Category Archives: Opinions
Living on Social Security benefits
We’ve now experienced our 2022 Social Security benefit amount for a couple of months, the 5.9 percent increase. How are you doing?
The problem is that the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) is calculated from July to September the year before. Yes, prices were inching up then, but by December, we were seeing the writing on the wall when the annual Consumer Price Index was already up 7 percent.
Add to that the hefty Medicare Part B increase to cover the cost of Aduhelm, the Alzheimer’s drug most of us
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Paying tribute to the first ladies of the past
My book club meets monthly to review books. Each member picks one book a year, and every time we end up with an assortment of good books. This is good 
for all of us, as we can fall into a rut and stay with the same kinds of books we’d normally seek out.
This month, our book was “Upstairs at the White House; My Years with the First Ladies,” by J. B. West, who was a head honcho in the White House for 30 years. The book covered six administrations, from Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt to Richard and Pat Nixon.
It isn’t a tell-all scandal-laden account of their private lives, but a record of their time in the White House, while
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Browsing the World Book
| When I was about 9 years old, one of my favorite things was flipping through the colorful and informative pages of the World Book Encyclopedia. Actually, I still love to do that. |
In fact, I have the complete 1963 edition of World Book, the same ones my dad bought for us when I was a student at Calhoun-Clemson Elementary School.
The thing that intrigues me is that whenever I go to look something up, I always come across a lot of other interesting stuff before I find what I was looking for. I usually end up reading two or three articles that I would
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The dangers of drugs and alcohol
We are in the middle of National Drug and Alcohol Week, an initiative launched by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to stimulate educational events in communities so teens can learn what science has taught us about drug use and addiction.
Underage drinking can cause many negative consequences, both in the short and long term.
The following facts are from NIDA.
Research shows that young people’s brains keep developing well into their 20s. Alcohol can alter this
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In God we trust for every situation
Have you known someone who was even-tempered and composed even when circumstances seemed to be falling apart all around them? In times of a serious crisis, somehow these individuals have the type of personality to remain calm and collected. In fact, it’s not unusual to see them comforting the very ones who 
came to help them.
So, what is the secret to living in a peaceful and tranquil state of mind? For those who trust in God, I believe we come to a point in our spiritual journey where we simply begin to realize that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and it
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Courier Letters to the Editor 3-23-22
On Lillian Boatwright
Dear Editor,
Lillian Boatwright was not reappointed by four of the six state legislators on the Pickens Election Board. She took the opportunity to whine profusely on social media and in the newspaper.
Lillian lost this position because her social media posts describe her perfectly: She is in favor of destruction of society — either through the anarchistic and anti-human BLM organization, woke ideologies of rampant racism, the breathtaking position that people should not think for themselves or erasing history by tearing down statues. She has promoted the lie that absentee voting is the same as vote by mail. Her posts are frequently filled with sickening wokeness and never retracted: whether she is promoting the mask policy, which has been well known since it was introduced to be almost completely ineffective, or, for the BLM. She may have been part of the roughly 75 percent of the people that polls show rooted for this organization as of July 2021. People were duped without ever checking the BLM website, which said they were trying to eliminate the nuclear family — the fundamental cornerstone to society on the planet. Within five months after witnessing the anarchy and destruction that BLM produced, it fell out of favor to less than 10 percent.
According to woke individuals, believing they are gods and in charge of truth, I am a hater, a bigot, deplorable, Islamophobic, homophobic, neanderthal and transphobic. While none of this has anything to do with reality, those pushing these divisive labels are in fact minions of evil — they are not “social justice warriors” or any other contrived name. America is not rife with racism — as all data shows. Media can find a racist and run that up the flagpole, or a bigot or a hater or a killer or a thief — but these headlines do not define America. America’s problems will end only when we get back to its roots — based in God — and recognize that absolute truth exists, and it comes only from God. I have and will continue to pray for Lillian — and others — that the Holy Spirit might infect them to change their ways.
While the facts and truth of this may seem harsh, they are far less harsh than the derisive, condescending, prideful and discriminatory words in print and social media by Lillian … and she should be a nonpartisan person on the elections board! No. Period.
Luke Campbell
Pickens
Enough hating — here’s what we don’t need
Strap on your AK-47, O mighty warrior. Take off your shirt so you look like a big tough macho man, hop onto your white horse and start riding south.
Keep going until you come upon a caravan of drunken misfits that has been stalled on the road to Kyiv. If you can find them.
Now, take another good swig of that vodka, Mr. Pootin. Point your troops in the direction you think they ought to go, let out a good ol’ Cossack yell and charge forth — to get your head blown off for the
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Is life so dear or peace so sweet?
There are degrees of evil. We see it on the news every day. And now we see a great evil displayed on the world stage.
Our president warned us the Russian invasion of Ukraine was coming. We were made aware it was imminent. What stunned some was the total brutality and barbarism shown by Russia.
As far as I know, most nations that consider themselves civilized don’t deliberately mow down children and their mothers. Nor do they kill
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Transparency improves gov’t and builds trust
Making detailed financial information easily available to the public improves the quality of government. It keeps officials on their toes and makes it easier to catch misspending and waste. Transparency builds trust with 
taxpayers, who have a right to know how their hard-earned dollars are being spent.
About this time each year, advocates for open-government celebrate Sunshine Week, a national initiative to promote access to public information. This year, Sunshine Week is observed March 13-19. This
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Highway 11 and election board issues
Highway 11 and election board issues
Dear Editor,
I want to write about two news stories last week.
The first is the “County council approves pause on Highway 11 development.” I praise the county council for the pause. Everyone needs to stop and take a breath when it comes to development on Highway 11.
The Scenic Highway is a jewel and it should be protected, or at least thought about for a time. I wonder who is speaking for the animals that call their home that place. While they do not have a vote, the should be represented
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