Keep ebikes off Hilton Head pathways and the beaches | Letters
In February of this year, South Carolina bill H3174 was signed into law that permits the use of certain classes of electric powered bicycles (ebikes) on roads and paths intended exclusively for bicycles.
Regardless of individual opinions on the use of ebikes, state law is clear – South Carolina Code of Laws, Section 56-5-3410 includes the statement, “The provisions of this article are applicable to bicycles whenever a bicycle is operated upon any highway or upon any path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles ...”
We do not believe that our multi-use recreational paths, as defined by the Town of Hilton Head Island, nor our beaches, meet the criteria of “paths set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.”
However, the town government intends to apply the new ruling on ebikes to any area where human-powered bikes are allowed, while disregarding the narrower applicability of the law to roads and exclusive bike paths.
In addition, ebikes covered under the new law are capable of up to 20 mph, while some classes are capable of 50-plus mph. It is not possible to discern the different classes on casual observation and therefore, a practically unenforceable distinction.
This clearly presents a safety issue to others, particularly pedestrians and unpredictable young children.
If you value the safety and tranquility of our recreational pathways and beaches as we do, contact our assistant town manager, Josh Gruber; our mayor, John McCann; and your Town Council representative and let them know your opinion.
David and Julia Buzzard
Hilton Head Island
Leadership on policing issues must come from the local level, not the president
More and more I hear the word leadership being used by cable news commentators when talking about what is needed to deal with the current protest demonstrations that all too often turn into riots.
Frequently this call for leadership implies criticism of President Donald Trump for failing to lead. Seldom do we hear criticism by these commentators of officials at the state and local level. Rather it is much easier, and in some instances in furtherance of a political agenda, to again blame the president.
No president has enough social influence to eliminate discrimination in state and local law enforcement agencies.
On the other hand, elected state and local officials have the authority and responsibility to set high standards for hiring law enforcement personnel. Accepting that responsibility is called leadership.
Voters should remember this at election time.
Voters should also support a budget that provides money necessary to attract top-quality people to a career in law enforcement.
Warren Jungk
Bluffton
Biden’s health needs examining
Former Vice President Joe Biden has a longstanding proclivity to political gaffes, statements that later proved unwise or politically damaging.
Of late, however, his speech problems seem decidedly worse.
More importantly, they appear different with repeated difficulty in word-finding and workarounds, and in even completing a coherent thought or sentence. He seems to have expressive aphasia. Temper control may be a problem.
As a physician presented with such a patient, I would without delay recommend a complete neurological evaluation and appropriate brain-imaging studies.
Since he has had not one but two prior brain aneurysms in the speech area of the brain, and since new ones have been known to develop, vascular imaging studies might be advised.
Formal, comprehensive mental-status testing would be important. As a patient he deserves this and now.
As a country on the brink of an election, we deserve to know also. Better to have the facts now than endure the trauma of the 25th Amendment or worse.
Charles P. Duvall MD
Hilton Head Island
America’s lethal virus called racism
Each of us needs to focus on the multi-layer problem of racism: We white folks need to learn how 200-plus years of slavery and more than 100 years of Jim Crow has infected white Americans.
We have an epidemic of discriminatory practices in America. Discrimination toward African Americans places limits for advancement in corporations, in many educational settings, in our social/political lives.
It was vividly revealed by the horror of George Floyd dying under the knee of a white police officer while three policemen watched.
We white folks must open our eyes to the African American experience.
White American have a sickening obsession with race. The civil rights movement should have helped to end segregation and to allow African Americans equal access to opportunity. It hasn’t.
A contemporary view of the hazard to African Americans is the loss of hope and the absence of meaning. We must understand the frustration and anger in the African American middle class.
The civil rights movement was highlighted in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth lunch counter “sit-in” by four courageous North Carolina A&T State University students.
Many of the leaders half a century ago, and their children, continue with renewed vitality to fight racism today, which includes an unbiased look at our criminal justice system.
In summary, the 21st century is laced with the lethal virus called racism.
Charles L. Richman
Fripp Island
It’s not a ‘protest,’ it’s rioting, looting
I spent hours last Saturday evening and night, switching my TV back and forth between FOX and CNN.
CNN referred to it as a “protest,” FOX as a “riot.”
I’m not sure if CNN’s coverage could be described as “fake” reporting, but I do know it was very “selective” reporting.
Amid the arson, looting and fire bombing, the validity of CNN’s terms “protest,” or “demonstration,” is questionable ... yet CNN reporters continued to use those terms, while explaining how the actions of the rioters (looters) were justified because they were driven to it.
They (CNN) continually showed films of George Floyd’s death to prove what they consider justification. Their coverage of the fires and police presence was extensive, but coverage of the looting was minimal.
We’re long past the point where these actions can be attributed to protesting George Floyd’s death.
FOX, to its credit, treated them as the riots they actual were, but still made obvious their disdain for the police officer charged in Floyd’s death, whose actions provided the excuse for the rioters.
Rudy Giuliani’s constructive comments were the only highlights in a night filled with useless pleas for peace.
