In 1963, a song was released by The Kingsmen titled “Louie, Louie.” It was a huge hit and completely unaffected by the fact that the song lyrics were indecipherable.

They were so indecipherable that an investigation was launched by none other than the FBI to determine if the lyrics were obscene and/or profane.

After almost two years, during which time the FBI spent countless hours listening to

It began innocently enough. We thought it would be fun to take the children to play putt-putt at the beach. After all, this is a family custom dating back to the days when putt-putt at the beach was pretty plain and simple.

In those days we stayed at Crescent Beach, pre-high-rise, and came off the beach at 11 a.m. when our mothers said the midday hours from 11-2 were when the sun was too hot for us to be out there.

So, we’d come in, change into clothes, put on our hats and walk a block or two down to the one putt-putt course next-door to White’s Realty. There were 18 holes, no large animals or any kind of theme involved in the game, just plain green carpet on top of concrete. If you got a hole in one on the 18th hole, you earned a free game.

Well, last week we loaded everyone into the cars (it took two for our crowd) and drove

It’s early in the morning, and I hear a thumping on my bedroom window. I am guessing somehow somebody has left for the morning and locked themselves outdoors. Groggily, I get out of bed and stumble out my bedroom door and go open the living room door to let that person in.

And I find nobody there. Our dogs, Patti and Opie, glance over at me with that look that says, “What is that fool doing up in the middle of the night?”

All the cars are there in the driveway. I briefly toy with the idea that someone was once there, but I realize the odds of the dogs, who bark when I drive up, would

Sick of the status quo

Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to Greenville and Anderson counties. If either one of them are interested in annexing Pickens County, I will be one of the first to sign up.

When we go to our county seat for any sort of record, we are told to go to Anderson or Greenville. I recently went to get a birth certificate and was told they were no longer available here, and the reason was they did not want to pay a full-time clerk to issue

Heritage, not hate. Those are the words we’ve seen countless times on bumper stickers in defense of the Confederate flag.

As a proud Southerner who counts Confederate veterans on both sides of my family, I have pretty much embraced the same mindset. That was the idea behind moving the Confederate flag to the Soldiers Monument 15 years ago. The flag became part of the monument, or so we thought.

It became evident to me that others in our state continued to see the flag on the Statehouse grounds much differently less than 36 hours after our collective hearts were broken over the senseless murder of nine innocent people at the Emanuel AME Church. The church killer had also left a witness to let the world know why he had

Since the string of shark attacks along the coastline, there has been a great deal of anxiety about being eaten while on vacation.

Everyone deals with this in a different way. We are at Holden Beach with our extended family, and here’s how we’re addressing the problem.

We have a good pair of binoculars, and whoever has water duty uses them religiously, scanning the water from left to right while the second person is in the water with the

Why the rush?

Dear Editor,

Many question the timing and rushed process used to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds. Honest answers to a few questions are revealing. The flag was at its location on the Statehouse lawn for 15 years, if it was such a pressing issue, why wasn’t something done about it during the last 15 years?

Why did they only act when national TV cameras showed up? Is it right to bypass the

The evil of recent days

Dear Editor,

I am a very patriotic American and love my country. Many men and women have paid the ultimate price defending our Constitution, freedom and our flag.

Our Constitution was written in three weeks by Godly Christian men who put God first in their lives and then their love for America. These men lived by the very words from the Bible, God’s Holy Word.

Our Constitution has served our country well for 239 years, and we have thrived as a nation because we honored God and supported Israel (Genesis 12:3).

Today, we have politicians who abuse their power, and I wonder how many of them would be willing to pray and seek God’s wisdom as our forefathers did.

Over the last few weeks, we have had tragedies to hit our state. Nine lives were gruesomely taken on a Wednesday night, during a Bible service in Charleston. My prayers are with the families of each victim, the shooter and his family as well.

My problem is with many calling this a hate crime. I like what Dr. Martin Luther King’s granddaughter said: “This was not a hate crime — my grandma was shot in church by a black man. This isn’t a crime of hate — it’s just pure evil.”

I agree with Dr. King’s granddaughter and applaud her for wise statement.

The Confederate flag stands for Southern heritage, not hate. We, the people of South Carolina, compromised in the year 2000 when the flag came down from the top of the Capitol.

One individual’s evil crime can’t be prejudiced toward an entire state. Rap singers can brag about killing cops, and our liberal media will blame the officers who protect our families. Look up authenticenlightenment.com/2015/06/28/how-does-your-silly-flag-outrage-feel-now/ and decide for yourself who you trust.

America, we better wake up and repent from our evil ways and stand up for our rights while we still have them (2 Chronicles 7:14).

One last thing — you can’t sing about the amazing grace of Jesus and hours later ignore His definition of marriage (Ephesians 5:31, Matthew 6:24 and Leviticus 18:22), more of God’s words that describe His amazing grace.

Recent days truly have been some of the most evil our land has seen. We need you, Jesus, to heal our land. Our hope is in you alone, and may God bless America again!

Brad Dover

Liberty

Why are so many of our mentally ill in jail instead of treatment? According to statistics, almost half of the jailed population in our country are suffering from some sort of mental illness. And Pickens County is not an exception.

These are the people who are locked up instead of treated. They also make up about half the homeless population. Many of our veterans are also among these populations.

Recently there was an opportunity for county council to secure funding through a grant to screen inmates for mental and substance abuse conditions before throwing them into the general population. Unfortunately for all of us, they chose not to do this.

We seem to be moving backward instead of forward. Just as alarming is the fact that

Time for legislators

to do their part

Dear Editor,

I applaud the Pickens County Council and Pickens County School Board for their hard work the last few years in these tough budget times. Now it is time for our state representatives to do their part.

County residents pay sales taxes to the state. By state law, 4.5 percent of the previous year’s state revenue is supposed to be given back to the county