Category Archives: Opinions
Courier Letters to the Editor 7-7-21
Showing law enforcement appreciation
Dear Editor,
As a 73-year old Baby Boomer, I’ve seen many changes in the way Americans view things. One of the most dramatic changes is how a significant portion of our national news and social media portray our law enforcement community.
As a teenager growing up in Birmingham, Ala., my allowance was $2 a week. Receiving this sum was dependent on
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Supporting local newspapers
As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, there’s a sense of relief and optimism that things will return to normal. Long-awaited family gatherings, birthday parties and graduation ceremonies are finally happening in person. Sporting 
events have fans in the stands, airports are busy and we all are in the process of reclaiming those elements of life we’ve missed the past year.
However, with that optimism is the reality of the impact the pandemic had on local communities. Local businesses that struggled through the past year, if they were able to stay in business at all, are still trying to recover and regain lost revenues. These locally owned restaurants, shops and services are vital to our economy and provide
Five rants and ramblings
Five random ramblings, rants and things I wonder about; and one kudo:
- I understand there’s a worldwide shortage of cardboard. Whoa! How can this be? Just because every time Amazon sends my wife a bottle of fingernail polish it comes in a box big enough to hold a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier, that’s no excuse. She didn’t order that many bottles.
I have noticed lately, though, that they’ve been packing more things in big plastic envelopes. I would predict a shortage of plastic in the near future, but if that ever happens they could just reel some more in from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating accumulation of plastic that’s twice the size of Texas drifting somewhere between California and Hawaii.
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- While I’m on the subject of international commerce, why don’t the Chinese break down and hire some Americans to help them write the instructions to the technical products they sell? The grammar is always atrocious, and theYou must be logged in to view this content.
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Soccer is a game changer
Peggy Alviani was president of the Latin Club in high school, and she sat behind me in geometry. She got good grades and was quiet and unpretentious. Many teachers described her as “sweet.” That is, until game time.
When Peggy pulled her long brown hair back into a ponytail and snapped her shin guards in place, she became “The Enforcer.” As the defensive back, it was her job to “sweep up” any ball that got past her soccer teammates. She would stare menacingly at the opposing team and raise her fist while quoting in Latin, “Audentes fortuna iuvat.” Nobody knew exactly what it
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Courier Letters to the Editor 6-23-21
Dangerous jobs for the good of all
Dear Editor,
There are some dangerous jobs in this world, it’s true.
One that I would be afraid of is the job of replacing burned-out lights on top of radio station towers. I read where these towers are 1,500 feet tall! That’s like the length of five football fields, only vertical. Some are 2,000 feet!
From what I’ve been told, it takes three hours just to climb to the top. It takes approximately eight hours start to finish
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God desires to heal and restore his possessions
Can God heal us? Of course! We do not need to speculate or wonder about His ability to provide miracles and bring restoration even in the most difficult situations.
Jeremiah 17:14 says, “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise.” 
Whatever the case, we can believe and know without a doubt that our heavenly Father desires to help us in our time of need whatever it might be, and yet, we look around and notice that many have not received their answer.
When we begin to investigate the truth about healing and miracles, it does not take long to discover this is a complicated subject that includes
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Lawmakers in the batter’s box
Well, it’s time once again for my annual analysis of the batting averages of our legislative delegation.
Technically, the season isn’t over yet — they’re scheduled to come back on June 21 and drive home the budget, after a select group of senators and House members have finished debating the finer points of the infield fly rule.
But it’s pretty much all said and done as far as lawmaking is concerned, and the box scores follow much the same trend as last year — although 2020 was, of course, a very weird year. I filled in my box scores in mid-season, and then the pandemic hit and everything went askew like a wild pitch that gets
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City administrator talks infrastructure
A common inquiry that the city of Pickens receives from our community members often revolves around city projects and 
our direction as a city. These project inquiries and questions of city direction tend to revolve around those Pickens landmarks that are most visible, such as Bruce Field, the Doodle Trail and the Legacy Square Fountain. Will Bruce Field be renovated? Will the Doodle Trail be extended into downtown? When will the fountain be running again?
Your questions are valid, and we hear you. Behind the scenes, many of these
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Myths, legends and superstars
Maybe it’s in the water.
Bishopville, S.C., is home to the Lizard Man, a giant boll weevil, the Button King and the topiary artistry of Pearl Fryar. Bishopville is also home to an artesian well with alleged healing powers.
The mystery of the Lizard Man began on a hot and humid night in June 1988.
Christopher Davis had a flat tire on a lonely stretch of road near Scape Ore Swamp and not far from the artesian well. Just as he finished replacing the tire and was putting his tools away, he heard tree limbs snapping and loud noises coming from the nearby woods. Suddenly, a green, scaly-skinned monster with blazing red eyes and long black claws burst from the woods. It
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Endless night of the possum
There are nights when you go to bed and fall immediately into a deep sleep, not waking til morning. And then there are those other nights we dread — nights that follow a long day’s work, when we are bone weary and longing for sleep.
Such was the night of the possum invasion.
Innocently, we went to bed to sleep the sleep of the weary. And we probably had been deeply asleep for about 20 minutes when it began.
It seemed as though the high-pitched barking came from far away, but as I
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