Hilton Head Island leaders: ‘Protect and serve’ by sending the visitors home | Letters
Hilton Head strong!
I live in Hilton Head Plantation. I don’t know the mayor’s name or any council members. If I have it right, it seems the mayor and council would rather embrace tourism, and pat themselves on the back for Southern hospitality.
What I struggle with is this thought: Would the mayor and council treat a family member the way they are treating the Hilton Head Island population by putting unrealistic value on tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic?
I believe the question should be: Would you put your child or grandchild knowingly in harm’s way, resulting in possible loss of life?
Leaders protect and serve in the best interest of all – not by protecting and serving individuals who are not your family, friends and neighbors.
I think an old-fashioned paper letter delivered to the mayor with the words “Protect and serve. Do not open Hilton Head up for tourism” could be useful.
For or a moment, think about the bad press. If many tourists come and many die from selfishness, greed, and horrible leadership, our town will be forever marked. And it will never be the same.
The plan: Get a pen, paper, envelope and a stamp. Remember Mr. Smith when he went to Washington? For those who do not, take my suggestion: send an actual letter.
Simple message: “Protect and serve. Do not open Hilton Head Island to tourism.”
I love my quirky Southern town. Protect each other. Be kind. And stand Hilton Head Island strong.
Kathleen Kerch
Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head and Beaufort hospitals must inform public
Hilton Head Island and Beaufort hospitals should be releasing information regarding numbers of patients they are seeing with COVID-19.
With appropriate information available to the public, the town councils may have more success in gaining voluntary compliance to a local shelter-in-place order, regardless of whether the order can be enforced by the sheriff’s office.
The contention that we should assume the virus is here and therefore we don’t need daily information carries much less weight than real-time data. Infection rates vary across the country and new hotspots emerge with time. The only way to know if your area is “hot” is with real data.
People on Hilton Head have a very different perspective on the virus than those in New York already. Behavior is very much affected by the impact felt in one’s immediate environment. The only way for behavior to reflect the sense of urgency required is for infection-rate information to be publicly available.
This is being done across the country without betraying individual patient confidentiality.
James J. Gibbons
Hilton Head Island
Think before you react: I’m from New York and I belong on Hilton Head
I am a resident of New York State who also owns a second home on Hilton Head Island and have owned here for 29 years.
I pay taxes here and support the local economy and charities.
I am growing tired of the nasty looks and comments that I am getting from people who see my car with New York license plates.
Let me be clear that I have spent my winters here for many years and did not just run down here recently to escape the COVID-19 horror in New York. I arrived here well before the COVID-19 outbreak.
I also happen to live in Upstate New York, nowhere near New York City, Westchester, or New Rochelle. If you check your geography you’ll see that there is a huge area of New York State that is nowhere near the “hot spot” areas.
I realize that many people are reacting out of fear or just plain ignorance at this point and I hope this letter will serve to remind people that they shouldn’t jump to conclusions just because they see a car with a New York license plate.
Not everyone with a New York license plate just ran down to Hilton Head to infect y’all with coronavirus, so please remember your Southern manners and think before you react. Thank you.
Debbie Prentice
Hilton Head Island
23 NY, NJ tags in half a mile on Hilton Head
Dear Gov. McMaster,
On Monday I rode half a mile. I saw no less than 11 cars from New York and 12 cars from New Jersey. They were all larger SUVs holding at least five people each. All but two had full roof racks. I’m sure they came here to be kind enough to self-quarantine.
Gloria Fennessy
Hilton Head Island
Free Little Pantry open in church parking lot
While we are all sheltering in place and practicing social distancing, some of our local residents may be hungry and need a quick resource for food in this crisis.
To offer a small bit of assistance, Christ Lutheran Church, located at 829 William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head Island has installed a Little Free Pantry that is stocked with individual serving food items and selected personal hygiene items.
Our message is “Take What You Need, Leave What You Can.” Anyone can come to our church parking lot to find our pantry. Items are available at any time for anonymous pick up.
