Over the course of the past year, I have had the privilege of meeting some of the folks responsible for the legacy of excellence that characterizes the School District of Pickens County and am excited to introduce one of them to you.

Without further ado, it is an absolute honor to introduce you to Dr. Barbara Nesbitt, director of instructional technology for the School District of Pickens County.

A former teacher and administrator and current member of Grace Church in Powdersville, friends and colleagues describe Dr. Nesbitt as a “jewel” who “has worn many hats with grace and has gone

Dear county school board members

Dear Editor:

This is a letter to the members of the School District of Pickens County’s board of trustees.

Why are you wasting taxpayers’ money debating a policy about praying before a board meeting?

The answer is simple and solves the problem without a whimper. Announce at the start of a meeting that there will be moment of silence, and those wishing to pray may do so silently.

End of problem, and get down to the public’s business — the education of the children of Pickens County.

Larry Allen

Easley

Our Chihuahua seemed very happy with one chew bone and didn’t ask for another. But we had a hard time keeping up with it. So I went up to the store and bought a pack of 10 leather (we hope) chew bones, and doled five of them out during the week as we misplaced them one by one.

We now know our misguided wish to give our dog everything he could want has not resulted in happiness and well-being.

In short, Toby-One-K-Doggy — or as he is commonly called, Toby — is driving himself into an early grave worrying about his possessions. He knows their worth

Some people don’t believe in the devil, but that’s because they don’t use technology in their work. I’ve met the devil. He shows up on occasion and takes over the computer and printer in my home office. I can cite incident after incident to back up this claim.

For the past six months, I’ve been working on a project that has consisted of research, writing,

One of the most popular stories from last week’s paper was about the Pickens County School Board planning to consider starting meetings with prayer again.

This was thought to be illegal, but recent rulings have said it is OK as long as you follow certain guidelines. It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but this measure only controls prayers before school board meetings.

Nobody will be checking to see if anybody has their eyes open. There are no tests as to what is asked for in

There’s a friend out there who has been longing for a snowfall all winter. She has kept her snowman decorations out to help things along. So now I see the snow coming down and realize that my friend is actually a powerful weather witch, and I’m a little afraid of her.

It is beautiful falling. I’d forgotten how pretty it makes everything look and how clean. We know what a temporary condition that is. Maybe that’s part of the beauty of snow in the South.

Have you ever heard the one about how to tell the southerners from the northerners in a neighborhood? When it snows in the South, the northerners who haven’t lived here very long can all be seen out in their driveways shoveling snow. The southerners will all be out in the front yard with the children, playing in it. They know that

Pointing out hypocrisy

Dear Editor,

Pickens County school district administration recently put forth a five-year plan that proposes raising property taxes 13 mills.

Tom O’Hanlan, speaking on behalf of the Manufacturers Caring for Pickens County (MCPC), endorsed the plan in a letter to the editor that said “The MCPC would like to offer our support to the five-year maintenance plan. … While no one likes taxes and tax increases, sometimes they

We all do things that don’t turn out the way we planned. And on some days it’s not just a single thing. It’s everything. And that is what happened last week, when a very valiant attempt was made to attend a reading of poetry sponsored by the Birchwood Center for Art and Folk Life.

Harriet Richie and Tom Johnson, two talented regional writers, were presenting a reading of love poems in honor of Valentine’s Day at the Reserve, a gated community in the scenic area of S.C. Highway 11.

Although I’d never visited the Reserve proper, I nevertheless assumed there would be no problem in getting there.

McKinney’s Chapel is, however, a familiar destination and

Music means different things to different people, but to me, music is something you listen to. So if you take away the distractions and all you have is the voice and the accompaniment, then you can tell if the music is good. Or not.

So if you need 20 gyrating dancers, flashing lights, fireworks and revealing costumes to sing, maybe what you’re doing isn’t really singing. Good music doesn’t have to be propped up.

Who gets to say what is music and what isn’t? There isn’t an answer to that,

Scouts’ ‘leave no trace’

benefits all

Dear Editor,

Last weekend, Boy Scout Troop 134, sponsored by Lawrence Chapel UMC, picked up trash between Daniel High School and Jones Mill Road as a service project.

This is a stretch of road that is about two miles long. We have cleaned this section before, and the church has adopted this section of S.C. Highway 133. The Scouts picked up eight and a half large orange garbage bags of trash. What