Category Archives: Opinions
Knowing when to stand and when to be silent
Each week I spend a portion of my days writing and preparing messages. I pray and seek the Lord’s voice as I strain my spiritual ear to hear the direction he is leading me.
We know that thousands of men and women write and speak for audiences regularly and they enjoy it. However, when it comes to the ministry and 
representing God, relaying what we believe is his truth is one of the most serious assignments I can think of and is rarely comfortable.
Some have been serving as a watchman on the wall for many years and sense the reverence and responsibility that
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Courier Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the excellent article by Ron Barnett in the Pickens County Courier of Aug. 11.
Ron researched the Medicaid funding and covered the issue
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COVID safeguards still needed
We’ve been fighting COVID-19 together for nearly a year and a half. And it hasn’t been easy.
Within a week of our first confirmed positive test on March 10, 2020, we set up a drive-through test collection site at our North Campus. We spent hours in 
full protective gear and in all sorts of weather, collecting samples from long lines of people who were anxious for answers. Our nursing team developed a capacity expansion plan to ensure we were prepared for the growing numbers of patients who needed inpatient care, never dreaming that at our peak we would stretch to accommodate 141 patients at one time.
We found joy and relief in the many patients who recovered and were reunited with loved ones — and we held the hands of others in their final moments, and we held iPads so grieving families could say goodbye. And, when a vaccine became available, we were one of the first to open a mass vaccination clinic to get
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The best summertime treat
There is nothing better on a hot summer day than watermelon. My father would place it on the picnic table in the backyard and begin cutting it with the precision of a Samurai warrior. Its name says it all. The watermelon is 92 percent water. It is big, it is green, it is messy — and it is the absolute best 
summertime treat.
My sisters and I would have a seed-spitting contest to see who could spit the black seed over the backyard fence. We were careful not to swallow the seeds, because Uncle Matt told us that if we swallowed a seed, it would grow a watermelon in our belly. We believed it to be true, because Aunt April had swallowed one and we could see the
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The devil’s on a leash
For those who are followers of Jesus, I want to encourage you today. There is nothing to fear, because God loves you and has promised that He will be with you forever.
Have you ever seen those retractable dog leashes that extend several feet? Picture in your mind that God is taking His dog Satan out for a walk, and this allows us to understand the spirit realm. The Lord has a tight collar on the devil, and He allows him to run around roaring like a lion, causing all this chaos and confusion.
A key point in this analogy is that we must realize that God is in total control and Satan must obey God’s
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Courier Letters to the Editor 8-11-21
Ripping the nation to shreds
Dear Editor:
Back in the 1950s and 1960s there were the protests, demonstrations and riots over civil rights and the Vietnam war. Some became violent and deadly. Watts burned, Freedom Riders killed, ROTC and Selective Service offices bombed, protest marchers water bombed and beaten. And then there were the killings at Kent State in 1970. During the 1970s, we had Watergate, the Nixon tapes and the Pentagon Papers. The 1990s had the Rodney King incident, Watts and L.A. burned again. The 2000s brought us 9/11, the Afghan and Iraq wars, non-existent weapons of mass destruction, school shootings, mass shootings, police killing black men and with
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Changes coming for Olympic women
I’ve always been uncomfortable with the extremely skimpy type of leotards required as wear for the American women’s gymnastic team to perform in. Especially since the notorious Olympic team doctor was convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of very young female gymnasts over a period of years. He’s 
now serving a life sentence in prison, and I hope he never gets out.
But this year it seems a change is coming. The women’s Norwegian beach volleyball team refused to wear the revealing bikini bottoms preferred by the Olympic powers that be, who are largely male, and instead competed in thigh-length shorts.
The German women’s gymnastic team also appeared in unitards instead of the high-cut, revealing leotards
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Courier Letters to the Editor 8-4-21
Coincidence or divine intervention?
Dear Editor,
Are coincidences real? On March 1, 1950, in Beatrice, Neb., the local Baptist church had choir practice on Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. On that day, the members of the church who sang in the choir were all late for various reasons. The preacher went by that afternoon to light the furnace.
Most members would have arrived at 7:15. At 7:10, the preacher’s daughter’s dress was soiled and had to have her mother iron another. A teenage girl who sang in the choir had a difficult geometry problem she couldn’t solve. A member whose car refused to start called her to ride with her, but had to wait until she finished the problem. Yet another had a car that refused to start. One woman in the choir had to help her mother get ready for a mission meeting. Another had to write a letter that had been put off. A phone conversation that carried on longer than realized also caused a late departure.
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Precious memories will last forever
There are different seasons in life, and now in my retirement, I’m enjoying this opportunity where my daily schedule is not as demanding as it once was. I’m not saying there are not plenty of things to do, but I can plan my days instead of obligations controlling me.
In this season most everyone hopes to reach eventually, I’ve discovered that having more “me time” also allows me to think about things that maybe I would normally be too busy to ponder. As a writer, I can express this endless flow of thoughts and considerations, and for that I am grateful.
I usually have at least 10 articles going at the same time, and when a thought comes to me, I will add it to ideas
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Breaking news
I was sitting in a traffic jam on I-85 the other day, enjoying my favorite music, when it was interrupted with breaking news. In my experience, whenever a program is interrupted by breaking news, it is usually bad news. I don’t know why the announcer doesn’t come right out and say it — “We have bad news.” In this case, the breaking news was that a tractor-trailer had overturned on I-85, blocking all the southbound lanes. But I already knew that.
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the interstate highway became a part of American culture, and South Carolina’s piece of that American culture — specifically I-85 — is
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