Op-Ed
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To help or not to help — is it worth the risk?
I hate when I see someone hitchhiking or seemingly stranded on the side of the road — especially when that someone is a woman, even more so at night. It is deeply ingrained in my nature to want to help and I always have to remind myself — giving a…
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‘Tis the Season for Christmas movies
We all have our favorite Christmas traditions and growing up mine was gathering with my family after the presents had been opened to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life,” the black and white version, of course.
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Missing in America: “Because I know black girls don’t matter”
Over the weekend, I watched a dateline episode called The Girl Who Looked Like Me, and it broke my heart.
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Whoa, hold up Santa!
Is it just me, or do Christmas decorations seem to go up just a little bit earlier every year?
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Open-government movement has come a long way
It was ten years ago this month that I began developing plans for what would eventually become the state’s Fiscal Transparency Website — one of the first such sites the country. The goal was to provide citizens easy access to details about how state government spends their money. At the…
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Transparency a must for effective government
In establishing the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, the General Assembly found it “vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that citizens shall be advised of the performance of public officials and of the decisions that are reached in…
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A veteran contemplates Aug. 18
August 18 is not a particularly meaningful day in the history books. Certainly not a holiday — religious, secular, national, or otherwise. And yet to a few people it has significance almost beyond words as the 40th anniversary of two events on opposite sides of the world which, while relatively…
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One person keeps you in the dark
Government belongs to YOU, not politicians. You have every right to know what your elected and appointed officials are up to and how government bureaucracies operate at every level whether they be towns, cities, counties, school boards or state government. That’s why 40 years ago South Carolina enacted the Freedom…
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On the right side of history
Shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, July 9, the S.C. House gave final approval to a Senate bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from its place in front of the State House and retire it to the Confederate Relic Room. The Confederate battle flag is a symbol of…
