Category Archives: Community

Do you see yourself as a CONSUMER, or a CITIZEN? That makes all the difference

Back on a previous post, we got off on a tangent about vouchers (and, by implication, tax credits and other devices for draining funding from public education). Bud said,

I’ve always thought it ironic that opponents of public education complain of “throwing money” at a problem, then turn around and advocate sending the money to private entities that will be completely unaccountable for it. Now THAT’s “throwing money” — up into the air, at random.
-Brad

I’m generally in support of Brad on this issue and usually don’t write about education issues. But this statement is pretty easy to refute. The accountability aspect of the vouchers is left to the parents who will pull their kids out if the schools don’t perform…

This prompted me to say, rather vehemently,

No, no, NO! Public education is not a consumer transaction between individual parents and the schools. Public education exists for the WHOLE community, and must be accountable to it. And that includes any money that is pulled out of the system and spent on something else.

I need to dig around and see if I can find the column I did several years ago explaining the difference between approaching public affairs as a consumer, and approaching the same from the perspective of a citizen…

Well, I’ve now laid hands on that column (which originally ran on Friday, March 4, 2005), and here’s the relevant part of it. Enjoy:

But the main way in which a tuition tax credit is worse than a voucher is that it promotes the insidiously false notion that taxes paid for public schools are some sort of user fee.

Whether you agree with me here depends upon your concept of your place in society: Do you see yourself as a consumer, or as a citizen?

If you look upon public schools narrowly as a consumer, and you send your kids to private schools or home-school them, then you might think, “Hey, why should I be paying money to this provider, when I’m buying the service from someone else?” If that’s your view, a tuition tax credit makes perfect sense to you. Why shouldn’t you get a refund?

But if you look at it as a citizen, it makes no sense at all. Public schools have never been about selling a commodity; they have always been about the greatest benefits and highest demands of citizenship.

A citizen understands that parents and their children are not the only “consumers” of public school services — not by a long shot. That individual children and families benefit from education is only one important part of the whole picture of what public schools do for society. The rest of us voters and taxpayers have a huge stake, too.

Public schools exist for the entire community — for people with kids in public schools and private schools, people whose kids are grown, people who’ve never had kids and those who never will. (Note that, by the logic of the tax credit advocates, those last three groups should get tax breaks, too. In fact, if only the one-third or so of households who have children in public schools at a given time paid taxes to support them, we wouldn’t be able to keep the schools open.)

Public schools exist to provide businesses with trained workers, and to attract industries that just won’t locate in a place without good public schools. They exist to give our property value. If you doubt the correlation between good public schools and property values, just ask a Realtor.

They exist to create an informed electorate — a critical ingredient to a successful representative democracy. (In fact, if I were inclined to argue that public schools have failed, I would point out just how many people we have walking around without a clear understanding of their responsibilities as citizens. But I don’t expect public education critics to use that one.)

Public schools exist to make sure we live in a decent society full of people able to live productive lives, instead of roaming the streets with no legitimate means of support. In terms of cost-effectiveness on this score, spending roughly $4,400 per pupil for public schools (the state’s actual share, not the inflated figure the bill’s advocates use, which includes local and federal funds) is quite a bargain set against the $13,000 it costs to keep one young person in prison. And South Carolina has the cheapest prisons in the nation.

Consider the taxes we pay to provide fire protection. It doesn’t matter if we never call the fire department personally. We still benefit (say, by having lower insurance rates) because the fire department exists. More importantly, our neighbors who do have an immediate need for the fire department — as many do each day — depend upon its being there, and being fully funded.

All of us have the obligation to pay the taxes that support public schools, just as we do for roads and law enforcement and the other more essential services that government provides. And remember, those of you who think of “government” as some wicked entity that has nothing to do with you: Government provides only those things that we, acting through our elected representatives, decide it should provide. You might disagree with some of those decisions, but you know, you’re not always going to be in the majority in a democracy.

If, as a consumer, you wish to pay for an alternative form of education for your child, you are free to do that. But that decision does not relieve you of the responsibility as a citizen to support the basic infrastructure of the society in which you live.

Radical libertarians — people who see themselves primarily as consumers, who want to know exactly what they are personally, directly receiving for each dollar that leaves their hands — don’t understand the role of government in society because they simply don’t understand how human beings are interconnected. I’m not just saying that we should be interconnected; I’m saying that we are, whether we like it or not. And if we want society to work so that we have a decent place in which to dwell, we have to adopt policies that recognize that stark fact.

That’s why we have public schools. And that’s why we all are obliged to support them.

Happy 225th Birthday, Columbia!

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Some events just lend themselves to a picture gallery, as I did with St. Paddy’s Day. Here’s what I saw at noon today, at the 1300 block of Main, as Columbia celebrated its 225th birthday.

And here are the descriptions — captions, cutlines, whatever — that Kathryn is clamoring for:

The cake — courtesy of Piggly Wiggly, I think the mayor said.
Invited to sign the big card, I wrote, “Hail the Great Compromise!” Which is why Columbia is here. No, that’s not what my handwriting usually looks like. The best space left was practically on the ground, and I was almost standing on my head writing it. Awkward. You’ll notice the penmanship around it isn’t so hot, either.
Kids from the school at my church, St. Peter’s Catholic. They led us in “Happy Birthday.”
Hanging out before the ceremony — Hizzoner the mayor, Sen. Darrell Jackson and Rep. James Smith.
You just can’t get those YPs to put the device down and pay attention. This is Sam Johnson, who works for the mayor.
It was very sunny, very warm — I could really feel it where I got sunburned Saturday. Good turnout. Look! There in the crowd is Jeffrey Day, formerly of The State. And… a bunch of other people.
WIS was double-teaming it.
Boyd Summers, of the Richland County Democratic Party, and Jim Manning, of the county council.
Adam Beam of The State was watching very intently (here’s his account of the founding of the city). That’s Mike Wukela of the mayor’s office next to him.

St. Patrick’s Day in Five Points

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Whoa, I am a redneck now — except for that stripe where the green beads were. The stripe is green. Who’da thunk that beads handed out for free on the street would be of such low quality? Anyway, a good time was had. Here’s your guide to the pics:

The mayor and council members led it off.
Joe Wilson hollered at me that we need to have one of these over in West Columbia.
The Twins practice their beauty-queen waves in their very first parade, along with the Greater Columbia Area Mothers of Twins Club.
Our own Kathryn Fenner with her Weimeraner and friend. As she was posing, I’m saying “Watch out for the Joker in the Jeep!”
The guy on the left gets the prize for most leprechaun-like, far as I’m concerned. But a bit tall.
Jack Van Loan, the godfather of it all, at his headquarters table at the Gourmet Shop. Things were going great, but Jack was worrying himself half to death. He’d been there since 3 a.m., would be there until 9, he said.
Enjoyed introducing J to Debbie McDaniel, of Revente and Sid & Nancy fame.
James D. McCallister (in the straw cowboy hat) was doing a booming business out in front of Loose Lucy’s. J, who had worn a WAY-too-hot sweater, bought one of his T-shirts to wear instead (that’s it in the picture with Debbie; note the Grateful Dead motif). I hadn’t seen Don on the blog lately, told him he should come back to visit with us.
That’s Frank Fusco, the retired former head of the Budget and Control Board, playing his ax with Main Street Connection. His successor may be enjoying writing letters to the editor, but I think Frank’s having more fun.
The only green I had showing (aside from the cheap beads) was the small letters saying “St. Pat’s in Five Points” on the black T-shirt I bought at the legendary 2007 fest. But I did have on my special boxers. I didn’t realize they were showing, though, until I started getting compliments. So I pulled them up a bit higher…
The crowd approaching its peak.
Had to get my picture with State House reporter John O’Connor, because who was I going to get next to who sounded more Irish than that?

It just occurred to me that while I mentioned several other friends’ businesses, there are no pictures from the premises of my loyal advertiser Yesterday’s, even though THAT’S where I spent the most time during the event. That was my HQ, as usual. I just didn’t take many pictures there…

Filling young minds with wisdom (lots and lots and lots of it…)

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Busy day — speaking this morning, speaking tonight. Yakkety-yak. In fact, if you’re the last-minute type, you might want to attend the Politics and Media Conference at The Riley Institute at Furman tonight. I’m on a panel with some media types, followed by another panel with Bob Inglis and Vincent Sheheen. In fact, I’d better run if I’m going to get up there (no Virtual Front Page today, I’m afraid). They’ll feed me if I get there in time. But before I go, about this morning’s appearance…

Kelly Payne, the former state superintendent of education candidate who teaches a “Current Issues” class at Dutch Fork High School, is one of those… intense kinds of teachers you may remember from your own schooldays. A teacher with certain expectations. I remember them, because slackers like me tended to run afoul of them sometimes.

Anyway, Kelly asked me to come out today for a second time to speak to her class, so I guess it went OK the first time. I wanted to go straight to questions and answers, knowing the kids would have questions (I prefer that as a speaker; I don’t have to think as hard), but she asked me to talk for a few minutes first about “SC Politics,” so I started speaking nonstop about why we’re so different, why people say “there’s the South, there’s the Deep South, and there’s South Carolina,” starting with Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper and John Locke and the colonial period an The War and what followed, generally explaining to them in FAR more detail than they want to know why we have some of the problems we have, and why we are SO resistant to changing that fact, and…

… once they were good and glassy-eyed, I asked them to throw their questions at me. Because I knew they had some. In most high school classes I’ve spoken to (admittedly, I don’t do it often; I generally shy away from anything earlier than post-grad, because there’s only so much of that bored-kids look you can take), you can wait awhile for a question.

But not Kelly Payne’s class — because of what I said about intensity, and expectations and such.

I knew there were questions because they were printed out on the lectern in front of me, pages of them, with kids’ names attached. They were to ask them in order. So we got started. Unfortunately, the 90-minute class was over before we could get to all of them. In fact, we only got to the first eight. I like to give thorough answers. Anyway, here are ALL the questions, since they bothered to compile them:

Hailey

1. Explain the difficulties you’ve experienced in transitioning from being a full-time journalist to your current activities.

Horace

2. Since you were last here the media hasn’t made much progress in gaining the public trust. What will it take for it to improve at doing so?

Venisha

3. When you were an editor at the paper, did you have other editors to check your grammar and spelling to keep you from making mistakes?

Hannah Jane

4. How significant a factor are your feelings about a topic when you write a story? If you’re really angry or really happy about a topic do those emotions impair your objectivity?

Jaquarius

5. How can social media be an effective tool in reporting? What social media platforms do you use (e.g., texting, Twitter, Facebook) to deliver news content?

Ruby

6. What do you miss most about your old job at the paper?

Eric

7. Do blogs really move public opinion or do they just provide “some fun” for people in the Echo Chamber to take anonymous shots? Is there any way to assure a little more fairness in blogs?

Taylor

8. What do you think about requiring public officials who hire bloggers to shill for them to disclose those relationships in order to improve transparency and increase public trust?

Katherine

9. If elected officials make blog comments hiding behind assumed names, wouldn’t the publics’ interest in transparency and its desire for more civil conversation be better met by calling on those public officials to “man-up,” take ownership of their comments, and stop hiding behind assumed names?

Kelsi

10. How do you rationalize disagreements between your religious convictions and

your political beliefs? (i.e., gay rights)

Marshall

11. What should the response of the United States be to Gadahfi’s suppression of his own people?

Taylor

12. You’ve criticized the Governor for her appointment on the USC Board of Trustees. Please explain why you don’t believe that election outcomes matter.

Katherine

13. You seem very focused on the need for the Governor and her team to guard against “gender politics” yet your profession admonishes society on the need to be “gender sensitive.” Please explain this dichotomy.

Kelsi

14. Eleanor Kitzman recently spoke to our class and we loved her. Why do you criticize her for defending the Governor’s honor and performance given the Governor selected her for that position?

Lexie

15. Why do you think being loyal to the Governor makes Eleanor Kitzman disloyal to the other four Budget & Control Board members?

Shaun

16. The Governor has talked about more transparency with legislative votes and the Treasurer has talked about “calendar transparency.” Which of these ideas do you think is the most sophomoric?

Christian

17. Given that Senator Sheheen and the Governor are about the same age, why is he more appealing to young people?

Kenneth

18. What do you think should be done to keep deep pockets from having an excessive influence on election outcomes? (i.e., Bloomberg, Schumer, candidates supported by Howard Rich, etc.)

Christie

19. How soon do you think it will be before we see meaningful restructuring in state government?

Ben

20. Which of our Constitutional Officers would it make more sense to appoint? Explain your reasons.

Hailey

21. What’s your opinion of eliminating the Budget & Control Board and replacing it with a Department of Administration reporting to the Governor?

