, and now the SDPC wants to add more stress to these parents and students by closing the school they love?

Please contact all the Pickens County School Board trustees and tell them to save our small local schools! Tell them to follow their stated belief that students are their first priority … not construction companies lining their pockets with taxpayer funds.

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens

This past weekend, I went with a group to Edisto to stay with a generous friend who had invited us all down.

We were a group of nine women, and we had a wonderful time together.

A few of us were gathered on the screened porch overlooking the canal drinking hot tea and listening to the twittering of birds. There is a group of gourd birdhouses hanging near the porch, and a good deal of activity was going on.

It looked like two couples of brightly colored birds, but I didn’t know what they were.

At first I thought Eastern Bluebirds, but after getting the binoculars for a close-up view, it was clear these little birds were something else.

So, we looked through the field guide to birds and found they were buntings.

They are beautiful birds who look as though the rainbow wrapped itself around their little bodies.

They were very busy, chirping, flying away, then returning and going in and out of their gourd homes.

Their feathers reflected the bright sunlight, and it was a pleasure to be able to watch them.

The weather was beautiful on Saturday, and we were able to go to Botany Bay Nature Preserve and explore.

The marsh is all around the area, and the river bounds the land on one side. Spanish moss cloaks the ancient live oaks.

There is a pond on the land, where we spotted a floating log. Or so we thought.

The pond was covered with green scum, and the log had an irregular, somewhat bumpy, appearance.

Then it moved slightly.

“It moved. It moved.”

We were excited. I got the camera and zoomed in on the log and found it was not a log at all. It was the head of a fairly large alligator.

He didn’t seem at all interested in us, but we were very interested in him.

I got one good head shot.

As someone wisely pointed out, where there is one gator there might well be more. I also remember reading that a gator is capable of lunging 20 feet out of the water, and this made me a little nervous.

We left the gator and walked about half a mile to the beach, which is as untouched as it was in the 1700s. The guide on the beach said the shoreline has eroded about one mile in a hundred years, but by placing large felled trees along the edge, the shore line has regained about 50 yards in a decade.

There were a variety of shells, but people aren’t allowed to remove them from the beach. However, people had hung conch shells on the bark trunks of Palmetto trees. We did the same. I suppose it was like placing our flag on the shore to mark that we had been there.

I took off my shoes and walked along the shore line. The water wasn’t all that cold, and the feel of wet sand beneath my bare feet gave the illusion of summer.

We were so lucky to have been given such a beautiful day right in the middle of winter. What a gift. And the memory will remain imprinted on our spirits and will help get us through the remainder of the winter. Thank you to all the wonderful friends who made this such a memorable experience.

One of my favorite movies is the 1969 classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The ultra-cool Paul Newman and Robert Redford play small-time bank robbers in the turn of the century cowboy West who were relentlessly pursued by a posse of lawmen that followed them for months across mountains and deserts, to big cities and ultimately even to South America.

The constant refrain between Butch and the Kid as they struggled to stay one step ahead of the posse was “Who are those guys?”

I thought about the movie this week when I was reading about the massive influx of new South Carolinians to our state. The rate of our population growth is the fifth highest in the country. I asked myself, “Who are those guys” and equally important, “why are they coming to South Carolina?”

The more I thought about it, the more I saw parallels with the movie — so stay with me on this one.

The underlying backstory of Butch and the Kid was the relentless change that was coming to the West with new people and new technology that disrupted our boy’s traditional way of life. In the past, our heroes would ride into some isolated little town, knock off the bank for a few hundred dollars and then ride off in a cloud of dust.

By the time the local sheriff realized what happened, gathered up the locals and rode off in search of the boys, Butch and the Kid were safely in some two-bit cow town in the next county over, blended into the local saloon and bordello culture.

But technology changed all that. With the advent of the telegraph, one lawman could reach another miles away in minutes and the railroad enabled a posse to load up their horses and cover vast distance in a hurry in pursuit of the outlaws.

OK you say; good story but how does this relate to South Carolina?

We in the Palmetto State are like the Old West; our way of life is changing (for better and worse) with the relentless influx of new people, largely driven by technological changes. Consider this:

South Carolina is among the top 10 states in the nation for both the pace of growth and the actual number of additional residents.

According to United Van Lines, South Carolina is the second most popular destination for state to state moves. We are second only to Oregon. They calculate that for every four people that move out of our state, six more move in.

