The Opinion Blog

We'll Stick With the Union

Thursday’s editorial weighs in on those silly secession petitions. Fairly surreal that this is even coming up:

Seriously? 150 years after the Civil War some people are still threatening to secede because they don’t like who the president is? It’s a good thing that Stephen Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is hitting theaters this Friday. A reminder of what it cost us the last time must be overdue.

If you haven’t already heard about this new effort via email or social media, let us fill you in. A number of online petitions sprang up after the election, asking the president to allow South Carolina to leave the union and form its own sovereign state. By Thursday, one petition had already gathered more than 20,000 signatures. And South Carolina is just a small part. The movement has already attracted similar petitions from all 50 states and more than 675,000 signatures.

Two Fights Against Tyranny



Saturday’s editorial takes a look at the pair joining the South Carolina Hall of Fame next week. Parts of it may look familiar to anybody reading the blog earlier this week. But this time, it comes with poetry.

On Monday, the South Carolina Hall of Fame housed at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center will induct two new members, civil rights pioneer Judge Ernest A. Finney Jr. and Declaration of Independence signer Thomas Lynch Sr.

Do they both deserve to be remembered? Certainly. But it says something profound – particularly during Black History Month – about our history as a state and how far we’ve come that one was an aristocratic slave-owning plantation owner and the other a tireless promoter of racial equality.

Build Away



Sunday’s editorial catches up with our local Muslim community as Ramadan approaches and on the heels of some divisive statements made in the presidential race:

GOP presidential contender Herman Cain made headlines recently with the vitriolic idea that communities have the right to keep mosques from being built in their towns. His worry, he said, was that Muslims are furtively trying to inject sharia law into the U.S. and many can’t be trusted. For the record, he’s wrong, and he’s admitted as such since.

Whether he truly accepted that his initial stance was way off base or whether he simply abjured in the face of strong condemnation, Cain apologized on Wednesday after a meeting with Muslims in Virginia, emerging “humble and contrite.” He further acknowledged in a statement issued afterward that Muslim Americans, “like all Americans,” have the right to freely practice their faith.

The problem gets harder

In Saturday’s editorial, we consider an interesting point U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has raised about immigration policy.

In any complex system, the point of comprehensive policy reform - rather than a piecemeal approach - is to acknowledge that flaws in one part are often borne of other flaws elsewhere.

Whether you agree with health-care reform or not, this was its basic idea. If you require everyone to have insurance (most have it anyway, and most who don’t have it do want it), then hospitals will have fewer patients who don’t pay them, and so the money the government saves on reimbursing hospitals for uncompensated care can then be redirected to help more people afford health insurance.

Immigration reform was intended to work the same way. Crack down on unscrupulous employers so illegal immigrants will have less incentive to come here, secure the borders so it’s harder do so, then offer hardworking, law-abiding illegal immigrants a path to citizenship to bring them into the system.

Partisans united

Saturday’s editorial:

“The First Amendment protects political speech; and disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.” - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.”

It’s a shame that the U.S. Senate was unable to pass a law this week ensuring that voters know who is behind the flurry of corporate spending on political ads that this fall is sure to bring. But it’s also unclear whether the legislation they were considering was the right law for the task. If members of both parties have to suffer through anonymous attack ads this fall as a result, perhaps they are getting what they deserved.

Graham’s Third Way

Thursday’s editorial commends U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for his continued to commitment to independent thinking.

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham cast two newsmaking votes that both drew heated criticism – from opposite camps.

Census Response Better

Wednesday’s editorial encourages readers to send in their census this week.

By now, folks who have been paying any attention realize something of the importance of participating in the nationwide census under way. They now also understand the truth about what Uncle Sam wants to know about residents – how many people reside at a given address, ages, gender and race – and perhaps were surprised to find no questions about income and other personal information.

Your attention, please

Friday’s editorial again urges voters to give the District 1 Congressional race their full attention. See the bottom of the post for a discussion of a new poll showing surprising standings in the race.

The Grand Strand’s position as a critical battlefield in the fight for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Henry Brown was further solidified by two significant endorsements this week.

VIDEO: Is the Democrats' agenda a bigger threat to America than Al-Qaeda?

For Lt. Col. Bill Connor, who's running for lieutenant governor, the answer is apparently "yes."

Shalom Aleichem

Friday’s editorial describes the delicate balance between church and state guarded by the U.S. Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

– The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“The place of religion in our society is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, the church and the inviolable citadel of the individual heart and mind. We have come to recognize through bitter experience that it is not within the power of government to invade that citadel, whether its purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard. In the relationship between man and religion, the State is firmly committed to a position of neutrality.”

– U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, 1963

Neither to promote nor prohibit the free expression of religion, to protect it while preventing its establishment: The Constitution mandates the government follow a very fine line with respect to religion. After a moment’s hesitation, it appears the Georgetown County School District has found the right balance.