Category Archives: Opinions
Did you feel it?
According to the South Carolina Geological Survey, it is common for South Carolina to have between six and 10 small earthquakes a year, scattered throughout the state. An ongoing sequence began in central South Carolina on Dec. 27 with a magnitude 3.3 earthquake. There have been 10 recent earthquakes ranging from a magnitude of 1.5 to 3.3. Several of the quakes have been felt locally, but none have caused damage.
Earthquakes occur when plate boundaries rub together or push against each other. Typically, one side will go down and the other side will lurch upward (that is how the mountains were created). The strange thing is that our quakes seem to be located within the plate rather than at the plate boundary. I’m not sure what that means, but
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Courier Letters to the Editor 1-19-22
Councilman on county’s road tax hike
Dear Editor,
As mentioned in last week’s Pickens County Courier, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has weighed in on the county council’s 9.6 mill/$6 million a year road tax hike that was above the state legal limit.
Prior to his legal opinion, the county council was told and the administration and their lawyers thought the entire 9.6 mills or $6
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Presidential power and the purple robe
I got a call from the president last week!
No, not Joe Biden. Not Trump.
It was the newly elected president of the South Carolina Senate, Thomas Alexander, whose district includes part of Pickens County.
He assumed his duties at the helm of the upper chamber at the start of this year’s legislative session this week.
I’ve been covering him ever since he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1987, and I think it’s a
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Things I heard that may be true
Many times in life, somebody tells me a story they heard from someone who heard it from someone else. On a few of these occasions, the whole story has been true.
Sometimes a part of the story is sprouted from a kernel of truth that has grown into something else. And sometimes the story is made up completely.
I’ve covered news stories over the years that were unbelievably bizarre, but nevertheless true.
And after many years of covering meetings of various boards throughout the county and a 10-year stint in the
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
A love story for America
On Jan. 6, 1759, George Washington married a widow named Martha Dandridge Custis. She would become the first first lady.
Martha was in her late teens when she caught the eye of Daniel Parke Custis, one of the most eligible, and wealthy, bachelors in Virginia. He was also 20 years older than she was. Daniel’s father was initially opposed to the marriage because the prospective bride’s family was not as wealthy as he would have liked. However, Martha had been schooled in useful skills, like music, religion, reading and dancing, most beneficial for the wife of a wealthy plantation owner.
After seven years of marriage and four children (two of whom died as toddlers) Daniel died suddenly, leaving 26-year-old Martha a very wealthy widow, with two children. Martha now managed the extensive Custis estate and
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Those who desperately seek God shall find Him
I realize that my thoughts are not that important, but what God has to say contains the power to change what man cannot change.
May we choose faith over fear and allow our hope to be larger than our doubt!
Did you notice that I said we have the choice to decide which side we are going to believe? Yes, but brother Billy, how can I choose life? Well, Deuteronomy chapter 30 is an amazing place to start when trying to comprehend God’s plans for our lives. Verse 19, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
These instructions and promises were being directed to the nation of Israel, but we can also incorporate spiritual
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
An optimistic look into the future
Last week I wrote a satirical, and perhaps even snarky, look at the year just past and the one just beginning.
I like to have fun with my writing sometimes.
Now let me put on one of my other hats for a more optimistic look ahead.
Let’s start with the big picture: the universe.
On Christmas Day, NASA, in cooperation with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, launched the James Webb Space Telescope. It will give us a great look at all
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Beware of unresolved resolutions
We are plunging into a New Year that requires a retrospective look at our failings and our desire to make a resolution to do better. The fact that we must review our actions for the past year assumes that we have flaws, we’ve made mistakes and we’re not perfect. Therefore, we must make resolutions to improve our destiny.
The most popular weaknesses and personality imperfections indicate a need to lose weight, exercise more to get fit, get organized, save money, spend more time with family and friends
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Humans 1, hogs 0
The dogs were carrying on. Something was up.
They’d been barking steadily in the direction of the hay barn in the pasture. We didn’t really believe it, but thought there was a possibility we’d captured the hogs in the trap. Or at least one of them. In my ignorance, I thought it might be possible to get them both at the same time.
Looking back now, it is clearly an example of divine intervention protecting the uninformed.You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Courier Letters to the Editor 1-5-22
Let’s all get along in the new year
Dear Editor,
New Year’s already!
“Time, the tide nor the birth of a baby wait on no man,” it has been said. How true that is.
My late mother always said that every decade older we get, the faster time seems to go. That’s true of a lot of things, such as children. Seems they are infants today, children next week and teens the next. My youngest child is going to
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