Donald Fredericks
Bluffton
Trump the so-called business ‘genius’ is more like business ‘trainee’
Much has been written about President Donald Trump’s failures during this pandemic crisis, including slow response, dumb ideas, unwarranted optimism, and inconsistent posturing. Little has been written about his failure to demonstrate that he has the slightest clue about running a business, in spite of his many, unrelenting, claims of being a “business genius.”
One example serves to demonstrate how his lack of fundamental business knowledge, coupled with his arrogant, bullying leadership style, has added tens or hundreds of billions to the cost of dealing with the pandemic.
Most businesses that have multiple locations utilize centralized procurement to buy common goods and services for all locations. They do it to get the best quality and price and, in times of short supply, to allocate among locations based on current need. That is an exact definition of the pandemic medical supply situation.
When the pandemic hit, it is likely that the only CEO in the country that didn’t see a need to use the federal government’s enormous purchasing power to procure and allocate desperately needed medical supplies happened to be the only person with the power to say “get it done!”
In the subsequent and unnecessary public and private buying frenzy, unbridled competition for short supplies caused prices to skyrocket.
Additionally, misallocation, hoarding, inconsistent quality, and every other misdeed of poor supply chain management added to the total cost and limited availability of those critical medical supplies.
Maybe “trainee” or “neophyte” are more precise terms for Trump’s skill level.
Richard Wallace
Hilton Head Island
Democrats actually do think for themselves, based on truth and reality
A recent letter titled “Dems united, but still failing” decried how no one, even the man or woman on the street, ever deviates from the Democratic agenda and talking points, and opines how it would be nice if we could return to a time when people made their own decisions instead of letting 24-hour news to do it for them.
How very insulting, and perhaps arrogant, to suggest that people – the man and woman on the street – are not thinking for themselves because so many agree with many, if not all, of the talking points and agenda that are contrary to the president’s position and the president himself.
Did it ever occur to the writer that people might agree with the talking points and agenda because, after careful and thoughtful consideration, they concluded those positions were based on truth and reality?
Lee Scher
St. Helena Island
HEROES Act needs this provision
The U.S. House included an important provision in the HEROES Act that would create immediate relief for families with loved ones behind bars.
The provision would restore the FCC’s authority to regulate all prison and jail calls, set interim rate caps, and give the FCC 18 months to regulate call rates.
Regular communication with their support systems allows people in prison or jail to plan for their release, which includes securing housing and employment, two of the most imminent needs for recently-released people.
The families are likely to spend the money saved on the calls in their communities which, in turn, boosts local economies.
I hope Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Tim Scott will take this into consideration and support this important relief provision.
Alice Schulte
Hilton Head Island
Stand up for what is right, America
On a recent morning as I was out walking, a neighbor stopped me and asked, “What has happened to patriotism in this country?” I brushed her question off not wishing to discuss the current situation in this country with her and continued on with my walk, putting her question out of my mind.
That night I was watching the news and took notice of the demonstrators outside the White House. They were all ages and colors peacefully protesting police brutality and the horrific death of George Floyd.
It then hit me that this is what true patriotism looks like.
Moments later, these same people were hit with chemical gas and rubber bullets in an effort to remove them so the president could have a “photo-op” in front of a church where he is neither a member nor even attends.
Patriotism is not planting a flag in your front yard. It is protesting when someone is killed by police brutality, speaking out when citizens are denied their right to vote, demanding that our elections be free of foreign influence, and crying out when our environmental laws are repealed allowing our air, water and land to be polluted, making our planet uninhabitable for future generations.
Please be a real patriot and stand up for what is right for America.
Pegi Newton
Bluffton
There was no need to shutter economy for coronavirus
If, and since, the means of controlling the contagion of the virus is the use of masks and social distancing, a tactical strategy which has not changed, it could have been effectuated right at the beginning and businesses could have been left to devise the work-shift and time periods necessary to accommodate their employees and continue business operations as effectively as possible.
This is what is going to be done anyway. The fact that pressure-politics were allowed to disrupt and, potentially, ruin the lives of so many people and businesses should weigh heavily on the minds of those who exercised them, not to be consoled by the knowledge that some lives may have been saved by the use of the same means, masks and social-distancing, which continue to allow interaction and transaction, minimizing risk.
The nation must learn to put partisan politics aside and recognize the commonality of unavoidable fundamentals in life.
Work makes life sweet, and also makes life free and affordable.
The notion that the country should be a concentration camp of enforced impoverishment and despair should be avoided as a strategy for dealing with pandemics, especially that of liberal, pandering governance.
Steve Dickler
Hilton Head Island
No excuse for Hilton Head gator ‘carnival’
The alligator recently removed from Legendary Golf should never have been euthanized.
Secondly, I was disgusted by the total lack of respect for such a magnificent creature that was demonstrated by young adults sitting on its back.
Lastly, I blame Critter Management for allowing the situation to deteriorate into a carnival atmosphere. They should’ve just showed up, done the job, and departed.
John M. Scanlan
Hilton Head Island
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