The Census Bureau says that between 2010 and 2014, our population grew by 4.5 percent while the national population only grew by 3.3 percent.

In real numbers, this means that 150,000 people moved to our state from 2012 to 2013. By comparison, Columbia’s population is only 130,000

The Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach metropolitan area, which now includes Brunswick County in North Carolina, is the seventh fastest-growing metropolitan area in the nation.

Four of the nation’s 100 fastest-growing counties are now in South Carolina, all of them along the coast.

All of this tells us there are a lot of folks coming, but who are they?

As expected, most come from surrounding states, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. After that, it’s the Northeast and Midwest states.

Folks moving here are disproportionately old. Across South Carolina, nearly two-thirds of the population gains from mid-2010 to mid-2013 were more than 65.

The technology changes are part of what is driving folks to come to South Carolina. Now that air conditioning is ubiquitous, our hot summers are now tolerable and our mild winters have always been attractive.

Today, it’s easy for people to live anywhere they want and stay connected to their family via smartphones and other technology. You may not have your grand kids on your lap, but you can FaceTime with them on your smartphone as often as you’d like.

And when you do want to have them on your lap, air travel has become so easy and cheap that living 1,000 miles away is no big deal.

Well, we know what happened to Butch and the Kid — ultimately they fled to Bolivia (where the forces of modernization had not arrived) and they ultimately died in a hail of bullets. It’s like the saying “adapt or die”…and our boys couldn’t adapt.

We in South Carolina need to be thinking a lot about what all this means and how we can adapt.

Because they will keep coming. Count on it.

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

Duncan’s obstruction

Dear Editor,

Congressman Jeff Duncan’s recent email to supporters regarding passage of the Omnibus spending bill makes it abundantly clear that Duncan continues to be more interested in obstructing the operation of our government and cheap political grandstanding than in taking part in the governance of our country.

Duncan referred to the recently-passed bill as “tyranny, incompetence and corruption.” No, Congressman, the bill is one of the few recent examples of the coming together of people with very different political views to produce compromise legislation that accomplishes the purpose for which they (and you) were sent to Washington — running our country. And no, the bill does not, as you said, “completely ignore the concerns of the American people.” The current dysfunction in Washington is consistently at or near the top of the people’s concerns in the polls. This bill is a rare bipartisan effort to effectively conduct the country‘s affairs.

There is no evidence that, as Duncan says, “The White House is creating a national disaster through its refugee and visa program.” We are a nation of immigrants. The White House’s proposal that we accept 10,000 refugees (one for every 32,000 Americans) is little enough as this country’s part in dealing with the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

It is ironic that Duncan complains about the amount of spending by a Republican-controlled Senate. Maybe he has forgotten that each of the last three Republican administrations has set new records for deficit spending.

A “missed opportunity,” Congressman? The real missed opportunity was when your district failed to elect as their Representative someone who would regard their job in Washington to be the effective governance of our country, rather than cheap political grandstanding, obstructionism and misguided ideology.

John Landers

Liberty

A good year

Dear Editor,

As the new year begins, a backward glance is reasonable, but a plan for the future is critical. Recollection of the past is wise, I agree, but our responsibility for the future is more important.

My first year on the Pickens County School Board has been rewarding. Many longstanding issues were resolved. Teacher and staff pay issues were addressed, and facilities and technology upgraded. The dark cloud over AdvancED accreditation has passed. Taxes were not raised, and student performance is among the best in the state. The board worked aggressively to meet the needs of our most precious resource and America’s future — our children — while being mindful of the taxpayer as well. Regardless of what a few unkind people say about board members, we made tremendous progress last year after almost a decade of anxiety and conflict on the board.

It’s unfortunate that some call board members hateful names, attack our character and make false accusations to discredit us when we oppose tax hikes. But that’s fine — politics is not for the fainthearted. I can deal with a little spitefulness, because most days really were good. And based on the progress I’ve seen this first year on the board, I predict a very bright future for Pickens County and will disregard pessimists who say otherwise. So as the new year begins, I’m thankful for the opportunities. In an age when Washington and Columbia fail to produce results, it’s an honor to serve on a board that gets things done.

So much for 2015. It’s done. Time to move on.

We have work to do this year and beyond, and I’ll get right to the point — our school district has too much stuff. We own more than 50 buildings, 3,314,641 square feet of floor space, 1,200 acres of land, more than 5000 heating and air conditioning units and more than 70 acres of roofing. These facilities must be maintained to preserve the taxpayer investment and provide safe and comfortable learning environments. Facilities do not have to be extravagant, but must be safe and comfortable.

