Why not offer other services to South Carolinians while they wait in lines to vote?
On voting
I waited in line for more than two hours to vote earlier this week. And the time I spent was a very small price to pay for the privilege we are afforded in this country to choose our leaders.
However, why not make better use of people’s time while also performing valuable community services?
For example, a COVID-19 testing center could have easily been set up where the line snaked through the maintenance yard at my voting site — or perhaps a booth could have been put in place to administer flu shots.
Neil Falco, Bluffton
On the Daily Gamecock
Nothing in 2020 is normal. We wear masks, avoid crowds and wash our hands. People work from home and students learn with Zoom.
It’s not the way we usually do things but — news flash! — it is now.
So when the University of South Carolina’s Daily Gamecock newspaper staff recently announced a “blackout” week, many applauded the decision.
But others were insulted.
“Weaklings,” one person called the Daily Gamecock staff.
But we forget that we are living with a deadly virus, and that we are not living alone.
Whether or not a college newspaper should take a week off is not the issue; what is the issue is the reason why the staff chose to do so.
“At the beginning of the year,” the staff stated, “we made a promise to prioritize mental health not only in our coverage, but in our newsroom — in ourselves. This decision is a fulfillment of that commitment.”
COVID-19 is redefining what is “normal.”
Accept it.
And hold off judging those who in caring for themselves opt to consider the well-being of others as well.
Mary Anne Worrell, Florence
On Harrison
Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison wants you to believe that while growing up as a poor boy from Orangeburg, he developed the “character” to fight for all South Carolinians regardless of party affiliations.
Yet when news leaked that his campaign spokesman and political director posted anti-Semitic rants and lurid remarks about women, he tried to bury the story. When people posted critical comments to his Facebook news feed, he quickly silenced the dissenters.
While Harrison’s net worth totals $3.5 million, he’s championing student loan forgiveness instead of paying off his $100,000 law school loans.
Harrison calls for campaign finance reform to stop “dark money.” Yet he has no problem accepting it; out-of-state donations are responsible for most of his record-setting $90 million cash haul.
Harrison talks about “faith,” yet he has no problem accepting thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood.
Harrison wants to preserve our values, yet he has no problem following the radical agenda of ending cash bail for criminals and terminating Social Security numbers as a requirement for voter registration.
Harrison’s campaign website conveniently omitted his DC lobbyist career at the now-defunct Podesta Group, run by Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman.
For near a decade Harrison was a hired gun working to influence Washington politics on behalf of the “Who’s who” of corporate America and foreign governments — a perfect fit for a man craving money and power.
By calling Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi his mentors, Harrison isn’t who he claims to be. Vote wisely to keep South Carolina from turning into New York or California.
Xiaodan Li, Hilton Head Island
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 2:54 PM.