Category Archives: Opinions
Losing it all in the 1973 St. Louis fire
On July 12, 1973, a fire in St. Louis, Mo., at the National Personnel Records Center destroyed between 16 and 18 million military personnel files. My mother’s file was one of those.
The files covered the period from pre-World War I to 1963. There began decades of veterans struggling to prove military service in order to access their benefits.
When I sent away for my mother’s records, what I received back was a certificate,You must be logged in to view this content.
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Early resolutions for 2024
Having stuck with less than half of the New Year’s resolutions I made for January 2023, I decided that for 2024 I need to give much more 
thought to what I commit to. In other words, not to take on more than I can actually do … and to give a much longer period of consideration to the whole thing. Hence this early start in talking about resolutions.
I’m leaning toward one-time efforts, things I commit to doing once, not whole lifestyle
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The benefits of cooperation
On the same day that our U.S. House of Representatives effectively voted against a third person to be speaker, our state and county delegations held a press conference announcing how cooperation led to $95 million coming to our county to fix Pickens County’s most 
dangerous road, S.C. Highway 183. The contrast between functioning government and dysfunctional government could not have been greater.
S.C. 183 has been a safety priority for many years — decades if you have lived here. Five-year crash
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The witch’s grave
Bill, severely wounded in Afghanistan, limped from shrapnel lodged in his left leg. Suffering from PTSD, unable to find a job, he welcomed the forgiving obscurity provided by alcohol.
The preacher got him into AA and found him a job as the caretaker of an old cemetery. He lived in the caretaker’s cabin. He cut the grass in summer and raked the leaves in the fall. His only companion was a little black cat with a splotch of white fur on her chest. He named her Josephine.
Bill whistled as he began to rake up the leaves covering the graves. He stopped to brush
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Letters to the Editor 11-1-23
Growth comes with impact
Dear Editor,
Growth is inevitable, but at what expense? Census Bureau data shows that S.C. ranked fifth in the nation for population growth from April 2020 to July 2022. While most would agree that growth is good for our communities, it should not create a burden to the current and future
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Can we truly live in peace?
Have you considered that worry and anxiety is an issue we can control?
Many within the medical world agree that stress is not a lurking monster that forces us to be afraid, but rather our negative thoughts are a nurtured response to what we see and hear. In other words, our assumptions become empowered when our emotions embrace them. Thus, if 
we can learn how to re-wire or renew the way we think, we can begin to walk in victory over fear which we blame for ruining our happiness.
We’ve heard about going to our “happy place” a seemingly magical location where we can take
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Breaking things — the good, the bad and the ugly
In 1947, USAF Capt. Charles “Chuck” Yeager broke the sound barrier, and he did it with two broken ribs.
Yeager and his wife, Glennis, had gone horseback riding, and his horse threw him and he broke two ribs. Yeager had his ribs taped up by a 
civilian doctor so the Air Force wouldn’t find out.
Yeager gets extra points for breaking his ribs at the same time he broke the sound barrier. A B-29 dropped “Glamorous Glennis” (named for his wife) from its bomb bay at 25,000 feet, and the
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Social Security increase for ’24
The 3.2 percent Social Security increase for 2024 is higher than it has averaged over the past two decades, but it certainly is nowhere near the 8.7 percent increase we received for 2023.
This 2024 increase will mean $58 more per month for those receiving the average benefit in 2023. Out of that $58, we’ll pay an additional $10 for Medicare Part B.You must be logged in to view this content.
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The greatest love ever known
I stumbled upon this story a while back that has been retold many times, and as I read it again recently, it caused me to think about God’s love which cannot be measured or fully comprehended, and I wanted to share it with you today. It’s listed as an allegorical short story called “To Sacrifice a Son,” written by Dennis E. Hensley, and was first published in a Michigan Baptist Bulletin in 1967.
There was once a train bridge that spanned a large river. During most of the day, the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river parallel with the banks, allowing ships to pass
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Pledge for improved veteran health care
The Department of Veterans Affairs has hooked up with 13 civilian health care systems with the goal of improving veteran health care, whether those veterans are getting their care in or out of the VA.
The Veteran Interoperability Pledge has been made by those health care systems with agreements to exchange information and collaborate with the VA in several ways: Identify
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