Space here won’t allow every detail, but elementary schools are an example. We have space for more than 11,000 students in our 16 elementary schools, but we only have about 7,500 students. It’s like having 10 milk cows but only milking six; you still have to feed and take care of all 10, but four aren’t producing. Good managers wouldn’t allow that to continue. That is where we are with school facilities; we’re maintaining too much unnecessary property.

So why the excess space? I don’t know all the reasons, but previous boards obviously made bad decisions years ago, because our student population isn’t really growing that much. Some will say facilities can’t be combined due to location, but that’s generally not the case. Many are within a few miles of another and could easily be combined to increase educational opportunities at reduced costs.  A successful future depends on good planning, and we urgently need a long-range plan based on what we know today. It won’t be perfect because there’s no crystal ball, but better than no long-range plan at all, which is basically how the district has operated for years. I look forward to helping plan a future providing the best education possible for our children while being considerate of the taxpayer as well.

Phillip Bowers

Trustee, School District of Pickens County

Chairman, Pickens County Republican Party

Are you angry enough yet?

Dear Editor,

Have our S.C. Republican leaders ever read, “The Platform of the S.C. Republican Party?” which can be found here: https://www.scgop.com/resources/platform/.

If so, the majority aren’t following it. “they” should be following it as it has everything “they” need to know about what we the people who elected them want them to do while in Columbia!

Franklin Graham has resigned from the Republican Party? Why is that?

Donald Trump is supported by the majority of the voters to be our next Republican president. Why is that?

We the people are angry with career politicians who say one thing to get elected and betray us when they go to Columbia.

Our grievances against S.C. legislators and our governor:

They are allowing our state tax dollars to flow to Planned Parenthood so they can sell baby parts and murder babies in the womb. But if it were animal control officers selling baby dog parts and aborting baby dogs, I bet they would defund them.

They removed our heritage the Confederate Flag from the grounds of the capitol in Columbia in the name of political correctness and now the national GOP has rewarded Nikki Haley for advancing Obama’s agenda of destroying Southern history.

They are not immediately defunding state funds to the influx of Muslim refugees which places S.C. lives in jeopardy and violates their oath to protect us from all enemies. Rep. Neal Collins doesn’t believe in transparency as he has deleted his pro-Muslim statements on his Facebook. I guess he is following Hillary Clinton’s lead in deleting emails.

They investigate each other on ethics issues and have backroom deals with Democrats and lobbyist that betray our values and beliefs.

They have done very little to fix transparency with DOT or fix pot holes in our roads; however they give certain Senators’ counties plenty of funds to repair their roads.

They ignore their own passed legislation repealing Common Core and allow 90 percent mirrored standards, which are still child abusive and indoctrinate children in liberal thinking.

They ignore parents’ wishes for more school choice and the ability to opt their children out of data collecting stress producing tests. And continue to allow the federal government to have control over states’ rights to direct education.

They do very little to strengthen our property rights and leave us open to Socialism.

They are under-funding our schools which force our counties to over collect and raise taxes.

They are allowing illegal immigrants and probable terrorist refugees to receive our hard earned tax dollars to buy homes, cars and food at our expense and take our American born children’s jobs.

They do very little to help veterans and senior citizens receive a cost of living increase while illegals and refugees get freebies with our tax dollars

They are allowing open primaries where Democrats can pick our leaders.

They do very little to protect our religious freedoms which forces our clergy to perform homosexual marriages and business owners to sell flowers and cakes to celebrate an abomination against God’s law.

They do very little to protect our second, fourth, and 10th amendment.

They do nothing about limiting legislator and judge term limits.

They haven’t fixed the problems with the flawed judicial system which promotes cronyism and nepotism. We need elected judges who are held accountable to we the people for the wrongful decisions on cases.

Let’s show them how angry we the people are and tell them what Donald Trump would say, “You’re fired!”

Their betrayal to Southern Christian conservative pride, values and beliefs is overthrowing states’ rights and freedom in America. They are no better than our enemies who seek to destroy American from within. Vote them out 2016!

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens

I was in the field pulling corn when the new preacher came to call. We’d had torrential rain, and it was the first dry day that week. The rows were so muddy I couldn’t wear shoes in the field, because they would have been sucked down into the gumbo.

