Hilton Head going to pot; why is only one person talking? | Letters
Hello ... Hilton Head Islanders? Why are we letting Skip Hoagland throw himself on the bonfire of the Town Council’s vanities alone?
Where is your outrage?
Does anyone doubt that there is something going on between the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and this disappointing council? Why does the council work so hard to keep everything secret regarding how the town’s funding of the chamber is spent? Stand up against this possible fraud!
Aren’t you interested in knowing how these funds are spent? Why don’t you care? Let the council know you’re fed up. Demand that the chamber provide an accounting. And if it doesn’t – cut off these funds until it does.
And while I’m airing my outrage, let me add that this council has changed the face of Hilton Head forever by allowing a four-story hotel to be built on the beachfront despite zoning laws, and spending way too much money on parks that no one uses. We don’t need to build parks for tourists. If we end this council’s spending spree, the island will turn into (shudder) Myrtle Beach South.
Please vote this useless council out of office. The mayor is a joke.
I’m leaving Hilton Head in a few months for personal reasons, but also because it’s not the peaceful and wonderful place I moved to 16-plus years ago. Too much traffic, lack of sheriff’s enforcement of traffic laws. Over-development.
Who is minding the store here? Not the council. Not the sheriff’s office.
I’ve had enough.
Suzy Stetson
Hilton Head Island
NOC addressing a larger issue for Beaufort County
The article about Neighborhood Outreach Community (NOC) failed to lift up several critical things:
1) That NOC never set up programs without the invitation of the homeowners association. By locating its program in neighborhoods, it allows children to get home safely and receive additional afternoon schooling while parents are typically still working.
2) That NOC has contributed to The Oaks and other communities where it has been located to become safer, more attractive and ultimately more valuable properties. At The Oaks, it organized residents in the building of a playground and a small soccer field. Check out the video at the NOC website on the work at The Oaks over the past 10 years.
3) That NOC has never operated without profound attention given for the safety of the children, and full compliance to the orders of fire marshals.
4) That NOC has been demonstrably successful in improving public school test scores for the at-risk students it serves.
5) That the larger issue is how we concretely and locally address critical needs in education, especially in helping at-risk children to succeed. When we succeed, it makes the classroom a better learning environment for all the students and helps the next generation to become more productive and creative members of society.
It diminishes all of us when we fail to invest in children and the future for the sake of other shorter-term investment gains. The Town Council and the mayor have a role to play, as do all of us.
Douglas Fletcher
Hilton Head Island
Open your eyes to Trump’s damage to America
Supporters of President Donald Trump increasingly baffle us.
The corrupt, inept president did what the Articles of Impeachment say he did. He used $391 million appropriated by the U.S. Congress as a bribe to try to get the Ukrainian president to announce an investigation into alleged corruption of Joe Biden. (He released the money only after exposure of the attempted extortion.) He then ordered disobedience of Congressional subpoenas.
If Trump were not president, he would have been indicted for behavior described in The Mueller Report. FBI agents identified more than 100 encounters between the Trump campaign and Russian representatives in 2016, calling Russia’s interference a “sweeping and systematic” scheme to defeat Hillary Clinton. Mueller described 10 moves by Trump to obstruct the FBI investigation.
The startling Netflix documentary “The Great Hack” shows how Russians used social media to propagandize for Trump and also tampered with election systems. The Trump administration and the Senate happily ignore the threat to future elections.
U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham’s vote for impeachment represents a denouncement of the most unpopular president in recent U.S. history. A moderate Democrat, he won his congressional seat in 2018 because of capability and integrity. He is not afraid of the GOP.
It is bewildering to see the president’s defenders blindfold themselves to the wrongdoing and the damage to our country. Despite their pretense, these serious issues are not going away.
Donald Trump will be in grave legal trouble after he is defeated (let’s hope) this coming November.
Fran and Bill Bollin
Buckingham Landing
Media has lost its credibility
I understand the behavior of the House of Representatives throughout the impeachment process because that’s the manner in which politicians act. I am somewhat confused, however, by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s need to tell the Senate how to manage its proceedings, and her insistence on a “fair trial.”
Unless I missed the email, the U.S. justice system ensures the “fairness” for the accused, not the prosecutors.
But the bigger issue, at least to me, has been the reporting and behavior of our media, and the pseudo-journalists that comprise it. They no longer seek the truth but rather work diligently toward preserving and perpetuating the narrative of their partners on the political left.
For a party that fostered all types of legislation against “hate,” the Democrats seem to have that sentiment coursing through their veins. Their hate for President Donald Trump is on full display 24/7, and you only need to tune into cable or network news or pick up a major newspaper to see it on full display.
The media’s adulation for the slain Iranian general/terrorist was nothing short of embarrassing. They called him “iconic,” a “great leader,” “loved by his troops,” etc. The man, by all accounts, was about as evil as it gets, and has been behind terror attacks for decades. I would not be surprised is he was Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
If the media gets this story so wrong, how wrong are they on other issues? The media has lost the only thing that matters … their credibility.
Kevin Baruth
Bluffton
Calling it ‘brink of war’ is irresponsible journalism
The Jan. 9 headline and related front-page article was worse than foolish. It was irresponsible.
Consider the premise adopted by the editors. Here’s how to start a war: send an unarmed rabble to throw rocks at the other country’s embassy. Here’s how to provoke a response: send a drone to kill two guys riding in a car in the other country.
And it took three “journalists” to figure this out. And the editors of this newspaper not only bought it, but published it.
The statement or inference that Iran would even consider the idea of going to war with the United States is the product of either political bias or ignorance, or both. The suggestion that we were on the brink of a “full scale war with Iran” is well short of what we should expect from our local daily newspaper.
Shameful.
Francis Newton
St. Helena Island
Business license fees: Revenue cut? Cut expenses
What is supremely ironic in the article about business license fees – and we see this all across the state and the nation, for that matter – is that instead of municipalities talking about how to curb costs – how to cut expenses, how to minimize the effect of government on the daily lives of citizens and small businesses – we are in the midst of tax and spend hypocrisy.
I certainly agree that “services must be paid for.” But as I have asked as a member of Beaufort County Council and during my campaign for Congress, are all bodies politic taking a close look at other means instead of burdening the small business person?
I appreciate those who are taking this seriously and are joining me in standing up for John and Jane America, the small business owner and saying, “No more.”
Michael E. Covert
Bluffton