If you are reading this and know someone who could benefit from knowing about Christ Lutheran’s Little Free Pantry, please let them know. If you would like to donate items, please stop by to help us keep the Little Free Pantry stocked for our neighbors in need.
Blessings to the Lowcountry!
Stay safe and wash your hands.
Kathy Reynolds
Hilton Head Island
Give Uncle Sam’s check to those in greater need
In the near future, the United States government will be sending checks to those who qualify: for a single person, up to $1,200; married couples, up to $2,400; and those with children $500 for each one.
Some of us will need the money to take care of our families, but others will receive money that is really not needed but nice to receive.
If you are in the group that is not really in need, I challenge you to make charitable donations to Lowcountry charities that can help those who really need help. Charities like Deep Well, Bluffton Self Help, HELP of Beaufort or maybe your church, which can provide help for their members that need help.
Some of us work or worked for large companies that will match those contributions.
It’s time to think about those who need our help.
Dale Westover
Hilton Head Island
Needy Trump still putting himself first
It is outrageous that President Donald Trump wanted to “pack” the churches for Easter.
First, this would also have the effect of packing the morgues by the middle of May.
Second, when was the last time this lying, cheating adulterer saw the inside of a church? During one of his several marriages? He claimed to have lost hundreds of friends in 9/11, but didn’t attend a single funeral.
Now that Trump is officially no longer a New Yorker, he does not believe New York deserves the health care equipment needed. He has apparently given Florida, his new official place of residence, all of the equipment it requested. Coincidence?
I was not previously a big fan of Andrew Cuomo and would not be so in normal times. But these are not normal times and Andrew Cuomo has shown himself to be a real leader compared to the clearly incompetent Twitterer-in-Chief.
The nation needs a leader who can deliver needed, truthful information and encourage citizens to do the right things to weather the pandemic. Instead, we have the needy, narcissistic Trump who puts his own needs above everything.
I have a prediction, which I hope will not be realized: the self-proclaimed wartime president will try to declare martial law and cancel the November election he so richly deserves to lose.
Please excuse me while I go wash my hands ... of Trump.
Al Muench
Hilton Head Island
Can’t you see through Trump?
It is beyond my comprehension how seemingly intelligent people do not see around the facade that President Donald Trump presents.
Do they not read news magazines or papers, watch network and cable news (other than Fox)? Or do they not converse with their friends, families and the general public?
There is no such thing as “fake news.” It’s all news. Whether it is accepted or not is simply the mindset of the beholder.
One of Dr. Phil’s favorite quotes is “no matter how thin it is, a pancake has two sides.” It amazes me how many can listen to Trump’s rants, raves and insults, to or about professionals with flawless credentials, and see him dismiss the knowledge of learned people who he has appointed, then denigrate them with nasty nicknames and speak so negatively of them.
How they can be OK with his raunchy words and continuous boasts of his accomplishments, disparaging previous administrations, some of his own proclaimed party?
Who makes a declaration one day and reverses it the next? Who makes promises that he has no intention of keeping? What’s happening to the standards of our fellow Americans?
Merla Kelsey
Bluffton
Pandemic contemplations
COVID-19 contemplations:
If a wartime general ignored intelligence briefings for two months and then sent in troops without proper equipment, resulting in hundreds of thousands of injuries and thousands of deaths, would he be court-martialed?
If President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence actually believed the power of the “laying on of hands” by evangelicals, why do they follow social distancing? (Photo-op?)
If “true believers” know that their God has a plan for them and will protect them, why are they not gathering at church?
If our president “always thought it was a pandemic,” why did he wait two months to prepare for it?
If he had acted months earlier, how many American lives would have been saved?
Will the 1% who got extra millions from the 2019 tax cuts now donate it to the food banks for people without jobs, supporting the “trickle down” theory, or keep it?
Thomas Balliet
Bluffton
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