The wheelbarrow was parked at the end of a row, and as I pulled ears I’d throw them overhead toward the wheelbarrow. At the end of the row when I was too far away, I’d put them in my T-shirt and pull the hem up to form a pouch to carry them out in.

I’d gather up all the corn pulled and load it into the wheelbarrow to roll back to the house, where I’d dump it on the grass in the shade of a tree. Then I’d go back to get another load.

We were planning to get it all into the freezer that afternoon, so this was the beginning of a long day.

The children were playing in the gully, which is in the woods behind the garden. They loved going down there and sliding down the clay banks to the bottom. Of course, on a muddy day it was even better than usual, as the wet clay would become slick as glass.

It was hard on their clothes and usually gave them both a nice coating of mud from head to toe.

I’d just rolled my wheelbarrow of corn into the yard when an unfamiliar car drove up. I dropped the muddy handles of the wheelbarrow and watched as the new preacher stepped out into the driveway.

As he walked toward me, I went out to greet him. From his expression, as he surveyed me, it was obvious he wasn’t accustomed to being welcomed by women with mud up to their knees and elbows dressed in filthy cutoff jeans and ragged T-shirts. He was a city slicker.

Before I thought, I held out my hand to shake his then watched him cringe and draw his own hand back.

So then I said it was good to see him and offered him a seat in the yard while I hosed off.

He kept looking at my feet in horror as I squished over to the spigot and turned on the water, blasting my feet and legs and then arms until most of the mud washed off. I then dried my hands on my pants and shook hands, although he still seemed somewhat reluctant.

I’d just offered him a glass of tea when the children came running up from the gully. They did not look their best. It was hard to tell they were human, as about the only recognizable features were eyes and teeth.

The preacher declined my offer of tea. I guess he wasn’t thirsty. Or something. It was pretty clear he thought he’d come into a land of barbaric heathens who lived in squalor.

He made polite but somewhat stilted conversation, stayed about five minutes and then departed. Although he said before leaving that he looked forward to seeing us at church, he didn’t seem too sincere.

Then I stood the children out by the hose and squirted them off until the water ran clear before stripping them down to their underwear and taking them into the house to shower.

Their clothes went into a bucket of cold water outside to soak before going through the wash cycle.

The new preacher didn’t stay in the area too long. The last I heard, he relocated to a large city and is selling insurance. I’ve sometimes wondered if his visit to our home drove him out of the ministry. But perhaps not. Anyway, we put up enough corn to easily last through the winter. Every cloud has a silver lining.

It was one of those foggy spooky nights when visibility was nonexistent. The headlights on the car would briefly shine on roadside objects in passing. Although the road was a familiar one, I couldn’t have said exactly where I was until I recognized the long pasture fence on the right.

The fence is just past Roanoke Baptist Church and keeps a herd of Black Angus cattle inside a large pasture. On occasion, a herd of sheep can also be seen there.

In daylight it always offers a view of interest. At least to me. In spring, the grass in the pasture is thick and a distinct emerald green. If the herd of sheep is there, lots of spring lambs will be on display with their mothers.

If cattle are there, cows with their calves will be enjoying the springtime sun.

It’s a working farm and has been for more years than I’ve been alive.

Other occupants of the pasture are several donkeys and a large emu. Emus are among the eeriest-looking birds on the planet, with their huge yellow alien eyes and disconcerting way of looking at humans.

On this particular evening, I was driving very slowly when passing this stretch of road when the headlights picked out an animal on the outside of the pasture, very close to the fence and moving rapidly.

At first I thought it was a dog, but when it turned its head to glance my way, I realized that although there was some resemblance to a dog in its general appearance, it was actually a coyote.

And it was a coyote on a mission, looking for a way into the pasture.

The foggy night made the scene even more sinister.

But then I remembered the donkeys and the emu and felt a little reassured. I did wonder if the coyote was alone or if he was hunting with a pack.

Years ago, I saw what havoc a pack of wild dogs wrought on a herd of unprotected cattle, and it was a sight I never want to see again. Dogs are pack animals, and when abandoned by humans will join together and hunt and kill together. An understandable action on the part of the dogs, but an unfortunate fate for the victims.

Nowadays most folks raising stock have ensured protection for their herds by also keeping donkeys, emus and/or Great Pyrenees dogs.

Coyotes are successful predators but are no match for an angry donkey or a vigilant Great Pyrenees. The Great Pyrenees have been used to protect herds for centuries and are never off duty.

If you’ve ever seen a donkey kill a snake, you’ll understand why coyotes should be wary of them. Though small, they are quick and their little hooves are more effective than a sledgehammer.

