The Opinion Blog

Disappointment and Hope for Gullah

Thursday’s second editorial:

Bunny and Andrew Rodrigues

Speaking of local history, we were dismayed to learn that the Gullah O’oman shop and museum run by Vermelle “Bunny” Rodrigues’ and her husband Andrew had closed recently, after nearly 15 years of educating locals and visitors alike about the rich Gullah Geechee culture and heritage our area is steeped in.

The Rodrigueses have said they hope to reopen in a different location after losing their lease in Pawleys Island, and we certainly hope they do so. The couple’s stories, artifacts and passion for the Gullah Geechee culture have been a vital part of the effort to keep the area’s past alive, and it would be more than unfortunate to lose those links, especially just as the long-planned Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor ramps up its efforts to highlight the unique African-American sea island culture.

Honor the Flag by Honoring its Ideals

Thursday’s editorial makes the argument that firing a teacher for stomping on the American flag is the wrong way to honor that flag:

The nation’s flag rightfully occupies a treasured place in our hearts. It symbolizes liberty, freedom, democracy, opportunity, equality and every other patriotic ideal that stirs our souls. We salute it daily in our schools and sing to it before every professional ballgame. Brave men and women have died to protect the nation and the idea it represents.

But dear as the flag is to us, it is in the end only a bit of colored fabric. Should we punish a teacher for dramatically pointing out that fact? Absolutely not.

Preserving Gullah Saves Our History

Sunday’s first editorial discusses the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor and why it’s important:

“Our children must know that they came from richness. They didn’t come from trifling. We must teach that.”

– Saundra Ward, Atlantic Beach, S.C. – May 2009 public information meeting

The 272-page plan released Wednesday to preserve and celebrate Gullah Geechee culture in the South won’t send hordes of visitors flocking to our coast. It won’t bring in a gushing flood of federal money. The document likely won’t even be on the radar of most residents, visitors and even leaders. Nevertheless, it’s important. Why? It represents another concrete step toward preserving a slice of our region’s rich history that has been in danger of being forgotten.

Maintaining our ties to our past is an essential and worthwhile goal, and there are already numerous local efforts afoot, whether in the Horry County Museum soon to be open in a newly remodeled building, the North Myrtle Beach Historical Museum in the works or the Historic Myrtle Beach Colored School Museum. The effort to create a heritage corridor celebrating the Gullah Geechee culture from North Carolina to Florida is a worthy addition to those efforts.

The history this latest initiative seeks to preserve is part of the building blocks of our heritage just as much as the historic Robert Mills courthouses in Georgetown or Conway, the hand-carved organ from the Myrtle Beach Pavilion or the historic homes and businesses in Little River.

While the management plan released Wednesday does include some modest suggestions for future facilities throughout its four-state area, the majority of the strategy revolves around better marketing and coordination of the current sites, keeping new costs to taxpayers to a minimum. For most local residents, the biggest physical change you might see in the coming years is a new sign or two on U.S. 17 marking the corridor. As partnerships are formed and heritage sites are identified, those locations might also feature new signs, said corridor Chairman Ron Daise, and will benefit from the coordinated marketing and improved visibility that being part of a national park can provide.

Michael Allen, the National Park Service representative assigned to the heritage corridor, said local tourism promoters and leaders should see the corridor as an opportunity to highlight this unique culture that helped shape the fabric of our society and take the time to share its importance with others.

“Now that we recognize this is an important part of that fabric,” he said, “it’s important to direct folks to those sites.”

Brad Dean, CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, said that his group already promotes Gullah sites in its outreach to visitors. And the Strand is home to a number of places that keep the culture alive, including the Freewoods Farm, Brookgreen Gardens or Bunny Rodrigues’ Gullah O’oman museum in Pawleys Island, just to name a few.

In crafting the plan, which is open to public comment through Aug. 17, the corridor commission met multiple times with local residents both to hear their suggestions and to take down their memories. The goal, and it’s a good one, is to create a corridor that reflects this still vibrant culture through the voices and experiences of those who’ve lived it and builds on current efforts rather than supplant them.

“I want citizens in Horry and Georgetown to see themselves in this report,” Allen said, “… and to expect benefits from it.”

In the end, this is not about making money from tourism, or creating jobs, or building new business, although it could do a small bit of all of those things. It’s about keeping alive the memory of a unique part of our history, saving it for our children and for posterity, and remembering where we came from, so that we may know a bit better where we are headed.

 

 

Stars and Stripes Forever



Thursday’s first editorial celebrates our national banner, whose day is today:

Two-hundred and twenty-five years ago today, a group of men gathered at the Philadelphia State House to discuss strategy in the ongoing war against Great Britain and to lay the groundwork for a new nation. On that Saturday in 1777, the nation’s flag was officially adopted, in between a resolution about oversight of the continental navy in the Delaware River and a resolution removing Captain John Roach, “a person of doubtful character,” from his post.

Creed Above Common Sense?



Friday’s editorial takes the state to task for its bewildering stance on accepting federal education assistance:

After months of dogged statements from the governor’s office and state Education Department about unwanted federal intrusions and bailouts, Monday’s missed deadline to apply for teacher funding was little surprise.

Instead of paying to hire teachers in South Carolina, the $143 million that had been set aside for us will be split by 49 other states. Why? In large part because we didn’t bother to ask for the money. To be fair, we also did not meet the requirements because state funding of higher education dropped last year, but that hurdle was not insurmountable. Texas had similar trouble meeting requirements, but its congressional delegation found a solution that restored the state’s $830 million. South Carolina’s congressmen, on the other hand, did little to alleviate the situation. Sen. Jim DeMint stands opposed to what he terms federal bailouts, and Sen. Lindsey Graham’s spokesman said he “defers to the wishes of the state.” Those wishes of the state are the real issue.

1st District Among Nation's Oldest



As the state readies to redistrict itself, Wednesday’s column offers a brief history of the 1^st District that we may soon be leaving.

The 1st Congressional District of South Carolina is one of the nation’s oldest districts, electing one of the state’s first U.S. representatives more than 200 years ago. Historically centered in Charleston, the 1st District has included the Grand Strand, in fact all of Horry County, but that is likely to change when the General Assembly adds a seventh district based on the state’s population growth. A look at its history reveals a fascinating background:

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.

The B&C endorsement? [Updated]

I would have been remiss to write about endorsements in the Congressional race this morning without including this intriguing one from the Tim Scott campaign.

Utah Beach Valor

Tuesday’s editorial praises the citation of an 88-year-old Myrtle Beach man for his valor on D-Day.

The liberation of France from Nazi Germany began with Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day: June 6, 1944. Leonard A. Gardner, Brooklyn, N.Y., now of Myrtle Beach, was a young second lieutenant in a LCVP – landing craft vehicle personnel – as the massive invasion began and being honored for courage by France was not in his thoughts.

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.”