The Opinion Blog

TUESDAY OPEN FORUM

Here's Tuesday's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM

Here's the weekend's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

Opinion Blog "guest" columns

The scare quotes in the headline reference the irony of labeling any of you guys "guests," when most of you have been around these parts much longer than I. We'll work on a better name for this experiment as it progresses, but for now I have the good news that we have very tentative approval to begin the columns next week.

To recap, the basic intent is to give our commenters the ability to lead the discussion on The Opinion Blog in a slightly more prominent and creative way than is possible right now. I'm imagining a concept similar to a weekly op-ed columnist in a dead-tree edition of a newspaper, but because we represent the new media, we can be much freer in form: no word limits or minimums, no set topic (unless you choose to develop one), the freedom to insert actual images and links, and if you can't do it one week there's not going to be a big hole on a page that anyone has to scramble to fill. It's a blog-within-a-blog, or maybe a column-within-a-blog, but either way it's an opportunity for the widely divergent opinions that you guys hold to drive the discourse even more than you do now.

Being that we're still under the aegis of The Sun News, however, we've got to stick to some of the strictures of Traditional Journalism. First and foremost, anyone that we give this space to must use their real name, and secondly there's a certain level of decorum that we want to maintain in these posts, even if we're sometimes looser in our comments to one another. I think what that means is that in the sense that these posts are intended as conversation starters, we probably want to craft them that way, as standalone items (which most would be anyway), rather than mere responses to the previous day's open forums, for example. This would probably happen 99 percent of the time anyway - and I certainly don't mean we wouldn't reference one another's comments, just that we wouldn't directly address one another in the post, if that makes sense.

(Denney forcefully and eloquently explained some of the legalities at play in this post, if you're interested.) 

If you're interested, email me at rmorris (at) thesunnews.com with an idea of which day(s) you might be interested in, or which days absolutely won't work for you (Sunny and Ron - I've got both your notes already). I'll let you guys know a tentative schedule by the end of the weekend, and if anyone wants to sit it out at first and join later, that's fine too. As mentioned above, this is an experiment, a different way of conducting a conversation we all genuinely enjoy, and I'm sure we'll continue to modify it moving forward.

FRIDAY OPEN FORUM

Here's Friday's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

THURSDAY OPEN FORUM

Here's Thursday's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

Wednesday's cartoon extra

Barbecue Fundraiser Helps Kids

Wednesday’s editorial highlights a recent fundraiser for a local charity.

Timing is critical in many endeavors, and that was the case for the nonprofit organization Fostering Hope. Founder and executive director Tabby Shelton gave a program on Fostering Hope to the Rotary Club of Little River.

Rotarians included Elliott Evans, a new member of the club, who was organizing a barbecue fundraiser to honor his late father-in-law, Scott Taylor, who died in March. Fostering Hope was soon designated a primary recipient of money raised by the barbecue. "It absolutely melted my heart," Evans says about Shelton's presentation on Fostering Hope, which serves on average 120 to 140 children a month. Fostering Hope provides new shoes, socks and underwear as well as gently used clothing, and other items such as school supplies and toys for younger children.

WEDNESDAY OPEN FORUM

Here's Wednesday's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

TUESDAY OPEN FORUM (Election Day edition!)

Here's today's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.

Civic Duty Calls Voters to Polls

Tuesday’s editorial encourages voters to head to the polls and summarizes our recommendations in various city elections.

Let neither rain nor sleet nor mudslinging prevent registered voters from making their choices today for many important municipal officers across Georgetown and Horry counties and Brunswick County, N.C. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Horry and Georgetown counties and 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Brunswick County.

The City That Forgot How To Listen

Sunday’s editorial offers our thoughts on the choices before Myrtle Beach city voters in the Nov. 3 election.

"Myrtle Beach residents who are sick of the bickering that plagues city government can bring it to an end by choosing Judy Rodman as their next mayor. [She] offers residents a soft-spoken, collegial personal style and steely intellect ... [and] has a far better chance than her opponents of forging the council into a cohesive policy-making group whose decisions make sense."

- The Sun News, Oct. 30, 2005, editorial recommendation

Four years ago, Myrtle Beach's governing body was high drama, a comedy for the outside world looking in, but tragedy for those of us who cared about the characters. Mark McBride had been mayor for eight years, and during that time had repeatedly drawn the eyes of the country, the state and the city to Myrtle Beach in derision. Either of his opponents, longtime Councilwoman Judy Rodman and businessman John Rhodes, seemed to be an improvement, but Rodman in particular possessed exactly the blend of perceptiveness and peacemaking the city desperately needed, and still does. McBride and Rhodes edged Rodman in a close three-way race, and Rhodes (with her endorsement) defeated McBride in the runoff, but oh, four years later, how we long for a choice as clear as we had then.

North Myrtle Beach: State of Denial

Saturday’s editorial considers the poor roster of choices for voters in North Myrtle Beach.

Devastation and loss were not all the April wildfires brought to the city of North Myrtle Beach; they also exposed deep and troubling issues in the city government.

Georgetown: A Fresh Start

Friday’s editorial issues recommendations in the Georgetown city council and mayor’s races.

Despite divergent political backgrounds of the five announced candidates for mayor of Georgetown, they share an impression of a city government that has grown oversized, inefficient and unfriendly to customers. Yet among all the candidates is genuine hope things will soon be much better.

Monday's cartoon extra

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM

Here's the weekend's open forum. Be civil and enjoy.