Andrew

22. Give the best reason to support and the best reason to oppose the Voter ID Bill?

Kenneth

23. Please explain the post you recently wrote on daylight savings time.

Evan

24. What is the legacy you hope to leave?

25. What do you think about paying teachers based on classroom outcomes?

26. Why are the two major political parties so segregated along racial lines?

27. How can South Carolina Republicans be so diverse as to have elected two Republican Senators that are so different in their ideology? (Lindsey Graham, Jim DeMint….earmarks)

28. I’m optimistic about the next generation of public servants — my fellow classmates and me– who will soon by making decisions that impact our daily lives. What advice can you give us as we move in this direction?

Frankly, with that many questions, I could have talked for a month. But it was great. Been pressed for time, I was really antsy this morning about all I had to do, and ran late and got lost (turns out that Kelly Payne doesn’t teach at Dutch Fork Middle School, which I went to first — they have a nice office — even though I’d been to the right place previously), and I was rattled.

But driving away, I felt nice and relaxed. Ninety minutes of high-speed, non-stop, stream-of-consciousness talking does that for me. It probably doesn’t do all that much for the people listening (so it’s nice when they HAVE to sit there and listen, or get a flunking grade), but I find it… calming. Probably why Freud was such a hit back in the day.

If I don’t hit the road, they won’t feed me in Greenville. As Vincent Sheheen’s Uncle Bob always used to say to bring interviews to a sudden stop: Gottagobye.

And yes, that IS a picture of me, speaking to the class last year, in the upper left-hand corner. Kelly's like that. Very thorough.

I know where the governor got the idea for THAT

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Meant to say something about this Tweet a couple of days ago, but forgot until now:

@palmettofamilyPalmetto Family
Gov. Haley’s SC Prayer Breakfast text: Jeremiah 29:11. #fb

Betcha I know where the gov got the idea for that!

That happens to be a favorite passage of her friend and mine, Nathan Ballentine.

If you’ll recall, the prophet Nathan brought that verse to my attention back when I first got laid off two years ago (has it been that long?):

Anyway, my point is to share what Nathan sent me. He e-mailed me to say I should consult Jeremiah 29:11. Which I did:

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.

Just the right words, the ones I needed to hear. In this context I also love to read Matthew 7:7-11. (Look it up.) But I already knew that one. Nathan pointed me to a source of inspiration I had missed, and for that I am very grateful. I bookmarked it on my Blackberry, and take heart from it each day.

I also very much appreciate the verses that precede it, which I recently cited in my “Stand in the place where you live” post (1/17/11):

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses to dwell in; plant gardens, and eat their fruits. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters. There you must increase in number, not decrease. Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the LORD, for upon its welfare depends your own.

I’m sorry I missed the prayer breakfast. I would have liked to have heard that.

Check out hunterherring.com

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Hey, folks, go check out the latest addition to my “links” rail at right, hunterherring.com. It’s not only your portal for engaging the DJ services of Hunter Herring Mobile Music, but it’s a great site to listen to while you’re blogging, or doing whatever else you do sitting in front of this screen. (You might have to download RealPlayer, as I did, to hear it, although it might work for you on another application. The sound is great.)

Boomers will find it particularly gratifying. At the moment, he’s playing LaVern Baker’s Tweedle Dee from 1955. Younger folks might tend to dismiss it as “Dance Music for Old People” — but you know, when Nick Hornby coined that phrase, he meant it in a good way. Just turn it on and pay attention, kids; you might learn something.

By way of full disclosure, Hunter is family. His daughter is married to my elder son, and we share a granddaughter. (He is her favorite grandfather — he’s her caretaker during part of the week, splitting the duty with my wife, and she just thinks he’s way cooler.) And his wife, Ginny, works with me at ADCO.

If you’ve ever listened to radio in Columbia, of course, you don’t need me to tell you who Hunter Herring is. From his site:

Hunter is a longtime Columbia/Charlotte radio personality who has spent his 40 year career at great radio stations like WCOS, WNOK, WZLD, WEZC, WMIX, WWMG, and WOMG.

His career in broadcasting has given him experience in music formats ranging from beach to boogie, rock to disco, and top 40 to country, all of which are available for your party.

Let Hunter help you plan the music for your party to ensure a perfect mix for your event.

So give it a listen. (Right now, it’s Chuck Jackson, with “Beg Me.”… No, wait, now it’s Wilson Pickett with “I’m in Love”…) And if you want to listen the old-fashioned way, he’ll be on Magic 98.5 this afternoon at 3, after Shakin’ Dave Aiken.

Oh, wait — now it’s Mary Wells with “The One Who Really Loves You”…

Harvest Hope off to a good start, with a long way to go

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Just an update on Harvest Hope Food Bank’s urgent appeal for operating funds, which I told you about back here.

Since that Tuesday press conference, which ADCO was honored to help with, the media reaction has been gratifying. All four local commercial TV stations showed up and reported — some of them doing followups. As for print — Harvest Hope’s appeal got the lede position on the front page of The State Wednesday, and on Thursday The Greenville News (Harvest Hope also has a significant presence in Greenville) played the story as its front-page centerpiece.

There will be follow-up coverage. But going forward, the ball is in the court of potential donors — some of whom have responded already to the initial repeal to double-match the generous $150,000 match pledge from Mungo Homes.

As of today, the cash raised since Tuesday was $37,477. And I was gratified to hear from Harvest Hope staffer Bryan Rurey that:

We also had an online gift that directly referenced Brad’s Blog!

Cool. Now which one a you crazy lugs did that? Whoever it was, good on you.

Now 37 grand is a great start, but just a start toward the $2 million that’s needed by June. In fact, it’s just a start toward double-matching the Mungo grant. So tell everyone you know, we need this thing to start snowballing.

To recap the salient points:

Each year since the economic crisis began, the need has been greater than the year before. Harvest Hope is now feeding 91 percent more families than it did in 2008.

Fixed costs, aside from food and capital needs, have risen dramatically. It now costs $3,100 a DAY to fuel the vehicles that distribute the food, and that’s only going to go up.

As the need and costs have risen, cash donation have dropped over the last few months. Some regular donors, people who used to give monthly, have even told Harvest Hope that they are just a step away from having to avail themselves of the charity’s services.

For the first time ever, the “giving season” donations that tend to flow in from September to December were not enough to pay off the line of credit that carries HH through the lean spring and summer. Always in the past, that operating debt was paid off by Jan. 1. At the start of this year, the organization was a million dollars in the hole — this despite operational expense cutbacks.

All of that adds up to an urgent need for $2 million to fill that hole, and to cover the expected increase in operating expenses for the next few months.

This is not just Harvest Hope’s problem; it’s a significant challenge to the 22 counties it serves. Because other entities that feed the hungry in those communities — churches, secular nonprofits, what have you, 450 member agencies in all — depend on Harvest Hope to supply the food. This, folks, is South Carolina’s version of an organization that is “too big to fail.”

Finally, I’ll reiterate the political angle. We hear a lot of talk from the dominant political faction in South Carolina about relying on government less and the private sector more when it comes to providing a safety net for the “deserving poor.” Well, folks, in this part of South Carolina, Harvest Hope IS the private sector’s means of feeding the hungry.

Oh, and at Harvest Hope you don’t find the “culture of dependency” problem that certain politicians like to go on about. Typically, if Harvest Hope is able to take care of a family’s emergency food needs for three months running, it gets them through the crisis so they can get back on their feet. And only 1 percent of clients are on TANF (what remains of “welfare as we knew it”) benefits.

So what are you waiting for? Time to step up, and give. Here’s how:

Visit the donor page at www.harvesthope.org.
If you have received a mailing from Harvest Hope, please use the convenient reply envelope that came with it.
Send a check to Harvest Hope, 2220 Shop Road, Columbia, SC 29201.

Harvest Hope needs our help, so it can help others

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Director Denise Holland and Harvest Hope board members issue an urgent appeal for funds at a Tuesday press conference.

Running behind today, still catching up on stuff I wanted to write about yesterday…

Such as Harvest Hope Food Bank‘s urgent appeal for operating funds. You may have read about it already in The State today. It was hard to miss, since it was the lede story. That was gratifying not only because Harvest Hope, and the people it serves, need the communities in its 20 counties to know about the situation, but because ADCO was helping the agency get the word out. (When I saw that was the lede this morning, I thought, “Idiot! Why didn’t you put that on your Virtual Front Page yesterday? The reason — I was so close to it, it didn’t even occur to me.)

The situation is this: Harvest Hope needs our help, as it never has before in its 30-year history.

HH is the food safety net for 20 counties in South Carolina – the Midlands, Florence and Greenville. It is a regional food distribution organization that collects, stores, and distributes food and related items. Its 450 member agencies that feed the hungry in these communities – churches, private charities, others – depend on Harvest Hope to provide the food.

The increase in need recently has been startling. In the last six months, the number of families HH has fed has increased by 42 percent over the same period a year earlier. Harvest Hope served 91 percent more families in 2010 than it did in 2008. Another way to put it is that the private nonprofit served 2,037,496 individuals throughout the service area in 2010.

With double-digit unemployment in our state, HH sees no sign of this need abating soon.

While the need has increased, so have unavoidable expenses: Just fueling the fleet of vehicles that deliver food throughout the 20 counties costs $3,100 a day. With unrest sweeping the Mideast, fuel prices are expected to rise, not drop, for the foreseeable future. Harvest Hope has food in our warehouse, but if they can’t deliver it, it does no one any good.

Yet in this time of increasing need and expenses, over the last four months, donations to Harvest Hope have dropped.

Here is how Harvest Hope’s funding cycle typically works: Most of its cash donations come in during the last four months of the year. It gets through each spring and summer by tapping a $400,000 line of credit. HH pays off that line of credit with the money that comes in from September-December. Each year in the past, HH has paid off the line of credit by January 1.

This year, because of the drop-off in financial donations, HH has been unable to pay off the line of credit.

HH has cut most of the expense items it believes it can cut while still serving the needs of the hungry. It has cut back on mailings, switching to e-mail; reduced casual labor to help sort food, bringing in more volunteers for additional shifts on nights and weekends; tried to get food more from within the region to avoid shipping costs; eliminated travel to conferences and staff training; reduced the use of operational supplies. Next, if necessary, would be staff reductions.

Why has giving dropped off? Because regular donors, friends and neighbors who have been so generous in the past, are also hurting in this economic crisis. Some who have given regularly have told Denise Holland and HH staff that they are themselves just a step away from needing Harvest Hope’s help in order to eat.

Harvest Hope needs $2 million between now and the end of June, and as much of it as possible as soon as possible. This number arises from a combination of factors, including the accelerating increase in need, the rise in unavoidable expenses, and the drop-off in cash contributions. In asking for this money, HH is not only trying to pay off the line of credit, but also anticipating a continued greater monthly operating expense going forward. Another way to put it: HH is about a million in the hole now, and extrapolating forward, sees itself going in deeper and deeper if it keeps meeting the need — which it fully intends to do.

Some have already stepped up nobly to help meet this need. Mungo Homes has offered to donate $150,000 if it is matched by twice as much from the community. This is in keeping with a long tradition in the Mungo family of providing material support to Harvest Hope.

But even when that match challenge has been met, HH will need much more, and is hoping other major donors will follow the Mungos’ example and offer similar challenges.

Donations to Harvest Hope are of course tax-deductible, and 98 cents out of every dollar it receives goes directly to feeding hungry families in our area.

By the way — Harvest Hope does not foster a culture of dependency. Typically, if it is able to feed a family for three months in succession, it gets them through their crisis so that they are able to be self-sufficient going forward. During those three months, Harvest Hope frees them from worrying about food so that they can concentrate on the other things they need to do to get themselves out of financial difficulty.

Over the last three years more than 484,000 individuals came to HH for help through its two full-time emergency food pantries, and of those, 86,000 came for the first time. The top reasons? Unemployment, underemployment, and the high costs of shelter.

Less than 1 percent of our clients receive TANF (commonly called “welfare”) payments.

When this economic crisis first hit the nation in 2008, we heard a lot about financial institutions that were “too big to fail.” For the communities it serves, Harvest Hope is the institution that is too big to fail. The hungry of these communities, and the various agencies that feed them, depend on Harvest Hope too much.

And Harvest Hope is not failing. It is not going away. It is getting the job done, despite the challenges before it. But for the first time, it has gone into a financial hole doing so, and needs our help to get out of it, and continue the mission.

Here’s how to give:

• Visit the donor page at the website: www.harvesthope.org.

• If you have received a mailing from Harvest Hope, please use the reply envelope that came with it.

• Send a check to Harvest Hope, 2220 Shop Road, Columbia, SC 29201.

OK, THAT SORT OF ENDS THE OFFICIAL MESSAGE. The above is an adaptation of the talking points that I helped Denise put together before Tuesday’s news conference. In fact, I changed so little of it that I may have missed a couple of places where it says “we,” though I meant to change it to “it” or “they” or “Harvest Hope.” Forgive me; I’m running behind and am in a hurry.

