Why doesn’t county talk?

Dear Editor,

There have been several articles about Pickens County building fire stations and turning the existing system “upside-down.”

[cointent_lockedcontent]Repeatedly, the articles have quoted Easley and Pickens leaders as saying they don’t know what’s going on or why. According to the articles, the buildings have been delayed, contracts revoked and it appears much equipment will need to be purchased as well as many new firemen hired.

Yet the county remains quiet. Who is paying for all of this and why? I filed a FOIA request asking if city tax money was being used and was told to look on the county website.

I believe it’s illegal to use city tax money to provide a service that the city already provides. Perhaps one of our legislators should get a legal opinion on that. Yet the county remains quiet.

The contract revocation appears mean-spirited and punitive. For what? The county got mad at the press (for reporting truthfully) and discussed hiring a public information officer. All they have to do is let the public know what they are doing and why.

This council continues to hurt Pickens County, and it needs to stop. There are at least a dozen unanswered and unaccounted-for actions by them, from killing a mental health grant ($250,000!) to slandering individuals to wasting huge sums of money firing people so they can continue to run things “like we used to.” Laughable if not so sad and harmful. And embarrassing.

Tom O’Hanlan

Liberty

GOP hurting the little guy

Dear Editor,

I have been listening to the GOP candidates for president, and they all seem to be saying the same things. Cut Social Security, get rid of Medicaid, cut Medicare, cut education, repeal Obamacare, etc. Everything that help the majority of the population seems to be on their agenda to do away with or cut.

How come I never hear any one of them say any of the following things?

“Let’s close tax loopholes that allow corporations and the rich to offshore money to evade taxes.”

“Let’s close loopholes that allow corporations and the rich to pay little or no taxes.”

“Let’s close loopholes that allow corporations to set up phony offshore headquarters to evade taxes.”

“Let’s stop paying corporate subsidies.”

“Let’s close the loophole that rewards companies that move American jobs offshore.”

“Let’s raise taxes on the rich.”

They are willing to hurt the little guy, but they sure refuse to make the rich or corporations pay their fair share.

Another thing I notice that affects this state — our wonderful governor and attorney general are joining the lawsuit against the new EPA emission regulations. Let’s see — South Carolina lost the immigration lawsuit, the voter ID lawsuit, the Obamacare lawsuit and the same-sex marriage lawsuit. Now we’re going to waste more money on another ALEC/Koch brothers lawsuit. We can’t fix our roads, fund education or decrease the backlog in the legal system, but we can waste more taxpayer money on another ALEC/Koch sponsored lawsuit. Wonder what the connection is between the governor and attorney general and the law firms they hire to represent South Carolina?

Larry Allen

Easley

A man of contradictions and platitudes

Dear Editor,

Dr. Ben Carson, who is running on the Republican ticket for president, spoke in Seneca on Monday.

Dr. Carson, who is African-American, told the story of his youth and how, as he grew, he distanced himself from his black and visionless peers and went on to become a doctor.

One problem that poor people have, Dr. Carson said, is that they make more money on welfare than they do working. “So why work?” he asked. Yet in the next breath, Dr. Carson refuted the notion of raising the minimum wage to a level that would get people out of poverty. To this contradiction in logic, he offers only platitudes.

The event was booked as a Latino outreach, but only one Latino attended. Perhaps the rest of the Latino population had read Dr. Carson’s recent statement that if he were president, he would use drones to kill all undocumented workers in the USA. The idea of being murdered by Dr. Carson as they sleep in their beds with their wives and children perhaps does not appeal to Latinos. Dr. Carson is a mild-mannered doctor who believes in mass murder. Hmmmmm, contradiction on steroids.

Dr. Carson is a black man, running as a Republican candidate, who does not see black skin when he looks in the mirror. He sees a man who has escaped black poverty and is no longer associated with “those folks.” He totes the Republican line and does not thank his cultural predecessors for getting him to where he is today. Instead, he mouths the words of the Republican white man, hoping that no one will notice the contradictions.

Marley Allgood

Seneca

Political bullying needs to have consequences

Dear Editor,

The recent S.C. GOP Executive Committee “hearing” on whether or not Pickens County’s GOP Convention was valid got me to thinking about all that money, time and energy wasted.

Think about all the stress GOP leader Phillip Bowers, his wife and their family have had to endure over the past five months, including the wild goose chase that someone put SLED on in order to harass Phillip by having him “investigated” over something a judge had already thrown out of court. Think back about the harassment of Ed Harris, his wife and their family when B.R. Skelton lost his race to Ed. Think about the fact that Skelton was a sore loser and pursued legal action against Bowers and Harris. The judge ruled fairly that there was no foul play and threw it out of court. But again … all that stress, wasted time, wasted money and wasted energy.

Costs associated with all these bullying debacles originated from elected leaders. Shouldn’t there be consequences for bullying coming out of the pocket of those legislators who do all this bullying? Dirty politics by elected leaders needs consequences.

Thank God common sense prevailed during the S.C. GOP committee hearing and truth came into light. This was an attempt by moderate GOP elected officials who are constantly reaching across the aisle to embrace the Democrats’ progressive ideology.

Our elected leaders are not following the S.C. GOP platform. Read it and you will see. If you don’t agree with the S.C. GOP platform, then find another party to join.

We have elected leaders who are trying to bully we the people. They hope we will give up on Christian conservative Constitutional ideology and become more “progressive.” They hate the grassroots “tea party” type. They call us names, harass and bully us. They try to discredit good, honest, hard-working people who want freedom, transparency, accountability, their taxes kept low, the Constitution and our S.C. GOP platform followed.

Neal Collins, David Hiott, Gary Clary and Larry Martin need to feel the consequence of bullying in their wallet. They need consequences for wasting money, time and energy. The best consequence would be for we the people to fire them in their next election cycle.

I’m on mission to make that happen. Join me.

Let’s show these power-hungry legislator bullies that we the people don’t like their bullying techniques.

Please make plans to attend the next Pickens County GOP meeting, scheduled for Sept. 17. Mark your calendar now. It is past time we the people get up and say no to progressive ideology or we will lose our democratic republic to progressive socialism.

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens

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