There are so few places like Bay Point left — so why are we trying to spoil it?

On Bay Point

Beaufort County is so blessed to have this island so much to itself — and to have an island that’s nearly untouched by man yet also so close to the modern world.

No matter how “green” any plan to develop a resort there may be, dwellings for people with all of the proposed amenities — a spa, dining facilities, septic fields, golf carts on gravel paths, etc. — will be the absolute end of the unsullied ecosystem that those same people will want to experience.

The world has so few of these places left.

Can’t we please preserve this one?

Isn’t making that stand the essence of who we are in Beaufort County?

Let the developers build their luxury retreat on less fragile land nearby, and let people experience Bay Point the way we do Pritchard’s Island now. Remember “Take only pictures and leave only footprints”?

The tide of more and more Beaufort County development is coming ever closer; the natural way of the world is disintegrating at every turn.

Do your part to push back.

Jay Weidner, Beaufort

On HPP

Owners in Hilton Head Plantation will soon be asked to vote on changing the name of the community.

If a change is approved, it can be rather simple and not expensive; however, a more fundamental change of chartering documents is expensive and not needed.

As a conservative on most things, I have resisted such a change.

Even now I would not be in favor of such a move just because of the current rioting in our cities, the organized groups asserting that only some lives matter, the comments unwisely invoking the name of George Floyd and the critically rampant systemic liberalism.

I would not cave to snowflake triggering either.

But the offenses felt are not trivial; they are deeply held.

The hurt is more of a subliminal ache somewhere deep in there — its presence and strength awakened by simply passing a sign.

Out of growing compassion I would be more sensitive to these affronts. Out of love and respect for my fellow man I will therefore vote to take down the word “Plantation.”

“Hilton Head Preserve” would be easy to market; it is similar without being offensive while also even keeping the “HHP” initials.

The time is ripe — and the request is reasonable.

A large number of HHP owners come from a lineage that fought and died to end slavery.

We, too, are big enough.

We can do this.

So let’s do the right thing and go forward in our more-beloved community.

Charles Duvall, Hilton Head Island

This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 4:45 PM.