Now, allow me to add an editorial comment of my own:

We hear a lot from folks who subscribe to the ideology that keeps winning elections in our state that they don’t want government taking care of the needy, that they think private charities should take up the slack.

Well.

THIS is how private charities feed the hungry — the “deserving hungry,” for those of you who make such distinctions — in this area. You may see a church or other agency feeding people, but like as not, that entity got the food from Harvest Hope. That’s sort of what I meant about the “too big to fail” thing. This IS the private sector’s response to the existence of hunger in our communities.

So let’s step up.

Get ready to read a book, y’all — One Book

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Belinda Gergel called me — and 150 or so other people — a week or two ago and asked me to be part of the effort to get Columbia to read a book together.

She called me because I’d been there before. Way back at the end of the last century, I read something about the Seattle librarian who came up with this idea to get everybody in the city to read a book together. The idea caught on, and other cities started doing thesame. I asked why not Columbia as well (or did I ask why not South Carolina? I forget, and can’t find my columns about it)? The idea appealed to my communitarianism. I’m all about reading, and books, and ideas, and when I’m reading a book I like to talk about it, and I could think of few things cooler than reading a really good book, and wanting to talk about it, and then having the satisfaction of everybody else I ran into having read it, too. Y’all are familiar with my frustration that it’s hard to find anyone other than Mike Fitts who is as into the Aubrey/Maturin universe as I am — Tolkien fanatics have their support groups, but what about those of us who want to read O’Brian over and over? Confession here — I’m now progressing (if one can call such “Groundhog Day” repetition progress) through my fifth reading of Desolation Island. Anyone want to talk about the charms of Mrs. Wogan, or the horror of seeing the Waakzaamheid go down with all hands in the Roaring Forties? Anyone? Anyone? That’s what I thought.

But I digress, as usual.

Claudia Brinson and I, with the help of some nice folks over at the SC Arts Commission, then launched an effort to get everyone to read Fahrenheit 451. My choice, of course. And it was moderately successful — I spoke to some book clubs that joined in the effort. Then we were going to do it again, but we couldn’t agree on a book (the committee wanted to go in one direction, I wanted to go in another), and it just sort of petered out.

But now Belinda, and the Richland County Public Library, are launching the effort on a grander scale. The above picture is from a reception at the library Thursday night, where Belinda addressed the core group she had assembled so she could send us out as book missionaries. We got buttons to wear and everything (I still have a bag full of buttons with the numbers “451” in flames, which I ran across when I was cleaning out my office at The State.) The reception was nice, although I didn’t see any beer. Just wine. Belinda urged us to enjoy ourselves but to be in by 2 a.m. That got a good laugh, as everyone imagined this bookish crowd running riot in the streets into the wee hours.

Here’s some info Belinda sent out after the reception:

What is One Book, One Columbia?

The City of Columbia and Richland County Public Library (RCPL) have joined forces to launch their first citywide reading adventure, One Book, One Columbia, and all residents of Columbia and Richland County are invited to read the book between April 1 and May 15 then share their experiences with friends and neighbors. Numerous discussions and programs centered around the book will take place during the reading period.

What book has been selected?

The first selection for this annual occurrence is Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by AmyHill Hearth, Elizabeth Delany and Sarah Delany. This best-selling book tells the story of two remarkable sisters, career trailblazers, who charted their own path in the world, guided by the strength they gained from faith and family. The incredible stories of “Queen Bess” and “Sweet Sadie,” as they were known to their family, were captured by one-time Columbia resident and author Amy Hill Hearth. Upon its publication in 1993, The New York Times said of Having Our Say: “The Delany sisters were taught to participate in history, not just witness it, and they have the wit to shape their history with style… they make each memory vivid…they are literature’s living kin.”

How can I participate?

Read the book

The book is available at RCPL locations, or is available for purchase at Barnes and Noble and other retailers.

Talk to your family, friends, and neighbors about the book

Get your friends and family in on the act! An important aspect of the One Book experience is talking about what you read with others. Be on the lookout for residents wearing a One Book, One Columbia button around town – these Reading Advocates will definitely be ready to talk Having Our Say!

Participate in a One Book, One Columbia book club or event

RCPL will have special One Book, One Columbia book club meetings and events throughout April and early May at their branches. Other community organizations are getting creative with their plans: discussions, art, historic tours, and activities for kids are just a few of the ways the community has embraced the One Book, One Columbia effort. Visit www.myrcpl.com/onebook for full details.

Get connected

Visit the One Book, One Columbia page on Facebook and “like” to get all of the latest news.

I invite all of y’all to get involved, especially if you’re in a book club or something.

Now, before you say, “But that book doesn’t interest me,” allow me to be brutally honest, or perversely contrarian, or whatever: I wouldn’t have picked this book, either. It’s the kind that most modern book-clubby people would pick. It’s definitely the kind Belinda would pick — hey, it’s the kind of book Belinda would write. But it’s not exactly the first thing I’d grab off the shelf.

How should I put this? There’s a cultural divide here, perhaps effectively symbolized by the fact that there was wine at the reception, but no beer. I’m not saying that to be critical, far from it. I’m just… well, I’ll get to my point in a minute. I’m just saying, different strokes and all that.

This is related to the trouble we had coming up with a second book back when I tried to start a movement like this. I wanted to read another book like the Bradbury one. I wanted something else from the modern canon, the kinds of books that were required reading when I was in high school: 1984, The Sun Also Rises, Brave New World, Crime and Punishment if we wanted to get heavy, Catch-22, Steppenwolf, Stranger in a Strange Land, or if we wanted to be more modern, High Fidelity. I definitely would have been up for Huck Finn. The rest of the committee wanted … something by a contemporary author, someone one could invite to come speak and participate, preferably Southern, probably a woman. Hey, I was willing to read a book by a woman — but the committee rejected To Kill a Mockingbird, probably because they thought it too obvious or trite or whatever.

Thing is, there aren’t many books by living authors that interest me enough to want to read them with a group and discuss them. And I’ve also got this thing of wanting to read books I like over and over. (How about that Mrs. Wogan, huh? Anyone?) But there’s also the problem that I’m not that interested in the kinds of books that book clubs read. The last time I knew of a book club reading a book I wanted to read (aside from the Bradbury book, and I instigated that), it was James Fallows’ Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, which I had reviewed in the paper and a Heathwood book club asked me to address them about. That was 1996. Mostly, book clubs want to read, well, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother or some such.

This book that Columbia is going to read isn’t exactly that, but it isn’t exactly the sort of thing I usually read, either. It’s… social history, judging it by its cover. I’m an old-school Great Men Fighting Wars kind of history buff, and that’s what I tend to read when I read nonfiction.

Which is why — and this is where I come to my point (remember, I promised I would) — it’s probably a good idea for me to read this book. And why you probably should, too. Broaden our horizons.

Also, I’ve promised I would. I’ve been wearing the button and everything. I’d best go get a copy. I’ll keep you posted — and we can discuss it. Which will be cool.

The kind of biographies I USUALLY read...

The inside tale of the curfew/closings deal

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As y’all may or may not know, Kathryn Fenner — who is very involved in the community in divers ways — was in the middle of a group of citizens who helped work out the compromise on Columbia’s efforts to get some modicum of control over the less savory facets of its nightlife.

We’ve had discussions here about the proposed youth curfew, and the proposal that bars close at 2 a.m., but as the discussion has progressed, I’ve sort of fallen behind on what was happening. Kathryn has not, and she has sent me all sorts of documents (which I have not found time to read) and great sources (whom I have not found time to interview), and I was feeling all guilty about it, and then it occurred to me to fall back on my default mode, after all those years as an assigning editor: Get somebody else to do it.

And since Kathryn already knew all of this stuff, why not her? Yeah, I know; it’s unconventional, and single-source, and she’s too involved, yadda-yadda. But this is NEW media, people. And I figure, this is just like an op-ed from an involved party, which gives readers deeper understanding of an issue from at least one viewpoint. I will be very glad to consider contributions from other viewpoints, but I make no promises. This is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, here’s Kathryn’s version of events. (FYI, I have NOT edited it, because, well, that would be too much work and defeat the purpose of foisting it off on someone else. So this is her authentic voice, you might say. Yeah, that’s what it is…):

Making Hospitality Districts Hospitable

By Kathryn B. Fenner

Special Correspondent

Less than a year ago, police, patrons and the public at large began to notice an increase in unpleasantness in the hospitality districts, particularly Five Points, but the Vista and the area around Club Dreams across from City Hall also had issues. People were drunker; bands of teenagers too young to even enter a bar were crowding the sidewalks, intimidating people and even brandishing weapons. Bars were severely overcrowded—some holding three times more than their safe occupancy. Street crime was rampant. There were several shootings that appeared to involve minors, some of whom ran into the surrounding residential areas, and severe assaults, including one that resulted in permanent eye damage and reconstructive plastic surgery, on random bystanders that seemed to be some sort of gang initiation.

The police started a discussion to try to solve these problems. By midsummer, a task force of stakeholders was formed including bar owners; representatives from the merchants’, neighborhood and industry associations; the University of South Carolina police and student life heads; law enforcement (Columbia police and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department) and fire marshals; and city staffers, and chaired by Tom Sponseller, head of both the Midlands and state hospitality organizations. Everyone (and his brother or sister) was heard from, including the police chief from Greenville, who reported that the city’s curfew ordinance,

which applies only to the Reedy River area, had been implemented without a hitch—all parents came and got their kids, and there were few incidents because it was implemented after an extensive publicity campaign, a Myrtle Beach police representative, and former Fire Chief Bradley Anderson who did extensive research into practices employed across the country to calm hospitality districts.

The original push was to close all bars at 2 a.m. While bars could not serve liquor after 2 a.m., they could serve beer, wine and the malt beverages—including the notorious sweet, caffeinated alcoholic “energy drinks” like Four Loko (“a six-pack in a can”) that seemed to be major fuel to the drunkenness of younger patrons—until 4 a.m., except for Sundays. They never needed to actually close their doors. The bars countered that the problems were caused by the kids who had no business, literally, in the districts, and proposed a curfew. Additional issues included a toothless loitering law that had been used to stifle civil rights protests, an open container law that required the cops to establish the grain alcohol content of said open container, an over-occupancy penalty that was laughably light and applied only to whoever happened to be on the door that night, and virtually no enforcement of state liquor laws, because of a reduction in SLED agents statewide from 46 to 1.5, the nonparticipation of the Columbia police in the training that would have enabled them to enforce liquor laws, and overworked administrative law judges who perhaps did not appreciate the seriousness of the issues facing denser districts.

Police and fire marshals were often pulling double duty to work the “party nights” and were exhausted. The city courts were doing the best they could with a system of logging violations that relied on a huge book of dot-matrix paper and many handwritten entries. A record number of students at USC were transported to emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning.

A compromise was proposed that drew from the Myrtle Beach statute (bars in other South Carolina cities with dense hospitality districts tended to close at 2 a.m.). Myrtle Beach also had a blanket 2 a.m. closing unless bars obtained a permit to stay open until 4. These bars were required to show proof of liquor liability insurance, to have specified numbers of security personnel, to train staff in safe-serving practices and compliance with applicable laws and, famously, not to have wet T-shirt contests or drinking games. Failure to abide by the rules resulted in swift and certain punishment, and the bars largely policed themselves and one another. The compromise also included a curfew for children 17 and under, at 11 p.m. year round, based on police desires to be able to deal with the bulk of violators before the onslaught of bar patrons began at around 12:30. A special team of law enforcement, fire marshals, code enforcement, zoning and business license staff would be trained in the particulars of hospitality zone issues. Finally, a quality public relations campaign would be implemented regarding the curfew, sensible alcohol consumption and good personal safety practices. Additional, “optional” recommendations included a tighter open container law and stiffer penalties for over-occupancy.

The compromise package was unanimously approved by the task force and presented to City Council for approval. At this writing, the bifurcated closing ordinance has been enacted, the hospitality enforcement team is being formed and the curfew has received the first of two required readings. City Attorney Ken Gaines has raised concerns about the constitutionality of the curfew ordinance, and after City Council waived its attorney-client confidentiality rights, he opined that a federal court decision in Dallas required that certain findings of harm caused to or by juveniles be made, which findings could not be made by the Columbia police

because the data had not been collected. The American Civil Liberties Union has threatened a lawsuit if a curfew is enacted, although it has not sued Greenville.

I say it again: City doing what it has to do on buses

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As we saw yesterday:

Columbia residents — homeowners and renters, churches and nonprofits, businesses and schools — will pay for the area’s struggling bus system through an increase on their power bills

City Council approved the increase Tuesday night with a 5-2 vote after a contentious, two-hour public hearing that included a retired Detroit cop calling council members “enlightened despots” and a retired federal prosecutor asking council members to slap him if he got too excited “because I promised my wife I would behave up here.”

