Letters to the Editor

Summey's fight

I am writing to express my concern and grievance about the proposed rail line on the north end of the Navy Yard in North Charleston.

My wife and I proudly relocated to the Park Circle area in January of 2008. We were drawn to this community for the tremendous potential and vision that our local government and developers were promising.

Park Circle has provided a true sense of character, convenience and community.

Having our poorly run Legislature and equally inept port authority make such an underhanded move, does not come as a surprise. Having our elected state officials take little consideration in their decisions is an all too often trend these days.

While I have had fiscal differences with our local government recently, I take great solace in Mayor Keith Summey's tenacity to take on this fight. Our city and county councils seem well prepared to stand their ground. However, this will take an organized effort by the residents of Park Circle and North Charleston. Please take the time to spread the word and express your opinions. Encourage others around the state to contact their state representatives.

Our community has come a long way and we do not want to take a step backward. Opening these rail lines will reverse any momentum that has built in recent years.

JONATHAN McCLELLAN
Parkside Drive
North Charleston

Torture facts

In reference to your May 19 editorial titled "End torture witch hunt," good conscience requires a reply. First and foremost, waterboarding is torture under every definition, including the Geneva Convention, Federal Statutes (U.S. Torture Act of 2000, etc.), the U.S. Army Manual, other treaties and by every definition of every civilized country. The United States prosecuted the Japanese for waterboarding; it has been torture ever since it was used in the Spanish Inquisition. To argue otherwise is, to say the least, disingenuous on your part.

The editorial cites a legal standard of actions "shocking the conscience." Since waterboarding is defined as torture, and torture is illegal and contrary to many treaties of which the U.S. is a signatory, then it clearly may not be used without violating the law, whether it shocks your conscience or not.

You say that it was used to prevent mass murder. The facts do not bear this out. According to many individuals, including Col. Wilkerson (Colin Powell's chief aid), Lt. Col. Mallow (a Guantanamo investigator) and various CIA agents, waterboarding was used to extract confessions of an alleged link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. If this is true, even the motive behind the waterboarding was political, not national security. That should shock the conscience of most.

The editorial closes by calling on President Obama to serve the national interest by making it clear that the "witch hunt regarding torture" is over. But a president has no right under the Constitution or any other law to end the investigation or the prosecution of individuals for torture. That is the responsibility of the Justice Department.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws, not men. If the president, vice president, House speaker or anyone else broke the law, then that person should be prosecuted because that is the law. If it is not the law, then we are truly a nation of men and politics rather than a nation of laws.

RICK STRINGER
McDonough Road
Folly Beach

Odor of money

While traveling I-526 passing the paper mill and the big American flag flapping in your direction, the smell of money is still very interesting.

LENNY BRANCH
Houston Northcutt Boulevard
Mount Pleasant

Adjust traffic light

I routinely drive the short section of Magwood Road between Glenn McConnell Parkway and Henry Tecklenberg Boulevard in West Ashley. I'm struck by how traffic backs up on Tecklenberg in both directions from the three-way stop between Bon Secours Saint Francis Hospital and Lowes. The backup results because too few vehicles can get through the short green light at Glenn McConnell Parkway.

This is a heavily traveled intersection. Can't we get some relief? Adjust the light to relieve this unnecessary bottleneck at peak traffic times.

SUZANNE BRUCE
Radcliffe Place Drive
Charleston

Graham on war

I'm saddened at Sen. Lindsey Graham's recent comments at the S.C. Republican Convention. His still strong advocacy for the Iraq war, which has now been fully exposed as being fundamentally wrong in that none of the reasons given for the war have been substantiated, resonates with a chilling tone.

There have been no weapons of mass destruction found nor have there been any links found between Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein. It's a bit shameful to be yelling pro-Iraq war rhetoric from 2003 six years later in 2009.

How is anyone supposed to respect the opinion and judgment of someone who can't accept the veracity of a subject because it conflicts with his previous stance on it? A quality of a good leader is being able to acknowledge when he has been wrong. Whether it's a political ploy to keep good face with the Republican party or just plain stubbornness, South Carolina deserves better representation.

JASON GREGORY
Ingram Road
Charleston

Protect students

Note to Rep. Joan Brady and anyone else in the S.C. General Assembly who thinks it's OK to protect straight teens, but not lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens from dating violence. Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights act was modified by Nabozny v Podlesny in 1996. Schools are required under the federal act to provide equal protection from violence to LGBT students. If the state of South Carolina is set on extending additional protection from violence in teen relationships to straight students under H-3543 then they will absolutely be required to extend the same protection to LGBT teens under Title IX.

The judgment in the Nabozny case against the school system and individual administrators for not providing equal protection to Jamie Nabozny was just short of a million dollars. The Seventh Circuit also found that the school administrators who failed to protect the gay student did not have qualified immunity and therefore could be held individually liable, and in fact they were. This could easily be extended to legislators and school administrators who are ignorant of federal law and insist on encouraging a climate to flourish in which LGBT kids are abused.

Please let the folks in the S.C. General Assembly know that they need to get ready to start writing some big checks if H-3543 passes. You can't choose to protect one group of kids more than another. When it comes to protecting children it's all or none.

CHARLIE SMITH
McClain Street
Charleston

Oil reserves

All the countries in the world that have oil reserves are producing all they can to generate income for their country.

Meanwhile, the United States has reserves in Alaska, the West coast, the East coast, the Gulf coast as well as shale deposits, which in total, are much larger than most countries' reserves.

But what do we do?

We snub our nose at all the oil riches we have, which could reduce our huge deficit significantly, and instead, we import a large percentage of our oil needs from many of the countries who hate us and are trying to kill our troops. Tell me, is our country and are our politicians out of their minds?

LOUIS ANDERSON
Glen Abbey
Kiawah Island