We never worried about either coyotes or wild boar in the past. And we had no reason to. But the brilliant forethought of fox hunters and boar hunters introduced both these species to the region, with disastrous results.

When the fox population declined, some fox hunters in their infinite wisdom brought in coyotes as a replacement — just as game hunters imported wild Russian boars to offer more sport.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, coyotes have become so prolific now that they’re more than just a nuisance.

And wild Russian boars have crossed with domestic hogs and wreaked havoc upon gardens, crops, and even front yards in neighborhoods, destroying millions of dollars’ worth of property.

It’s all part and parcel of the same thought process that brought in kudzu for erosion control. Well, how’s that working out?

So, before we bring in anything else that isn’t native to our region, maybe some thought should be given to what effect it would have on everything else that’s already here. Just saying.

It was a rainy afternoon and I was trying to stop by the house and take some cold medicine before going to a Pickens City Council meeting. On my way up my driveway, I got stuck in some wet leaves that had fallen across the driveway.

I know this does not sound like a real problem, but trust me, when you live in Dacusville and your driveway is about a quarter of a mile long — uphill — it is.

So I got out of my car and walked the rest of the way up. When I got to our front porch, I pulled out my door keys and stepped onto the wooden porch in front of our kitchen door and got ready to unlock the door. I tripped and found myself laying on the porch enjoying the rain.

As I lay there, I found that I could not get up. Apparently I had fallen into the brick wall at the corner of the house. So I had no choice but to “enjoy the rain” until my parents arrived home from wherever they had been.

About an hour later, my parents came home. My father noticed me there and thought I was dead. He rushed from the car and tried to cover me with a tarp. But bless his heart, picking up a 300-plus-pound son was a bit to ask of him. He called the nearest ambulance station and asked them to help me.

They arrived in about 10 minutes. My mother pulled an old tarp over me to protect me from the rain that was still coming down. The ambulance workers helped me to my feet, and I went inside the house. After I had caught my breath, I got into the car with my parents and headed to the hospital to get my arm taken care of.

When we got there, the staff was very friendly. Nobody asked how it happened or made comments like, “Son, can’t you see a brick wall in front of you?”

They x-rayed the arm and found that I had broken a bone in my forearm. Because I had broken the same arm previously, they said they could not set the arm in a cast. Instead, they just put the arm in a sling and told me to do the best I could with it and hope it heals quick.

The next week, I went to see a doctor, and she was concerned about the cold I had caught by laying in the rain for an hour. She admitted me into the hospital to deal with the cold.

While I was in the hospital, they tested my body several ways. When after a week I was scheduled to get out, the doctor wanted to run one more test. In that test, they found that I had a blood clot in my lungs that was causing my problems.

The phrase scared me. “Blood clot in the lungs” sounds like pretty serious business. But the staff at the hospital began treating me, and before long the clot was gone. I guess I should be thankful for the doctor who insisted on “one more test.”

So I went home to recover. The clot, due to my medication, disappeared. I finally felt better again.

Honestly, I spent most of the time recovering from my cold, not from my arm injury. Once I rested a few days, my arm healed enough so I could type again, which meant I felt no ill effects from the break at all.

But had I not laid in the rain for more than an hour, I probably would not have known about the blood clot at all. Unless somebody had written about the clot on my tombstone.

Saitta talks district’s options

Dear Editor,

I’m sure most read the article where the school district paid architects $50,000 to study the possible refitting, consolidation or closing of six buildings that included Hagood, the old Pickens Middle, Northside school in Easley and the district office, B.J. Skelton and the operations buildings. They came back with three alternatives: Plan A was to do nothing, which had a $5 million price tag. Plan B was to close Hagood and renovate it, plus do some new construction at B.J. Skelton. Various district administrative functions would then be moved into those two buildings. The total cost of Plan B is $15 million. Plan C was to close Hagood and renovate it, plus renovate the old Pickens Middle at a total cost of $22 million. All district administration functions would be moved into those two buildings.

There are two key aspects here — closing Ben Hagood and more building renovations and new construction.

The administration and board majority are moving in the direction of larger class sizes and larger schools. That’s the wrong direction. They eliminated 55 classroom teaching positions in the last two years or so. I voted against that. The plan is to eliminate 12 to 18 more teaching positions next year. Now they are proposing Hagood be closed. I oppose that, too. Simply put, I support the principle of smaller class sizes and smaller schools, in order to provide students more personalized instruction with their teachers.