The city charges SCE&G a 3 percent franchise fee for the right to run power lines in the public right of way. SCE&G passes that fee along to its customers. Tuesday night, City Council members increased the fee to 5 percent. The amount of the fee varies by customer, depending on the size of a customer’s bill. A charge of $100, for example, would be assessed a $5 franchise fee.

Hey, at least the ex-cop called them “enlightened,” huh? She thinks the city’s leaders don’t get it, saying, “Voters told you ‘no’ to a tax hike. You lost.” What she doesn’t get is that the city has a responsibility to provide this service, and if one way of paying for it doesn’t pan out, the council has to find another way. Besides, as Tameika Devine explained, voters in the city voted for the referendum.

Anyway, as I said before, the slight majority of Richland County voters who turned down a perfectly workable, practical way of paying for the service left city council with little choice. No, I take that back: The city could have chosen to be irresponsible, and let county council continue to carry the burden with its unpopular vehicle tax. But that would not have been a long-term solution. And by “long-term,” I mean a solution that lasts until the referendum is placed on the ballot again, and passes.

Thanks for the input; here’s what I said today

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Thanks so much for y’all’s last-minute help with my Health & Happiness routine today. I used a lot of it, as you will see if you peruse my script I threw together… Note that the parts that I struck through were the bits that I cut when President Robin said I needed to keep it short. She’s always telling me to keep it short; don’t know why.

Anyway, here you go:

HEALTH AND HAPPINESS, 2/14/2011

OK, so now it’s time for my prepared material…

I use “prepared” loosely. I’m a last-minute replacement for Ann Marie Stieritz. Yeah, I know, I’m sorry – this is what you get. Not the same, I know.Ann Marie found out over the weekend that she was doing double-duty at Rotary today, and asked if I’d swap with her at the last minute. And I just couldn’t say no to her. Well, INITIALLY I DID say no to her, but then she threatened to beat me up…

What? You don’t think she’d do that? Well, she convinced ME, so here I am…

So I cheated. I appealed to folks on my blog – that’s BRADWARTHEN.COM – begging them for some material. And they came through with stuff like this:

A PORK CHOP goes into a bar. The bartender takes one look and says, “Sorry, we don’t serve food here.”

You don’t like that? Well, it could be worse. I did come up with one REALLY SHORT joke on my own. Here goes:

“State Senator Robert Ford…”

… what? Do I need to get a drummer to go BA-DA-BOOMP-CHICK! so you’ll know when the joke’s over?

Did you see that news story? Quoting from The Associated Press:

An African-American lawmaker in South Carolina said Tuesday that stricter illegal immigration laws would hurt the state because blacks and whites don’t work as hard as Hispanics.

State Sen. Robert Ford made his remarks during a Senate committee debate over an Arizona-style immigration law, eliciting a smattering of nervous laughter in the chamber after he said “brothers” don’t work as hard as Mexicans. He continued that his “blue-eyed brothers” don’t either.

Way I look at it, illegal immigrants already have enough political enemies in South Carolina. They really don’t need any friends like Senator Ford.

But enough about Democrats. I want to take a moment to stick up for Sarah Palin.

Do you remember all the trouble she got into when misused the term “blood libel,” a phrase describing one of the nastiest lies invented by antiSemites? The former Alaska governor defended herself by pleading ignorance about the significance of what she said.

Hey, when Sarah Palin pleads ignorance, I believer her. Absolutely.

OK, here’s another one from my blog readers:

What did the cow say to the near-sighted farmer?

You’re pulling my leg.

These, I must attribute to my regular reader Doug, because they do NOT reflect my views. At least, not all of them:

— Well, it’s Valentines Day today and that’s a special day for most couples. But for Nikki and Michael Haley, it’s even more special. It’s the day they pay their income taxes for 2009.

–When Mick Zais took over as Secretary of Education, he called Jim Rex to get some information. “How many people work at the Department of Education, Jim?” Rex thought for a moment and replied, “About half of them.”

–Ken Ard would have liked to have been here this morning but he is busy at his office with a bag full of receipts and a “Dummy’s Guide to Photoshop”.

— What’s the difference between Hosni Mubarek and Mark Sanford? One of them ruled over a bunch of wild eyed zealots who want to tear down the government and the other one was President of Egypt.

OK, that’s meaner than MY political gags. So let me take a moment to say something nice. Really. It’s about Joe Wilson.

There was a movement to get Democrats and Republicans to sit together at the State of the Union. Some members of the SC delegation reacted negatively. Newly minted congressman Mick Mulvaney said: “If you’re looking for empty symbolism, where one sits at the State of the Union (address) might be at the top of the list.”

You know what tops MY list of the most pointless, negative symbolism that Congress engages in, the thing that’s most insulting to the American people? The fact that the REST of the time, they only SIT with, and TALK to, and LISTEN to, members of their own party. They act like they think they’re there to serve a party instead of this country.

And that’s why I appreciate Joe Wilson for sitting with Democrats Susan Davis from California and Madeleine Bordallo from Guam. Both are HASC members. Yes, it’s a silly little gesture that doesn’t accomplish much by itself. But a few thousand more such little gestures of common courtesy could to a long way toward reducing the pointless nastiness of politics in Washington.

So thank you, Joe Wilson.

I’ll finish up with some stuff from my old friend Burl Burlingame. Burl, I should explain, is a newspaperman out in Hawaii, where he and I graduated from high school together. That helps explain his attitude. Here are Burl’s WORDS TO LIVE BY:

— Eagles may soar high, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.

— There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there’s a ‘ME’ if you look hard enough.

— Never do today that which will become someone else’s responsibility tomorrow.

Put the key of despair into the lock of apathy. Turn the knob of mediocrity slowly and open the gates of despondency – welcome to a day in the average office.

— If your boss is getting you down, look at him through the prongs of a fork and imagine him in jail.

— If you’re gonna be late, then BE late and not just 2 minutes – make it an hour and enjoy your breakfast.

— If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven’t understood the seriousness of the situation.

I killed — with the stuff y’all contributed. My own stuff I threw in… not so much. I think they liked Doug’s and Burl’s material the best.

Biggest laugh? The one about the Haleys and their taxes. I think the extra laughter was prompted by relief. The setup made a lot of people cringe, expecting an entirely different sort of punchline.

By contrast… I had thrown in the bit about Ann Marie Stieritz (for whom I was substituting) threatening to beat me up because I thought it would be an easy laugh that would get them in the mood to keep laughing. (You see, Ann Marie is a very bright, classy, charming and delightful lady of the sort that no one could possibly imagine uttering harsh words, much less taking a swing at anybody. Also, I’m WAY bigger than she is, so the idea of my being physically intimidated is totally… oh, never mind.) But it totally failed. Not even a suppressed snort from anybody. At that point, I began to worry that the audience wanted to beat me up.

Then, the “pork chop goes into a bar” gag ALSO failed, to the point that I blamed it on Kathryn Fenner by name, and pointed her out in the crowd.

Fortunately, the line, “State Senator Robert Ford…,” spoken in a tone as though those were the opening lines of a broadcast news report, broke them up so successfully that I got back on track. Thank you, senator…

When people came up to me after, I was fully prepared with an all-purpose response that either deflected criticism (if they DIDN’T like it) or made for a becoming display of false modesty (if they DID): “Hey, I just get up there and use the stuff the writers give me…”

Welcome back to the ‘sphere, Laurin!

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Did y’all know that Laurin Manning has returned home to the blogosphere? I expect you DID know, because she’s been blitzing the media the last few days. Here’s her new blog. And here’s her Twitter feed. And she was on Pub Politics the other day. Note below.

And some people think I’m media-savvy. (No, really — some people do. I didn’t say how many.)

Laurin’s candidate Vincent Sheheen didn’t make it, but Laurin has apparently accepted the mantle of loyal opposition to keep his successful opponent straight in office. Someone has to do it, I suppose, and I can’t, because I’m too shy.

An example of Laurin’s Haley accountability efforts:

An intrepid reader points out that according to this article in The State this morning, Gov. Nikki Haley met with fellow Budget and Control Board members Sen. Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Dan Cooper, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, behind closed doors….

So what’s the big deal? Well, the three of them constitute a quorum of the powerful five-member Budget and Control Board, a public body that controls much of the administrative functions of state government. Brian White, head of Ways and Means sub-committee for health care was in attendance too, so they were obviously discussing health care, budgets and deficits. Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, meetings of public bodies must be open, and a “meeting” is the “convening of a quorum of the constituent membership of a public body, whether corporal or by means of electronic equipment, to discuss or act upon a matter over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory power.”

Intrepid reader remarks: “Where was Loftis and Eckstrom? Transparency so the public can see government, or secret meetings defying the rule of law? Where are the minutes of the meeting? Almost 300 million on the table for deficits and they meet in private and without all members.”

Smoke-filled room indeed. Not exactly the sunshine and transparency we heard so much about in the 2010 election.

It’s good to have Laurin back, and I don’t say that for any sort of political reasons (heck, even Will Folks is glad to have her back — and rightly so). This isn’t business; it’s personal. Laurin was one of my first blog friends back in the early days of my old blog, and helped me find my way as I was figuring the medium out, because she had been there and done that. Despite her tender years, she was old in Blog Years, compared to me. Back in 2005, SC political bloggers were a mutually supportive community, and Laurin was one of the most helpful.

Go check out her new effort. You might want to get oriented by reading her introductory post. If you forget where he blog is at any time, find the link in my rail at right.

Pub Politics Episode 42: The book and the soapbox from Wesley Donehue on Vimeo.

Getting the glory that is my due (or so I’m told)

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Walking into Seawell’s yesterday for Rotary, I ran into Hal Stevenson, who was complimenting me on my newfound marketing savvy as I have transitioned into a new career, and I was modestly brushing the praise aside, saying “Tut-tut,” or “My dear fellow, how you do go on…” or some such (between my recent trip to England, too much BBC-America, episodes of “Inspector Lewis” on Netflix and the fact that I’m reading Three Men in a Boat, a copy of which I bought at Blackwell’s, my diction has been somewhat altered lately).

At that moment, we stepped up to the sign-in table, and there was a hard copy of this picture from my blog, blown up, mounted, and standing in front of a display urging Rotarians to sign up for the upcoming Red Cross blood drive. This, of course, only impressed Hal the more. I shrugged — whaddyagonnado?

So we went in, and the meeting began, and then Lanier Jones (president of ADCO, former president of Rotary) got up to urge folks to give in the upcoming Columbia Lifesavers Blood Drive.

And then he called on me to come up to be recognized as the club’s ideal, the very model of the heroic donor, the Single Combat Warrior whom all should emulate, the guy who willingly laid down his life’s blood (some of it, anyway) even before the actual drive — sort of like those heroic aviators who went to Canada to join the RAF before Pearl Harbor. OK, so some of those analogies are mine, but Lanier was pretty laudatory. He even, at Kathryn Fenner’s urging (in preparing these “effects,” I carefully place allies in key positions — Kathryn was at the head table because she had given the invocation, and a fine blessing it was, and didn’t cool the food off none the way I seen some of them interruptions do), mentioned the blog: “that’s bradwarthen.com…”

And then the lovely Kelly Moore from Red Cross came up and gave me a T-shirt — not one of those cheap white ones, either, but a nice deep blue with “LIFESAVER” on it in big letters, a play on the shirt being designed like a lifeguard’s, and Kelly told me that’s what I was, a real lifesaver, and I grinned maniacally, and Bob Ford took our picture.

Just tons of glory.

Now, I’m not saying that all this will happen to YOU if you give, but you never know. And here’s one chance to be a hero like Brad. See the details below, or at this link. Of course, you can make an appointment at the Red Cross ANY time.

Benjamin’s successful State of the City address

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Well, I was going to do a full-blown post on Steve Benjamin’s first State of the City address, but right when I got home, my daughter called and he car had conked out — in a bad location, where Huger runs into I-126 — and I had to run out and deal with that. Quite an adventure. A Columbia police officer came to park his car, blue light flashing, to protect us until the tow truck driver got there. And I was able to tell him he had a new boss.

That was one of several pieces of news the mayor broke during his speech — he rather dramatically turned to interim Chief Randy Scott, told him the council had decided they wanted him to have the job permanently, and offered it to him on the spot. It was a good effect, as Twain’s Hank Morgan would have said.

The mayor, speaking to a huge, supportive crowd at the convention center, broke other news as well. For instance, noting that this speech was streaming live on the Web, he said all city councils would be as well, starting next week.

Other than that, he cited a number of accomplishments, but said he wasn’t satisfied and didn’t think anyone else should be either. But on the whole, I think what he was trying to do tonight is paint a picture of a city that was moving forward, a place where there was a lot going on. And he succeeded.

