The Opinion Blog

Dinners for 600

Wednesday’s second editorial praises a local couple’s simple holiday idea and the wildly successful event it has become.

The idea of a Myrtle Beach couple to provide holiday dinners for less fortunate families has grown to involve hundreds of volunteers, including the executive chef and staff of Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort. The Hilton crew is roasting turkeys and preparing holiday dinners that will be delivered Christmas Eve.

Keeping Warm

Saturday's editorial describes Myrtle Beach's need to help the city's homeless population in the coming year.

Out of respect, perhaps, few of the sad circumstances surrounding the deaths of 18 men and women on the streets of Myrtle Beach this year were shared at vigil for them Thursday, but even the scant details mentioned as the mourning bell was rung and the memorial candles were lit were heart-wrenching.

Three apparent homicides, plus one man killed when his tent caught fire. Three heart attacks, two cancer deaths, one seizure and half a dozen who simply slipped away in their sleep.

Then there was Frank, "found frozen to death behind the old fish market."

Frozen to death. In March. In Myrtle Beach.

Race for the Future

My latest column considers why U.S. Rep. Henry Brown has drawn such a crowded field of challengers.

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of campaign activity around U.S. Rep. Henry Brown's first district congressional seat, which covers all of Horry County and coastal Georgetown County and stretches down into Charleston.

Former Mount Pleasant Town Council member Mark Fava last week became the latest Republican to mount a primary challenge against Brown, joining governor's-son challenger Carroll "Tumpy" Campbell III, Isle of Palms councilman Ryan Buckhannon and perennial challenger Katherine Jenerette of North Myrtle Beach. At the same time, Dick Withington of Pawleys Island announced his Democratic candidacy, joining retired Air Force Col. Robert Burton and Georgetown-area businessman Robert Dobbs in vying for that nomination.

Four Republican challengers and three Democrats, long before filing, with other names still in the rumor mill. Now in his fifth term, what has Brown done to deserve such a crowded path to re-election?

An Uphill Battle

Saturday’s editorial describes the obstacles local lawmakers face in their effort to preserve state tourism funding – some of which are their own making.

A panel of eight local lawmakers this week declared themselves dedicated to what looks likely to be a daunting task: protecting the flow of state money toward out-of-state tourism advertising.

The wrong list to top

Thursday’s editorial describes a recent report showing a dramatic plunge in job growth relative to other cities nationwide as an indictment of our economic development efforts.

It would be difficult to conjure a more direct illustration of Myrtle Beach's fragile economy than the sobering recent report that described our area as seeing the fourth-largest reversal in growth in the country.

The Day That Lives In Infamy

Sunday’s editorial recalls how the Japanese attack in 1941 changed the course of history, and contemplates the lessons it has for the present.

Monday is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which pulled the United States into the wars already raging in Europe and the Pacific. It was war that most Americans did not want. Japanese forces also attacked on Dec. 7, 1941 throughout the Pacific region, including the Philippine Islands, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island, Malaya and Hong Kong.

“Isolationism and the America Firsters vanished overnight,” writes Winston Groom in his new book “1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls.” Americans everywhere “went around in a kind of daze, the conflagration enveloping the entire globe now reeling in their minds. For nearly a year they had known the thing was there and had groped to make out its form and nature and to comprehend how it came to be and have so much power. . . . It was a true world war now, and America was in it to the hilt.”

Narrow Margins

Sunday’s editorial encourages the Myrtle Beach City Council to recognize the obvious message sent by the election - that the city is deeply divided right down the middle on the major issues they’ve tackled, and their duty now is to attempt to govern for all the people.

For a year and a half, a question that could only be answered by an election hung over Myrtle Beach: How did residents really feel about their City Council's controversial decisions to end the major May motorcycle rallies and to charge city shoppers an extra 1 percent tax to pay for out-of-the-area advertising?

Milelong Boardwalk Under Way

Friday’s lead editorial observes the progress on Myrtle Beach’s new boardwalk.

A beach town may feel not quite complete without a boardwalk. Myrtle Beach which hasn't had this amenity for several decades is building one that will run from near Second Avenue North to 14th Avenue North.

Vote for Change, Carefully

Sunday’s editorial suggests a responsible course toward change on the Myrtle Beach City Council.

After two years of loud division, Myrtle Beach now needs leaders who will strive to reunite our fractured city. Of the two challengers remaining in this week's election, we believe one can bring a reasoned voice for a new direction to the City Council, while the other would dramatically deepen the divide.

Tuesday's election will likely be the final arbiter of who sits on the City Council for the next four years. For mayor, despite our disappointment and disagreements with John Rhodes, we believe he still makes a more reasonable leader than Mark McBride. For City Council, however, Mike Lowder can provide a counterpoint to a governing body that desperately needs it. Though both incumbent city councilmen have given good years of service to the city, we believe Randal Wallace's skills as a listener make him more likely to spearhead a healing process for the city than Chuck Martino.

Cracking Open the School Books

Friday’s editorial applauds a new state law that requires schools to post their spending online.

Following an emerging and highly laudable trend, the Grand Strand has seen a number of its local governments begin regularly posting their spending records online for anyone to see: first Myrtle Beach, followed quickly by Surfside Beach, and most recently the city of Georgetown.

Soon, thanks to a litlte-noticed but likewise commendable new provision in state law, they will be joined by some of the area's largest governing bodies: local school boards.