The school district just finished spending $387 million, building seven new schools and renovating another 20. The district barely has the money to maintain its new buildings, much less the funds for more building plans running in the $15 to $22 million range.

If they move forward, they’ll have to borrow more. The district is still saddled with more than $300 million in construction debt (nine times the legal limit, thanks to the Greenville Plan). And they’ll have to raise taxes to fund the additional loans. If they funded Plan B over, let’s say, five years, that would be a seven-mill property tax increase. Plan C would be a 10-mill increase. School taxes have already risen from 128 to 165 mills due to the building program.

Not only do I oppose what the architects presented, but I opposed paying them $50,000 to do the study in the first place. The last eight years the district paid architects nearly $25 million in fees (enough to build a middle school). Architects make money by charging fees for drawing up plans, and if those plans are built, they charge a percentage on the size of the job. The bigger the plans, the more they make. It is not surprising that even their do-nothing alternative (Plan A) had a $5 million price tag.

We are a school district, not a construction company. Instead, the district should shift its focus back to educating children, maintain its new buildings and work on paying down some of its $300 million in staggering debt.

Alex Saitta

School board trustee

Pickens

On flaws in the system

Dear Editor,

I am writing about an article I read in the Dec. l6 paper regarding the conviction and sentence of a man who killed a man in Pickens County. I’m writing this as a man who is currently incarcerated in federal prison. I feel it necessary to bring to the attention of you and your readers the disparity of treatment between the state and federal governments.

According to your article, Benjamin Anthony Vinson willfully possessed and displayed a shotgun during the commission of a violent crime. After ultimately pleading guilty to manslaughter, Mr. Vinson was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

I, too, possessed a gun illegally. Due to the fact that I had a prior felony conviction, my possession of that gun was a federal crime. At the time of my sentencing, the judge, prosecutor and probation felt that my prior felony was violent — violent enough that I should be subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years — twice that of Mr. Vinson, who killed a man.

Since my conviction, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled that the prior crime used to enhance my sentence to 15 years is not a crime that can be used to enhance my sentence. As a result, my maximum sentence could not be greater than 10 years. However, due to flaws in our federal laws and an obstructionist federal judiciary, I sit in prison, serving the 12th year of my sentence.

That I am incarcerated illegally is not in dispute. Neither is the fact that I will spend more time in prison for possessing a gun than Mr. Vinson will for using one. Obviously, our system, while great, is greatly flawed. I encourage you and your readers to help do something to fix it.

Bradley Shane Sheppard

Federal Prison Camp

Edgefield

HUD and Obama’s stealth plan

Dear Editor,

There are so many things people are stressed about when it comes to government lately. And here’s another stressor.

The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule is a huge stress maker that many of you are probably unaware of. HUD (Housing Urban Development) revealed this plan last year, and without a doubt this is Obama’s most radical stealth attack on local control.

This is just another way for the federal government to control voting. Move in a bunch of people who typically vote Democrat and bingo, we will no longer have a conservative Upstate here in South Carolina.

If enough county councils would stand up and refuse to comply, then HUD would hopefully back down. No county has given pushback yet. Unless your county council takes a stand, you will lose any control over housing decisions. If local governments would stop taking HUD grants, that might help. It is time government starts treating property owners as property owners and not slaves to federal government overreach.

This plan will destroy your property rights, property values will go down, crime will increase in all neighborhoods and local home rule will be erased.

It requires every single community that uses HUD grants to do demographic analyses to see if enough minorities and low-income people are living in every neighborhood. HUD will search people’s personal records in each neighborhood for their race, color, religion, etc.

If HUD determines there aren’t enough people in each category, HUD alone will claim an “imbalance.” This will force social engineering without your consent.

We the people must do everything we can to prevent this from happening!

Every neighborhood will be re-evaluated every five years. There will no longer be a choice of the kind of neighborhood you wish to live in, because they will all be the same.

Home rule and local control in the U.S.A. will be eradicated.

HUD is already searching the last Census reports to find out about your neighborhood.

The recent passage of the Omnibus Bill actually increased HUD’s budget by $2.6 billion, which gave them plenty of funds at the federal level.

Please flood Congress with calls supporting S.1909, which will stop this from taking place. You can go to americanpolicy.org, and on the right hand side click “Obama order will destroy local government” and sign a petition.

 Johnnelle Raines

                                                                                                                  Pickens