I’d go into more detail, but I haven’t had dinner, thanks to our automotive emergency. So, compliments of Mike Wukela, here’s the text of the full speech:

State of the City Address

As Delivered by Mayor Steve Benjamin

Coble Ballroom

Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center

Columbia, SC

January 18, 2011

(WELCOME AND THANK YOU)

IF EVERY CITY OF COLUMBIA EMPLOYEE WHO IS HERE WOULD PLEASE STAND BRIEFLY, I WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN MY REMARKS BY TAKING A MOMENT TO SPEAK DIRECTLY TO YOU.

TOO OFTEN IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ONLY EVER HEAR FROM US WHEN SOMETHING IS WRONG. IF THE WATER ISN’T WORKING OR THE TRASH NEEDS TO BE PICKED UP, IF THE POT-HOLE ISN’T FILLED OR THE WORK CREW FILLING IT INCONVENIENCES THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC.

TOO OFTEN IT SEEMS YOU ONLY EVER CATCH OUR CRITICISMS AND NOT OFTEN ENOUGH OUR CONGRATULATIONS.

LET ME FIX THAT RIGHT NOW. NOT ONE OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HEAR TONIGHT WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR HARD WORK, YOUR ENTERPRISING SPIRIT, AND YOUR TIRELESS DEVOTION TO SERVING THIS FINE CITY AND ALL OF HER CITIZENS.

WHILE OTHER CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY STRUGGLED TO DIG THEMSELVES OUT OF THE SNOW LAST WEEK, YOU HAD OUR STREETS CLEAR AND COLUMBIA READY TO HOST AN HISTORIC GUBERNATORIAL INAUGURATION.

THE STATE OF OUR CITY IS STRONG BECAUSE YOU ARE THE GREAT CITY OF COLUMBIA, THE CAPITAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND I AM SO PROUD TO BE YOUR MAYOR.

THANK YOU.

I ALSO WANT TO THANK THE MAYOR’S FELLOWS FOR PARTICIPATING IN TONIGHT’S PROGRAM SERVING AS OUR USHERS. I WANT YOU TO KNOW HOW HAPPY WE ARE TO HAVE YOU HERE AND HOW PROUD WE ARE TO HAVE YOU ENGAGED.

YESTERDAY SPEAKING AT THE URBAN LEAGUE’S MARTIN LUTHER KING BREAKFAST, I TALKED ABOUT THE NEED TO GET INVOLVED IN OUR YOUNG PEOPLE’S LIVES AND PROVIDE LEADERSHIP AND GUIDANCE THE SAME WAY MOSES DID FOR JOSHUA.

BUT WHILE IT IS OUR JOB TO TEACH YOU, YOU ARE THE ONES WHO MUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR COMMUNITY. KNOW THAT THIS IS YOUR CITY TOO, AND IT FALLS TO ALL OF US TO MAKE IT THE BEST CITY IT CAN BE.

WHETHER YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BASEBALL OR GAMEDAY FOOTBALL, PRESERVING THE CAROLIGHTING OR MISS SOUTH CAROLINA, 25 YEARS OF TRUSTUS THEATRE, 50 YEARS OF COLUMBIA CITY BALLET, OR THE RENOVATED TOWNSHIP; WHETHER IT’S THE COLUMBIA URBAN LEAGUE RECEIVING THE WHITNEY YOUNG AWARD OR THIS COLUMBIA METROPOLITAN CONVENTION CENTER RECEIVING ITS ONE MILLIONTH VISITOR ONE THING IS CLEAR TO SEE AS I LOOK BACK OVER THE PAST YEAR: OUR CITY HAS A LOT TO CELEBRATE.

I SEE COLUMBIA CAPITALIZING ON OUR UNIQUE CULTURE, HISTORY, AND A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT SECOND TO NONE AND I SEE EXCITING NEW INITIATIVES HELPING US PROTECT THOSE RESOURCES.

I SEE THE SOUTHERN FRIED FUEL INITIATIVE RECYCLING NEARLY 400 GALLONS OF USED COOKING OIL AND THE E-WASTE RECYCLING PROGRAM KEEPING OVER 13 TONS OF ELECTRONICS OUT OF OUR LANDFILLS.

I SEE ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTS ILLUMINATING OUR CITY BUILDINGS, INCLUDING CITY HALLAND 20 NEW ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING PODS TURNING OUR PARKING GARAGES FROM GRAY TO GREEN.

I SEE A NEW DEDICATION TO PROTECTING OUR WATERWAYS AND KEEPING OUR DRINKING WATER CLEAN WITH OVER $110 MILLION IN IMPROVEMENTS TO AND REHABILITATION OF OUR WATER, SEWER, AND STORMWATER SYSTEMS.

I SEE REASON TO CELEBRATE.

I SEE A CITY OF BEAUTY AND PRIDE THAT PROTECTS ITS NEIGHBORHOODS AS WELL AS ITS RIVERS.

I SEE 35 NEW POLICE CARS PATROLLING THE STREETS OF OUR NORTH, SOUTH, METRO, WEST, AND NEW EAST REGION WITH FUEL EFFICIENT ENGINES AND AUTOMATIC VEHICLE LOCATOR SYSTEMS.

I SEE AN ENFORCEABLE OPEN CONTAINER LAW, A BACK-UP WEAPON POLICY THAT MAKES SENSE AND OVER $2 MILLION IN FEDERAL GRANTS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY EQUIPMENT, TRAINING, AND PERSONNEL.

I SEE FULL INTEGRATION OF THE NEW COMPUTER AIDED DISPATCH SYSTEM AND I SEE FIRE ENGINE COMPANIES 8 AND 9 BACK UP AND RUNNING.

I SEE REASON TO CELEBRATE.

I SEE A NEW ERA OF REGIONAL COOPERATION WITH MAYORS FROM LEXINGTON, CAYCE, WEST COLUMBIA AND BLYTHEWOOD, FOREST ACRES, ARCADIA LAKES, IRMO AND CHAPIN, SUMTER, SPRINGDALE AND CAMDEN ALL COMING TO THE TABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH THE CHAIRMEN OF LEXINGTON AND RICHLAND’S COUNTY COUNCILS.

I SEE US TEARING DOWN THE WALLS THAT HAVE KEPT US ISOLATED FOR TOO LONG SO WE CAN FINALLY MEET CHALLENGES LIKE AIR QUALITY, TRANSPORTATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CRIME TOGETHER AS A REGION UNIFIED AND A PEOPLE UNITED.

I SEE REASON TO CELEBRATE

I SEE US TAKING ACTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE ON ISSUES THAT HAVE HUNG IN THE AIR UNDECIDED FOR YEARS.

I SEE US MOVING FORWARD SO LOWER RICHLAND RECEIVES THE WATER AND SEWER INFRASTRUCTURE IT NEEDS TO GROW.

I SEE US FINALLY ADOPTING A LOCAL PREFERENCE POLICY SO MORE OF OUR COLUMBIA’S DOLLARS STAY WITH OUR BUSINESSES IN COLUMBIA.

AND I SEE AN HONEST CONVERSATION STIRRING BETWEEN THIS CITY AND RICHLAND COUNTY ABOUT THE POTENTIAL FOR IMPROVING SERVICE AND REDUCING TAXPAYER BURDEN THROUGH COLLABORATION, COOPERATION, AND CONSOLIDATION; AND I’M PROUD TO BE A PART OF THAT.

I SEE REASON TO CELEBRATE.

I SEE A CITY LIVING UP TO ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS BY GETTING INVOLVED IN THEIR LIVES SO THAT EVERY STUDENT, EVERY CHILD IN THIS CITY – REGARDLESS OF RACE, REGARDLESS OF CLASS, REGARDLESS OF HERITAGE OR PARENTAGE – EVERY CHILD CAN LIVE UP TO HIS OR HER GOD-GIVEN POTENTIAL.

I SEE THE EAU CLAIRE PROMISE ZONE, CITY YEAR AND DIPLOMAS NOW, DRILLS AND SKILLS, PRIME-TIME IN THE PARK, THE TALENTED TENTH, THE MAYOR’S FELLOWS, AND THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL INITIATIVE WHICH GAVE EVERY CITY EMPLOYEE TIME OFF TO TAKE THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO SCHOOL SO THOSE STUDENTS KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEIR EDUCATION IS TO MOM AND DAD. AND SO MOM AND DAD KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE TO THE CITY OF COLUMBIA.

I SEE US MAKING EDUCATION A PRIORITY AND I’M PROUD TO BE A PART OF THAT.

I SEE REASON TO CELEBRATE AND, AFTER A LONG PERIOD OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP, I SEE PEOPLE GOING BACK TO WORK.

I SEE CICI’S PIZZA, HOUSTON’S LOWCOUNTRY GRILL. NATURAL ESCAPES DAY SPA, AND FIRST CHOICE REHABILITATION CENTER FILLING THE STOREFRONTS OF NORTH MAIN PLAZA AND I SEE 14 BRAND NEW COMPANIES ENTERING THE USC TECHNOLOGY INCUBATOR.

I SEE THE SCRA INNOVATIONS CENTER INVESTING OVER $6.7 MILLION AND TRANSFORMING AN EMPTY WAREHOUSE INTO A CENTER FOR GROWING TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES. I SEE THE MAIN AND GERVAIS TOWER FULLY OCCUPIED AND THE NICKELODEON BREAKING GROUND. AND WHILE BUSINESSES FALTER AND FAIL ALL ACROSS THE WORLD, HERE, IN COLUMBIA, I SEE THEM GROWING.

I SEE IMMEDION AND DENTAQUEST, DOVE TAIL INSURANCE AND REI, VERIZON AND AFLAC.

I SEE A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY FUTURE THRIVING AT MIDLANDS TECH’S ENTERPRISE CAMPUS AND A $3.6 MILLION DARPA GRANT FOR INNOVISTA.

I SEE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IN THE CONSORTIUM FOR ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT, FUEL CELL DEVELOPMENT IN TRULITE AND THE FUTURE OF SOLAR PANEL MANUFACTURING ON IT IS WAY WITH 1,000 HIGH PAYING JOBS FROM AQT SOLAR.

I SEE A REBIRTH BEGINNING ON MAIN STREET WITH MAST GENERAL AND NEARLY 20 YEARS OF FRUSTRATION ENDING ON BULL AS THE LARGEST PIECE OF DOWNTOWN PROPERTY EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI IS FINALLY SOLD.

I SEE REASON TO CELEBRATE.

WE HAVE CHANGED CITY COUNCIL’S STRUCTURE WITH A MORE EFFECTIVE COMMITTEE SYSTEM AND AN EVENING MEETING TIME THAT ALLOWS MORE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

WE HAVE LIMITED EXECUTIVE SESSIONS AND ENJOYED MORE PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF THE PEOPLE’S ISSUES.

WE HAVE LED BY EXAMPLE GIVING UP HALF OF MY SALARY TO CREATE NEW INCENTIVES FOR EFFICIENCY,

WE HAVE HELD THE LINE ON FUNDING PRIORITIES, REMOVED OVER 100 UNNECESSARY VACANCIES, AND ELIMINATED FURLOUGHS FOR ALL CITY EMPLOYEES AND WE HAVE DONE IT WHILE LIVING UP TO OUR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

AND I AM PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE CITY OF COLUMBIA ENDED THE 2010 CALENDAR YEAR $5 MILLION UNDER BUDGET.

WE ARE IN THE BLACK AND THAT IS CERTAINLY SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE!

YOUR CITY HAS BEEN HARD AT WORK FOR YOU AND, WHEN YOU LOOK AT ALL THE PAST YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS LIKE THIS, PILED ONE ON TOP OF ANOTHER, IT’S PRETTY HARD TO IGNORE.

NOW, DID EVERYBODY GET A GOOD LOOK?

GOOD, NOW PUT IT ASIDE.

WIPE IT AWAY BECAUSE THAT’S NOT WHAT TONIGHT IS ABOUT.

I DIDN’T COME HERE JUST TO WRITE UP EVERY ACCOMPLISHMENT WE COULD THINK OF AND LIST THEM END TO END TO SEE HOW LONG IT STRETCHED.

I DIDN’T COME HERE TO SMILE AND WAVE AND TELL YOU “EVERYTHING’S GREAT!” THEN TAKE A BOW.

I CAN’T DO THAT.

I WOULD LIKE TO STAND UP HERE AND ANNOUNCE THAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ALL OF OUR GOALS, THAT OUR CITY IS PERFECT. BUT WE HAVE NOT AND IT IS NOT.

THAT IS THE SIMPLE TRUTH IS THAT IF THERE’S ONE THING YOU SHOULD EXPECT FROM YOUR GOVERNMENT IT’S THE TRUTH.

THE TRUTH IS EVERYTHING’S NOT GREAT.

THE TRUTH IS WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO.

THE TRUTH IS I’m NOT SATISFIED.

I’M NOT SATISFIED AND YOU SHOULDN’T BE EITHER.

ACCORDING TO THE FBI’S PRELIMINARY UNIFORM CRIME REPORT, THERE WERE 708 VIOLENT CRIMES COMMITTED IN COLUMBIA BETWEEN JANUARY AND JUNE OF 2010 COMPARED WITH 611 ONE YEAR EARLIER.

