The Opinion Blog

Without Great Choice for President, It's Obama

Sunday’s editorial offers the editorial board’s thoughts on the presidential election:

Few things about this presidential election have lent themselves to unambiguous, clear decisions, despite what the campaigns and their diehard supporters might like us to believe. Neither of the major candidates is a miraculous savior or unmitigated fiend. Both stand before U.S. voters with significant high and low points, and nobody has managed to leap to the fore as the obviously better choice.

For proof, you need look no further than the latest polling data. We give our fellow Americans credit for being fairly smart and invested in the future of this nation, and as such, if the decision on picking our next leader were an easy one, we wouldn’t be coming down to the wire with two candidates that are still neck and neck.

Welcome, Military Visitors



Thursday’s editorial continues the military theme as we walk up to Memorial Day:

Recovering injured combat veterans from Washington area military medical centers arrive today for a six-night visit including participation in several events wrapping up Military Appreciation Days and the Memorial Day weekend.

An estimated 57 visitors will be the largest number thus far on the visits arranged by Scents for Soldiers. “I’m pretty confident we’ll have a bus full – 57 [service veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan] – this time,” says Christina Shealy, founder of Scents for Soldiers. “The most we’ve done on the bus trips is 37.” This is the sixth bus trip, and Scents also has brought injured service people here in small groups.

Remember Pearl Harbor



Wednesday’s editorial reminds us of the sacrifice and heroism 70 years ago at Pearl Harbor:

Dick Girocco, 90, a volunteer at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is often asked by visitors what he remembers about the Japanese attack, 70 years ago today, that thrust the United States into World War II. His response: “The noise. What I remember is the noise.”

Not far from Hangar 79, where Girocco is a volunteer, he saw a bomb drop from an olive-green dive bomber on Dec. 7, 1941. He first thought the planes buzzing Naval Station Ford Island, where he was in a squadron of PBY Catalina flying boats, were U.S. Army planes. He is one of about 3,000 members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. Girocco is one of the survivors featured in the current issue of The American Legion Magazine.

Shake a Veteran's Hand Today



Friday’s editorial applauds our veterans and urges readers to remember them this Veterans Day:

Thousands of soldiers are coming home from Iraq this year, after nearly nine years of conflict and more than 36,000 U.S. casualties, including 4,400 fatalities. Many other brave service members, however, continue to serve in Afghanistan, not to mention the thousands of others based around the world, in South Korea, Japan, Turkey, on ships in the middle of the ocean and more places than we have room to mention here. Today we honor their heroics, their sacrifice and their devotion to the ideal that is our nation.

Molehill Building 101



Friday’s editorial takes to task the state’s outsize reaction to illegal immigration, seen in the bill signed this week by the governor.

Fly buzzing around your picnic this summer? Just pull out the nearest sledgehammer and give it a good whack or two.

That’s the type of measured response shown by the immigration law changes enacted by the legislature this year and signed by the governor on Monday. It’s not that we don’t have illegal immigration or need to address it, but the scope of the problem simply doesn’t justify a new $1.3 million immigration task force with custom uniforms and cars, or some of the other unsettling proposals and poorly thought out ideas in the act.

This Memorial Day, Don't Forget What it Cost



Today we offer a heartfelt show of thanks to our nation’s veterans:

Words fall short when attempting to describe the unknowable, unpayable debt owed to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. As we gather our families in fellowship and enjoy our barbecues this Memorial Day weekend, thousands of our country’s sons and daughters serve in far less hospitable locations around the world. Hundreds of thousands more have already given their lives in service of our nation, and the number continues to grow. Three or four times a week, the Defense Department releases the names of the latest casualties in our ongoing conflicts, solemn announcements of another heroic life laid down to protect ours.

A Debt of Gratitude



Thursday’s second editorial thanks our veterans for their service and urges readers to remember their sacrifices today:

 

Ninety-two years ago today, at 11 a.m., the bullets stopped flying in the worst war the world had seen. The treaty to end World War I was still seven months away, but the armistice to end hostilities went into effect Nov. 11, 1918.

Video: Five out of nine ain't bad

Both the Myrtle Beach Republican Women's Club luncheon and the Carolina Patriots forum on Tuesday were visited by the same five candidates for Congress: Mt. Pleasant town councilman Ken Glasson, attorney Larry Kobrovsky, businessman Mark Lutz, Myrtle Beach accountant Clark Parker and Charleston County Councilman Paul Thurmond.

The luncheon allowed the candidates extended, free-form introductions of themselves followed by a handful of questions, while the forum offered more targeted questions and answers. You'll find clips of both events below, with some limited thoughts I had while watching.

'You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard'

Friends: In response to Paladin's comment on WEEKEND OPEN FORUM about Leonard Pitts' accessibility, I dug out Pitts' marvelous response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, written from the gut. Enjoy (if that's the right word). dc

We'll go forward from this moment

By Leonard Pitts - The Miami Herald

It's my job to have something to say.

They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

Get going on Gitmo, President Obama

Ripped from the wires ... The Philadelphia Inquirer greets the Obama presidency with this editorial seeking the quick closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp:

With an executive order directing the shutdown of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, incoming President Barack Obama would signal that needed reform is coming to U.S. antiterror strategies.

While Obama celebrates his historic inauguration, his Guantanamo order could come as soon as this week.