THAT’S NEARLY 100 MORE VIOLENT OFFENSES. 100 MORE VICTIMS AND FAMILIES.

HOW CAN I BE SATISFIED WITH THAT?

HOW CAN I BE SATISFIED WHEN I KNOW MANY OF OUR VETERAN FIREFIGHTERS COME OFF A 24 HOUR SHIFT OF SAVING LIVES AND GO HOME TO TAKE A QUICK SHOWER BEFORE IT’S OFF TO THEIR SECOND JOBS BECAUSE THEY HAVEN’T GOTTEN A RAISE IN 3 YEARS.

WE’RE LOSING OUR HEROES TO DEPARTMENTS WITH BETTER PAY AND BETTER EQUIPMENT AND WE’RE TRAINING NEW RECRUITS IN A BURN HOUSE HELD TOGETHER WITH PATCHWORK AND PLYWOOD. HOW CAN I BE SATISFIED WITH THAT?

HOW CAN I BE SATISFIED WHEN I KNOW THAT EVERYTHING WE DO – EVERYTHING – BEGINS AND ENDS WITH PUBLIC SAFETY?

NEW INDUSTRIES AREN’T GOING TO COME TO COLUMBIA IF THEY DON’T THINK THEIR EMPLOYEES ARE GOING TO BE SAFE. LOCAL BUSINESSES CAN’T GROW IF THEIR PROFITS ARE EATEN UP BY RISING INSURANCE RATES. OUR CHILDREN CAN’T LEARN IF THEIR HOMEWORK IS INTERRUPTED BY GUNFIRE. WE CAN’T FOCUS ON ALL THE OTHER THINGS WE WANT TO DO IF OUR NEIGHBORHOODS AREN’T SAFE.

DURING MY CAMPAIGN I PROMISED TO MAKE PUBLIC SAFETY OUR CITY’S TOP PRIORITY AND I INTEND TO SEE THAT PROMISE KEPT!

I SEE US STARTING BY GIVING OUR FIRST RESPONDERS THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO DO THEIR JOBS.

I SEE MORE PATROL CARS AND CUTTING EDGE EQUIPMENT. I SEE CONTINUOUS TRAINING AND RECERTIFICATION. AND I SEE NEW FACILITIES BECAUSE YOU CAN’T BE A FIRST-RATE SERVICE IF YOU TRAIN IN CUT-RATE CONDITIONS.

SO, FOR YOU FIREFIGHTERS OUT THERE, I SEE A NEW STATE OF THE ART BURN HOUSE DESIGNED FOR THE JOB AND BUILT FOR THE LONG HAUL.

BUT WHEN YOU’RE RISKING YOUR LIFE EVERY DAY, IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT BEING ABLE TO COUNT ON YOUR EQUIPMENT, FACILITIES, AND TRAINING.

IT’S ALSO ABOUT HAVING RELIABLE LEADERSHIP.

AFTER SIX POLICE CHIEFS IN FIVE YEARS, IT’S TIME TO BRING SOME STABILITY TO THE COLUMBIA POLICE DEPARTMENT.

IT IS TIME TO STOP THE REVOLVING DOOR AT NUMBER ONE JUSTICE SQUARE.

SINCE TAKING THE JOB AS INTERIM CHIEF OF POLICE THREE MONTHS AGO RANDY SCOTT HAS PUT 35 NEW POLICE CARS ON THE STREET, OPENED A BRAND NEW PATROL REGION, FORGED NEW PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT, SLED, AND OUR NEIGHBORING JURISDICTIONS, AND BROUGHT IN A NEW CLASS OF RECRUITS THAT THIS MONTH RECEIVED EVERY SINGLE AWARD THE ACADEMY HAD TO OFFER.

I THINK THAT DESERVES SOME RECOGNITION. IN FACT, THE CITY MANAGER, MY FELLOW MEMBERS OF COUNCIL AND I HAVE DISCUSSED IT, AND WE THINK IT DESERVES A PROMOTION.

SO, CHIEF, I’D LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS INTERIM CHIEF AND OFFER YOU A NEW JOB AS THE CITY OF COLUMBIA’S PERMANENT CHIEF OF POLICE, IF YOU’LL ACCEPT IT.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CHIEF RANDY SCOTT.

WHEN I LOOK AT MEN LIKE CHIEF SCOTT, FIRE CHIEF AUBREY JENKINS, OR ANY OF OUR MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM, I SEE THE SAME THING ALL OF US DO.

WE SEE WORDS LIKE SELFLESSNESS, RESPECT, HONOR, AND SACRIFICE. WE SEE TRUE AMERICAN HEROES EVEN THOUGH, MOST OF THE TIME, WE DON’T REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS.

BUT ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH, WE WERE ALL REMINDED WHEN A ROUTINE CALL TO A BRUSH FIRE OFF I-20 EASTBOUND MILE MARKER 81 TURNED TO TRAGEDY LEAVING ONE FIREFIGHTER, 30 YEAR OLD LARRY KEWON IRVIN, CRITICALLY INJURED AND CLINGING TO LIFE AND ANOTHER LOST TO US FOREVER.

THE GREAT AMERICAN AUTHOR HENRY MILLER FAMOUSLY WROTE: “THE ORDINARY MAN IS INVOLVED IN ACTION, BUT THE HERO ACTS. AND THERE IS AN IMMENSE DIFFERENCE.”

23 YEAR OLD CHANCE HYATT ZOBEL IS A HERO NOT BECAUSE HE WAS WITHOUT FEAR BUT BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO ACT IN SPITE OF IT.

HE IS A HERO BECAUSE WHEN OTHERS HESITATED, HE RESPONDED WITHOUT THOUGHT FOR HIMSELF OR EXPECTATION OF REWARD, GIVING WHAT LINCOLN CALLED THE LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION TO US.

CHANCE CHOSE TO ACT. LET US FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE.

FIVE YEARS AGO, THE CITY OF COLUMBIA OPTED OUT OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA RETIREMENT SYSTEM’S ACCIDENTAL DEATH INSURANCE PLAN FOR FIREFIGHTERS AND POLICE OFFICERS COSTING CHANCE ZOBEL’S FAMILY POTENTIALLY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN LIFETIME BENEFITS.

I INTEND TO RECTIFY THAT MISTAKE. I INTEND TO SHOW OUR FIRST RESPONDERS THAT THIS CITY, YOUR CITY, STANDS WITH YOU, WE SUPPORT YOU, AND WE WILL STAND WITH YOUR FAMILY IF ANYTHING SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU.

NOW, I KNOW BURN HOUSES DON’T COME CHEAP AND THE BEST EQUIPMENT IS OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE. BUT I WATCHED AS THIS CITY PUT TOGETHER A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BASEBALL PARADE IN TWO DAYS THAT DIDN’T COST THE TAXPAYER A DIME. I’VE SEEN WHAT WE CAN DO WHEN WE PUT OUR MINDS TO IT. I’VE SEEN WHAT IS POSSIBLE.

TWO YEARS AGO, THE SMART MONEY SAID THAT THE CITY OF COLUMBIA COULDN’T GET ITS ACT TOGETHER.

THE ECONOMY WAS TANKING AND OUR RESERVES WERE GONE PROMPTING ACROSS THE BOARD CUTS AND EMPLOYEE FURLOUGHS. BUT HERE WE ARE, JUST TWO YEARS LATER, WE’VE ELIMINATED THE FURLOUGHS ALONG WITH OVER $1 MILLION IN NON-ESSENTIAL, VACANT POSITIONS. EVERY DEPARTMENT IS OPERATING IN THE BLACK AND THE GENERAL FUND IS $5 MILLION UNDER BUDGET.

AND WE’RE NOT DONE. NOW, AS A RULE, EVERY TIME A NON-PUBLIC SAFETY VACANCY OPENS UP, OUR CITY MANAGER EXAMINES THE POSITION, EVALUATES ITS VALUE, AND DECIDES WHETHER IT’S NECESSARY OR NOT.

IF IT’S NECESSARY, HE POSTS THE JOB AND FILLS THE POSITION. IF IT ISN’T NECESSARY, HE DOESN’T JUST LET IT STAY VACANT … HE ELIMINATES IT ENTIRELY FREEING UP ROOM IN THE BUDGET FOR PRIORITIES LIKE PUBLIC SAFETY.

DECISIONS LIKE THOSE THAT HAVE HELPED COLUMBIA GET BACK ON ITS FEET. BUT WE NEED THIS CITY TO BE IN FIGHTING SHAPE AND I SEE A RENEWED SPIRIT OF REGIONALISM AS THE KEY.

I SEE THE FUTURE OF THIS CITY, THIS COUNTY, THIS ENTIRE REGION UNIFIED THROUGH SHARED RESPONSIBILITY. I SEE CONSOLIDATED SERVICES STREAMLINING AND AMPLIFYING OUR ABILITIES TO RECRUIT INDUSTRY AND PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT. I SEE COLUMBIA PROVING ONCE AND FOR ALL THAT WE CAN DO MORE FOR LESS BY DOING IT TOGETHER.

I SEE THIS CITY TAKING THE LEAD AND, WITH NEW VIGOR AND FISCAL VITALITY, REBUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION OF PUBLIC TRUST.

TIME AND TIME AGAIN, IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO TRUST.

NOT THE BLIND FAITH OF CHILDREN. NOT TRUST UNCONDITIONAL YIELDED WITHOUT QUESTION OR QUALIFICATION, BUT TRUST EARNED AND PROVEN. THE PUBLIC TRUST BASED IN MUTUAL RESPECT AND OPENNESS, VERIFIED AND TRANSPARENT.

WE HAVE ALREADY SET A SERIES OF GOOD GOVERNMENT REFORMS IN ACTION THAT INCLUDE MOVING COUNCIL TO EVENING MEETING AND LIMITING EXECUTIVE SESSION SO MORE OF THE PUBLIC’S BUSINESS IS DONE IN PUBLIC. BUT WE’RE NOT DONE. IN FACT, WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED.

THE WHOLE WORLD CAN SEE TONIGHT’S EVENT BECAUSE IT’S STREAMING LIVE VIA THE INTERNET AND, STARTING NEXT WEEK, EVERY CITY COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE AS WELL SO EVEN THOSE WHO CAN’T MAKE THE MEETINGS CAN STILL STAY UP TO DATE WITH EVERY MOTION AND EVERY VOTE WITHOUT EVER HAVING TO LEAVE HOME.

BUT THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING.

I SEE THIS CITY ESTABLISHING AN INDEPENDENT ETHICS COMMISSION, THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN SOUTH CAROLINA. I SEE OUR CITY PRODUCING A LAYMAN’S BUDGET SO YOU CAN SEE EXACTLY WHERE YOUR TAX DOLLARS GO AND ESTABLISHING NEW GUIDELINES FOR CONFLICTSOF INTERESTS THAT REMOVE EVEN THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY. I SEE COLUMBIA RAISING THE STANDARD FOR CITIZEN DRIVEN GOOD GOVERNMENT NOT JUST IN SOUTH CAROLINA, BUT ACROSS THE NATION.

I SEE US ENGAGING OUR COMMUNITY ON A GRASSROOTS LEVEL ABOUT THE ISSUES IMPORTANT TO ALL OF US SO THAT WE CAN BE THE BEST, BRIGHTEST, AND HEALTHIEST CITY WE CAN BE.

JUST AS OUR STREETS MUST BE SAFE; OUR NEIGHBORHOODS CLEAN; AND OUR SCHOOLS FULL OF ENERGETIC AND TALENTED STUDENTS AND TEACHERS–OUR CITIZENS MUST BE HEALTHY. TO THAT END, MY WIFE, DEANDREA, AND I HAVE ADOPTED A SIGNATURE PROJECT, ALONG WITH COLUMBIA CITY COUNCIL, TO ENSURE ALL OF OUR FAMILIES HAVE ACCESS TO THE RIGHT RESOURCES TO ENCOURAGE HEALTHY LIFESTYLES.

FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA AND HER TEAM HAVE PROVIDED A BLUEPRINT FOR US AND COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE NATION TO FOLLOW IN AN EFFORT TO ERADICATE CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN OUR CITY AND OUR NATION — THE LET’S MOVE INITIATIVE.

OVER THE COURSE OF THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS, WE WILL DEVELOP OUR OWN MOVEMENT IN COLUMBIA — ONE IN WHICH WE WORK WITH OUR INTERNAL TEAM OF STAFF AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS TO DEVELOP A LONG-TERM, SUSTAINABLE AND HOLISTIC APPROACH TO FIGHTING CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN OUR COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT HEALTHY LIVING THROUGH GRASSROOTS PROJECTS LIKE URBAN FARMING AND COMMUNITY GARDENS WHICH PROVIDE HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES FOR OUR FAMILIES.

THIS HOLISTIC APPROACH WILL ENCOMPASS INITIATIVES UNDER ALL FOUR PILLARS OF THE LET’S MOVE MODEL: HELPING PARENTS MAKE HEALTHY FAMILY CHOICES; IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF SCHOOLS; INCREASING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OPPORTUNITIES; AND MAKING HEALTHY FOOD AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE.

I SEE A HEALTHIER, HAPPIER, AND MORE PROSPEROUS FUTURE FOR OUR CITY AS, FROM PUBLIC SAFETY TO FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY, ETHICS REFORM TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; COLUMBIA LIVES UP TO ITS MANTLE AS A TRUE 21ST CENTURY CAPITAL CITY.

YES, I SEE COLUMBIA READY TO LEAD.

LOOK OUTSIDE THIS DOOR AND YOU’LL SEE IT TOO – THE SIGNS OF A $1 BILLION A YEAR TOURISM INDUSTRY THAT EMPLOYS ROUGHLY 65,000 PEOPLE RIGHT HERE IN THE METRO COLUMBIA AREA.

BUT THOSE SIGNS ARE ABOUT MORE THAN JUST DOLLARS AND CENTS, MORE THAN HOSPITALITY DISTRICTS AND TAX REVENUES. THEY’RE ABOUT OPEN SOURCE PROGRAMMING, SMALL MODULAR NUCLEAR REACTORS, HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS AND CYBER SECURITY. THEY’RE ABOUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES, KNOWLEDGE ECONOMIES, AND A NEW GENERATION OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY INDUSTRIES.

THEY’RE ABOUT POSITIONING COLUMBIA ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AND SECURING HIGH-PAYING JOBS FOR THIS REGION, NOT JUST FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS – BUT THE NEXT 40.

I’M PROUD OF THE WORK WE’VE DONE TOGETHERB

I’M PROUD OF A NEW MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND MIDLANDS TECH TO FOSTER KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND CREATE A NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED ENERGY RESEARCH HUB RIGHT HERE IN COLUMBIA.

I’M PROUD OF THE NEW PARTNERSHIP THE CITY HAS FORMED WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS IN THEIR NON-PAID WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAM. THIS IMPORTANT INITIATIVE HELPS VETERANS GAIN VALUABLE EXPERIENCE WORKING FOR THE CITY OF COLUMBIA FOR SIX MONTHS PROVIDING CRITICAL CITY SERVICES AT NO COST TO THE TAXPAYER.

I’M PROUD OF WORKING WITH RICHLAND COUNTY, THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, AND THE CENTRAL SOUTH CAROLINA ALLIANCE TO BRING A SOLAR POWER LEADER LIKE AQT AND 1,000 HIGH PAYING JOBS TO THE MIDLANDS.

I’M PROUD, BUT I’M NOT SATISFIED.

I’M PROUD BECAUSE UNEMPLOYMENT IN RICHLAND COUNTY HAS DROPPED FROM 10.3% TO 9.3% IN THE PAST YEAR. BUT UNSATISFIED BECAUSE THAT’S STILL 16,772 PEOPLE WHO DON’T HAVE JOBS, 16,772 PEOPLE WHO CAN’T PAY THEIR MORTGAGES, 16,772 PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING LEFT OUT OF ALL THE GREAT THINGS OUR CITY HAS TO OFFER.

WE MUST DO BETTER.

I SEE COLUMBIA STEPPING UP WITH A REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION TO HELP US BECOME TRULY BUSINESS FRIENDLY BY CUTTING RED TAPE, LEVERAGING OUR INDIVIDUAL RESOURCES AND COORDINATING OUR INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS.

I SEE US FORMALIZING THE ALREADY EXCEPTIONAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUR CITY, THE STATE CAPITAL, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, THE STATE’S FLAGSHIP UNIVERSITY BY JOINING THE INTERNATIONAL TOWN GOWN ASSOCIATION.

I SEE US INVESTING IN CREATIVITY TO JUMPSTART THE DOWNTOWN ARTISTIC COMMUNITY AND SECURING THE ONE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL WE DON’T HAVE BY BUILDING A NEW INDUSTRIAL PARK.

I SEE US CONNECTING MAIN STREET, USC, FIVE POINTS, AND THE VISTA TOGETHER AS ONE POWERHOUSE BUSINESS AND ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT AND WORKING TOGETHER TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LARGEST PARCEL OF UNDEVELOPED DOWNTOWN PROPERTY EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN A WAY THAT TRANSFORMS THE BULL STREET PROPERTY INTO A THOROUGHLY MODERN LANDSCAPE WHILE PRESERVING ITS UNIQUE HISTORY AND STRUCTURES.

I SEE US FINALLY UNLOCKING OUR RIVERFRONT’S POTENTIAL AND COMPLETING THE THREE RIVERS GREENWAY.

COLUMBIA IS READY.

BUT IF WE’RE GOING TO LEAD ON JOB CREATION, WE FIRST MUST LEAD ON TRANSPORTATION.

NOW, LET ME BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR: EVERYONE RELIES ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

WHETHER YOU’VE EVER SET FOOT ON A BUS OR NOT, WHETHER YOU KNOW WHAT CMRTA MEANS OR NOT, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT – YOU RELY ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

THE LAB TECH THAT DREW YOUR BLOOD THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN THE HOSPITAL, THE COLLEGE STUDENT THAT’S WORKING PART TIME WAITING TABLES IN YOUR RESTAURANT, THE SECURITY GUARD IN YOUR BUILDING â€“ THEY ALL RIDE THE BUS.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM IF THERE ARE NO MORE BUSES TO RIDE? WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE BUSINESSES WHEN THE EMPLOYEES THEY RELY ON CAN’T GET TO WORK?

WE HAD A MEETING TODAY WITH LEADERS FROM ALL ACROSS THE REGION SO WE CAN START PREPARING OURSELVES FOR THE NEWEST ROUND OF BASE CLOSURES COMING DOWN THE PIPE ANY DAY NOW.

BETWEEN FORT JACKSON, MCENTIRE, AND SHAW AIR FORCE BASE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT $7.1BILLION A YEAR IN COMBINED ECONOMIC IMPACT. I’M NOT GOING TO PUT THAT AT RISK BECAUSE WE TAKE THE BUSES AWAY FROM THE 1,400 FORT JACKSON EMPLOYEES THAT RELY ON THEM TO GET TO AND FROM WORK EVERY DAY.

I DON’T THINK WE CAN CONVINCE THE BRAC COMMISSION THAT THIS CITY FULLY SUPPORTS THE MILITARY IF WE REFUSE TO MAKE SURE A SOLDIER ON LEAVE HAS A RIDE INTO TOWN OR WE STOP THEIR CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES FROM REPORTING TO WORK.

EVERY SINGLE STATE CAPITAL IN AMERICA HAS A VIABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND I’M NOT GOING TO LET COLUMBIA BE THE ONLY ONE LEFT BEHIND.

BUT THIS ISN’T ABOUT MAINTAINING THE STATUS QUO. THIS ISN’T ABOUT SUBSIDIZING THE SAME OLD BUS SYSTEM. THIS IS ABOUT FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGING THE WAY WE LOOK AT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

IMAGINE A FLEET OF CLEAN, NEXT GENERATION, ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUSES, OUTFITTED WITH MOBILE BROADBAND SO COMMUTERS CAN WORK ON THEIR WAY TO WORK.

IMAGINE INCREASING RIDERSHIP BY TAPPING INTO THE ROUGHLY 50,000 STUDENTS FROM USC, BENEDICT, ALLEN, COLUMBIA COLLEGE, MIDLANDS TECH AND CIU.

IMAGINE INTER-MODAL, REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION HUBS THAT CONNECT USC WITH DOWNTOWN AND THE VISTA, CAYCE, WEST COLUMBIA, LEXINGTON AND BLYTHEWOOD – CENTERS OF ACTIVITY BRINGING BUS AND RAIL TOGETHER PROVIDING NEW OUTLETS FOR LOCAL MERCHANTS AND NEW CUSTOMERS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.

IMAGINE MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE 1,400 WORKERS AT FORT JACKSON WHO RELY ON CMRTA BY CONNECTING THEM AND THOUSANDS MORE WITH ALL OF THE CENTERS OF CULTURE AND COMMERCE THROUGHOUT THE MIDLANDS

IMAGINE POSITIONING COLUMBIA AS A NEW, VIBRANT AND GREEN 21ST CENTURY METROPOLIS WITH PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AT ITS CORE.

THIS IS ABOUT A NEW VISION THAT SEES PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION NOT AS A BURDEN TO BE CARRIED BUT A BOON THAT CAN CARRY US INTO A BRIGHT NEW FUTURE TOGETHER.

WE HAVE A LOT TO CELEBRATE HERE IN COLUMBIA.

THE STATE OF OUR CITY IS STRONG – STRONG, BUT UNSATISFIED.

BECAUSE, AS PROUD AS WE ARE OF HOW FAR WE’VE COME, I LOOK OVER THE HORIZON TO WHERE WE’RE GOING AND I SEE A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY UNLIKE ANYTHING WE’VE EVER KNOWN AND WITH ALL OF US WORKING TOGETHER – EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM AND EVERYONE AT HOME DOING THEIR PART – I KNOW WE CAN GET THERE.

COLUMBIA IS A GREAT CITY. BUT WE CAN BE EVEN BETTER.

WE’RE READY TO GET STARTED.

WE’RE READY TO LEAD.

WE’RE READY TO BE THE MOST TALENTED, EDUCATED AND ENTREPRENEURIAL CITY IN AMERICA!

WE’RE READY TO BE ONE GREAT COLUMBIA!

THANK YOU. GOD BLESS YOU. AND GOD BLESS THE CITY OF COLUMBIA.

Items urgently needed for the homeless

6 Replies

Kathryn sent me this urgent message yesterday, and I am belatedly passing it on — note the time element; action is called for by Thursday:

Because of the frequent and early severe winter weather we have been having, there is a critical need for warm clothing and blankets for homeless men, women and children. Because of weather cancellations, efforts to collect items by Columbia Rotary and other service groups have been curtailed, and we would greatly appreciate your help in gathering donations of coats, hats, scarves, gloves, blankets and similar items. We will be taking them to the United Way Day of Caring at Lexington Medical Center Friday, January 21, for sorting and distribution to groups serving the homeless.

If you can bring donated items to the United Way offices @ 1800 Main Street by the end of the day Thursday, we will make sure they are included in this drive.

Thank you so much for your support!

The terrible, awful, horrible day that the VAT went up

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So maybe you didn’t feel it where you are, but today was the day — and they’ve been building up to it for the whole week that we’ve been in the UK, with sales urging people to come out and buy before it happened — that the VAT went up from 17.5 percent to 20 percent.

Guess what — I didn’t feel it, either.

There are several things that it’s taken some time to get used to here in the UK:

People driving on the left. This is maddening when you’re riding in a bus. And I’ve almost been hit from behind by buses several times walking along a road too close to the curb, with the road on my right (you expect to see traffic oncoming, but it sneaks up behind you — and is really close, because the lanes are so narrow).
The fact that tips aren’t expected. We made friends with a barman from Sri Lanka in Greenwich (a really nice guy), and he explained that they don’t get tips. We left him one anyway. But it’s really weird to leave, say, 15 quid for a bill of 12 pounds 52 pence, and have the server chase you out of the place trying to give you change. It happens time and again.
The fact that you NEVER feel the tax, no matter how high it is. That’s because it’s built into the price of the things you buy. If something is listed as 99p, and you give the clerk a pound coin (and why is it we haven’t had a dollar coin, or two or three dollar coin, catch on in this country? they’re so convenient), you get back a penny.
The fact that I’m in a country where the conservative party is raising taxes (OK, technically it’s a coalition government), and the dominant party of the left (Labour) is griping about what a terrible burden taxes are on ordinary families.

But both The Times and The Guardian are going on about this big, monstrous, huge increase. To which I say, who crosses the street to get a 2.5 percent discount on anything? I mean, really? This increase would amount to 25 p on 10 pounds. Or say you spend a thousand pounds on something — which is a lot more than a thousand dollars, mind — what’s the increase in tax? Twenty-five pounds. Like you’re going to worry about that if you can afford a thousand. (Oh, and by the way — that 600 pounds a family The Times predicts is on families that make 70,000 pounds or more. The burden is much less on median incomes.)

All that aside, the most amazing thing, the thing hardest to get used to, is that I’m in a country where the government has decided to deal with the deficit by — now get this — cutting spending and raising taxes. Of course, back home, the recent huge compromise between President Obama and the Republicans was to raise spending and lower taxes. That’s how we deal with deficits in the U.S. of A.

Riding through London on the magnificent Tube — which as far as I’m concerned is one of the marvels of the world, a testament to the ingenuity of Man — and asking directions from the helpful bobbies (“just 200 metres more on your roight, mate”), reading the extremely clear directions on where the buses that come every few minutes go, or going to the fantastic museums and paying nothing (except a few pounds voluntary contribution now and then), I personally feel that the tax I’m paying is one of the great bargains of all time.

And I’m wondering how well I’ll adjust when I get back home to a place where folks don’t want the gummint doing anything, ever, if it’s going to cost a penny more…

No, folks, I’m not a convert to socialism. I worry about the burdens of the welfare state, and I know that increasing taxes too much can have a nasty cooling effect on growth. But I have enjoyed some amenities here that seem more than worth the taxes I’ve paid here. All I’m saying.

The UFOs of Primrose Hill (Happy 2011!)

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Sorry about the poor quality; I only had my Blackberry. Still, you can see a bunch of our UFOs, rising away from Primrose Hill toward central London. And down on the horizon, among other things, you can see the Eye of London.

J and I had this brilliant idea. We would avoid the madness of Trafalgar Square on New Year’s Eve, but still experience it, quietly and privately, by walking up to Primrose Hill, which we had heard afforded a great view of London.

So, after a wonderful meal at a fine Indian restaurant near our hotel in Swiss Cottage, we set out walking. I had assured her I could find the park from having glanced at Google Maps, and I hoped I was right.

Along the way, we saw some young guys on the sidewalk outside a house where a party was going on, and they seemed to be trying to make an upside-down luminaria take off like a hot-air balloon using a cigarette lighter. They were laughing like mad, and the people inside the party were watching out the bay window with great interest, and we just assumed they were half-cut, or more. As we walked past I did say, “Well, the principle is sound…”

Then, as I we walked on and I started to wonder whether I had lost my way after all, we noticed down south, over the city, some reddish lights hovering in the sky. They looked very strange. The way they acted, they couldn’t be aircraft. My guess was that someone had fired parachute flares, but they were so high that seemed unlikely.

As I was about to despair of finding Primrose Hill Road, I saw a fairly busy road ahead of us… and lots of people walking along it. Since they were walking in the direction of a church, my wife came up with a Catholic answer — they were going to a midnight Mass. But that’s not where they were going. We found ourselves part of a pilgrimage of perhaps a couple of thousand, all of whom had had the same idea — climb Primrose Hill to watch the fireworks down around Trafalgar.

There were all sorts. Most seemed 20ish, and most had bottles. But there were older folks, and parents with small kids. Most were English, but I heard German and Spanish nearby.

Everyone had a blast, and it was fun to be among them. But the most remarkable thing was that, from here and there in the crowd, these big bags with little fiery things dangling from them kept drifting up. At one time, about 25 of these UFOs could be seen, drifting high toward the Thames. It was wonderful to watch (and so quiet, by comparison to fireworks).

Then came a ragged, spontaneous countdown, and bam! The fireworks went off over Trafalgar, to the delight of all.

It was wonderful. The weather was cool and damp, but not uncomfortably cold (just as it’s been since we’ve been here, which I love — I would have been so disappointed had it been sunny).

So that’s what we did for New Year’s. What did you do? Oh, wait — you haven’t done it yet. Well, whenever midnight does reach you, have a wonderful time, and be safe and careful.

And have a wonderful 2011. I plan to.

Then came the

The world is even more with us

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The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.–Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

— William Wordsworth, 1802

Yeah, what Wordsworth said.

I am saddened by something that just happened in my home county of Lexington — or rather, the way it happened. Doug Ross already alluded to it — approvingly, of course. Therefore it is my duty to demur. Here’s the lowdown:

By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published Dec. 8, 2010

Amazon is coming into Lexington County — and the county’s blue laws are going out.

Part of the deal that landed Amazon, announced Tuesday, includes a requirement that the county end the blue laws, which generally restrict shopping before 1:30 p.m. on a Sunday.

Amazon’s distribution center is likely to operate at all hours, seven days per week. According to Lexington County Council Chairman Jim Kinard, to ensure there is no problem with its operations, the company asked that the law be changed.

“These guys apparently had never heard of blue laws,” Kinard said.

Amazon’s request for the deal was one part of the big investment that it is making in Lexington County. The company plans to build a $100 million distribution center in the county’s Saxe Gotha Industrial Park alongside Interstate 26. It is expected to employ 1,249 full-time workers and 2,500 part-time staffers during holiday rush seasons….

First, that’s awesome that the community is getting 1,000 jobs.

It’s not so awesome that something that culturally set the community apart from other, more hurried, communities was set aside willy-nilly, without any sort of community conversation.

Yep, I’ve heard all the arguments against blue laws, and I haven’t heard a good one yet. Count me among those who remembers (way, way long ago, like in the 60s) and misses the times when we truly got a day off on Sunday, a day when no one expected us to engage in the hustle-bustle of the other six days because we couldn’t. (And the biggest canard spread by those who advocated modernity on this is the one about how we can CHOOSE not to run around like headless chickens on Sunday. No, we can’t. If you can do something, the world — the expectations of your family, your neighbors, your employer, everyone — will crowd you into participating on some level. Ours is an interconnected universe. Don’t make me quote John Donne, too.)

Again, I’m glad that the community is getting this shot in the arm. And if I had been in the position of those officials needing to act quickly to make it happen, I might have done the same thing. And I certainly understand Amazon’s unwillingness to get caught in a legal bind.

But I just hate that it had to happen this way, so that the community didn’t get to have a conversation about what it was trading away.

A pre-session legislative discussion

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CRBR Publisher Bob Bouyea, Chamber President Otis Rawl, Rep. James Smith, Sen. Joel Lourie, Rep. Nathan Ballentine. In the foreground is former Rep. Elsie Rast Stuart, now chairwoman of the the Richland-Lexington Airport Commission. / grainy phone photo by Brad Warthen

I meant to post about this yesterday, when it happened, but better late than never.

ADCO had a table at the Columbia Regional Business Report‘s (that’s the outfit Mike Fitts is with) “Legislative Lowdown” breakfast at Embassy Suites. It was a good table. Lanier and I were joined by Alan Kahn, Jay Moskowitz, Bob Coble, Butch Bowers, Cameron Runyan and Grant Jackson.

We were there to hear a discussion by a panel featuring Otis Rawl from the state Chamber, Rep. James Smith, Sen. Joel Lourie, Rep. Nathan Ballentine and Rep. Chip Huggins. Joel was a few minutes late, and Chip had to leave just as Joel arrived, but it was still a good discussion.

Here’s Mike’s description of the event, in part (I’d quote the whole thing, but I don’t know how Mike’s cohorts feel about that Fair Use thing):

By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published Dec. 2, 2010

Lawmakers speaking at the Business Report’s Power Breakfast this morning said they see major difficulties ahead in the new budget year, but they also said there are new opportunities for bipartisanship.

The event, hosted at the Embassy Suites, featured Reps. Nathan Ballentine, R-Chapin, Chip Huggins, R-Columbia, and James Smith, D-Columbia; Sen. Joel Laurie, D-Columbia; and Otis Rawl, president and CEO of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce.

With a new Legislature and new governor coming to Columbia in January, much of the discussion focused on the budget crisis that will greet them.

Ballentine, a member of Gov.-elect Nikki Haley’s fiscal crisis task force, drew a stark picture of the challenges facing lawmakers. Ballentine compared the situation to a lifeboat with a limited number of seats. There won’t be enough dollars to take care of students, the elderly, the disabled and law enforcement, Ballentine said.

“Somebody’s going to get left out, and that’s going to hurt,” he said…

To Mike’s focused report I will add the following random observations:

I don’t know if this would have been the case if Chip Huggins had stayed, but the general consensus, or at least lack of overt conflict, between James, Joel and Nathan on issue after issue was quite noticeable. Nathan alluded to it, saying he was sure that the business people in the room were probably wondering why a pair of Democrats and a close ally of Nikki Haley were agreeing about issue after issue. (And some of the agreements were remarkable, going beyond mere civility, such as when Nathan volunteered his acknowledgement of the problems with Act 388.) Nathan further speculated that the audience might reasonably wonder why, in light of what they were hearing, the General Assembly had so much trouble getting anything done. He explained that the reason was that there were these 167 other people in the Legislature… And he was completely right. If we filled the Assembly with Jameses, Joels and Nathans, South Carolina would see a Golden Age of enlightened governance. These are reasonable young men who, despite their disagreements on some points are reasonable, deal with others in good faith, and truly want what’s best for South Carolina, and want it more than their own advancement or the good or their respective parties. If only their attitude were catching.
I’ll add to that point the observation that if all discourse about issues were on the intellectual level of this one, we’d see a very different, and much better, South Carolina. The conversation was wonderfully devoid of partisan, ideological, bumper-sticker cliches. For instance, I never heard anyone mention “growing government” or “taking back our state.” Observations were relevant, practical, and free of cant. I used to hear discussions like that regularly when I sat on the editorial board, because intelligent politicians did us the courtesy of leaving the meaningless catch-phrases behind. It was good to hear that kind of talk again. (It occurs to me that the fact that over the years I’ve been privileged to hear politicians at their best, trying to sound as smart as possible, may help to explain why I don’t have as jaded a view of officeholders as Doug and others do.) I’d be inclined to say that the discussion was on this level because the lawmakers were paying this assembly the same compliment of respect — but these particular lawmakers pay everyone that sort of respect. Which is why we need more like them.
Otis Rawl, incidentally, was slightly more confrontational — something you don’t usually see in a Chamber leader. He exuded the air at times of being impatient with the air of civil agreement in the room. When Nathan said that he had not realized when he voted for it the harm that Act 388 would cause — Otie challenged him directly, saying he knew good and well that his group had informed lawmakers ahead of time, and there was no excuse for anyone to claim innocence (I think he’s right in the aggregate — the body as a whole knew better, but ignored what they knew it order to scratch a political itch — but if Nathan says he didn’t understand, I believe him; he was a relatively inexperienced lawmaker at the time; and I appreciate greatly that he’s learned from experience). Awhile back, I chided Otie for not being more frank about what he thought on an issue. The Otis Rawl I saw Thursday morning could not be chided for the same thing. I suspect this reflects a growing dissatisfaction with Sanford-era fecklessness in the State House, which helped lead to the Chamber’s endorsement of Vincent over Nikki.
Speaking of Vincent, Nikki, Otie, James, Nathan and Joel … It struck me as interesting, just because language and civility interest me, that everyone speaking of Nikki Haley referred to her carefully as “Governor-Elect Haley.” It was notable partly because it was stilted coming from people who know her quite well as “Nikki,” but also because (and this might have been my imagination) there was a slight change of tone when the speakers said it, a shift to a formality mode. It seemed natural enough that the Democrats present would use that highly formal construction — it’s important to them (particularly since the two Democrats in question are Vincent Sheheen’s two best friends in the General Assembly) to sound scrupulously neutral and respectful in this post-election period. It’s a way of papering over their feelings about her election, and perfectly proper. It was also perfectly appropriate for Nathan to refer to her that way; it just sounded odder coming from him. They were seatmates, and allies in her fights with the leadership. But being a gentleman, he wasn’t going to top it the nob in a public setting by assuming excessive familiarity. Bottom line, just over a month ago ALL of them would have called her “Nikki.” But now they are the very pictures of proper Southern gentleman. Which I like. But then I’d like to see a return of the sort of manners I read about in Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. We just don’t see that very often nowadays.
As civil and intelligent as this discussion was (in fact, probably because it was so intelligent), it offered little hope for the General Assembly effectively dealing with any of the important issues facing our state in the foreseeable future. Everyone spoke with (cautious, on the part of the Democrats) optimism about Nikki — excuse me, Gov.-elect Haley — being able to work better with the Legislature than Mark Sanford has (a pitifully low bar). But I heard little hope offered that this, or anything else, would likely lead to the reforms that are needed. The institutional and ideological resistance to, say, comprehensive tax reform is just too powerful. The most hope Joel Lourie would offer is that steady pressure over a long period of time might yield some small progress. He cited as an example his and James’ long (eight-year) battle to get a sadly inadequate cigarette tax increase. The terrible truth, though, is that the cigarette tax was such a no-brainer — it shouldn’t have taken two days, much less eight years — that if IT took that long, much less simple and obvious reform seems unlikely in our lifetimes. But perhaps I’m not being as optimistic as I should be. It’s just that I’ve been fighting these battles, and hearing these same issues discussed, for so very long…

bradwarthen.com

All The News That Gives You Fits

Category Archives: Community

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The terrible, awful, horrible day that the VAT went up

The UFOs of Primrose Hill (Happy 2011!)

The world is even more with us

A pre-session legislative discussion

@palmettofamilyPalmetto Family Gov. Haley’s SC Prayer Breakfast text: Jeremiah 29:11. #fb

Making Hospitality Districts Hospitable

@palmettofamilyPalmetto Family
Gov. Haley’s SC Prayer Breakfast text: Jeremiah 29:11. #fb