Letters to the Editor

Painful memories

Changing the past cannot happen. You may go as far as forgiveness allows but no further. Even that doesn't change the past; it simply swears an oath to make peace with it.

Reading the Jan. 27 story titled 'Posthumous pardon denied 100 years after slaying' sent shivers down my spine. I am all too familiar with both sides of this issue. Viewing my only brother's 20-year-old, lifeless body still flashes in my mind two decades later.

Flashbacks of that October evening and subsequent two years still flood my thoughts, as do the couple who killed him.

Now both parties are dead. I was forced to learn how to forgive two murderers and shake the urge to hate their very name, and then to learn to live without my brother. It is torture enough to the families who know this happened to someone they love — both the victims and the ones accused — but a posthumous pardon will neither give peace to the departed nor stop the memories in the minds of the survivors.

To be perfectly clear, even a death sentence failed to stop my sorrow. That is one valley I pray I never have to walk through again.

'God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.' — Reinhold Niebuhr

Letisha M. Lewis

Archdale Boulevard

North Charleston

Postal failures

Hats off to the writer of the letter regarding the post office and its lack of performance.

Christmastime was when I last went to a post office. The Saturday before Christmas I raced to the post office on Johns Island to mail a package.

Lo and behold, it was closed. It was 11:30 in the morning. I was told it had closed at 10:30 a.m.

Many other would-be patrons were frantic in the parking lot when someone told us that the James Island post office was still open, but we'd better hurry.

I raced to James Island and got there at 11:40. I ran with my package in hand, sure it was still open as there were people inside. It was locked. It closed at 11:30 a.m.

I remembered a UPS store about a half mile up Folly Road and raced there. The door was unlocked and there were smiling faces greeting me and assuring me my package would get there by Christmas.

They have more mailing options than the post office. I was out of the store in five minutes. I was also told they would be open until 6 p.m. that day if I had additional packages to mail.

So I guess I need to ask, why would I bother to go to the post office again? We need to stop wasting money and bailing out government agencies that don't earn their keep.

Miriam H. Rockwell

Fenwick Hall

Johns Island

BAR is wrong

I live on Smith Street and remember sweet Olivia Saylor well; she always stopped and said hello to my two young boys and had a lovely and kind demeanor. My husband and I are absolutely astounded by the Board of Architectural Review's refusal to allow her family to create a garden to remember her.

Its heartbreaking that the egos involved in this matter aren't allowing an opportunity to ease someone's suffering and be a part of an authentic gesture. Besides the fact that a garden would allow a beautiful bit of green space on a part of the street where there is very little, it's quite simply the right thing to do.

I also think Mr. Saylor has the right to do nothing with the property now. His meaning is clear to me and anyone who has lost a loved-one before their time.

Catherine Cooper Lipp

Smith Street

Charleston

Dubious change

As a daily reader, I am extremely disappointed by your plan to begin charging subscribers extra for Friday's TV Week insert. Next, I can foresee an extra charge to receive the grocery ads on Wednesdays, followed by a new charge to get the Parade magazine on Sundays.

Over the past couple of years, subscription costs have increased occasionally, an unfortunate, but understandable rise considering increased costs for printing and delivery.

Your decision to start charging extra for individual parts of the paper, however, is ill-considered and troubling. If you want to raise subscription prices, do it but don't 'nickel and dime' your subscribers like this.

It seems to me that subscribers are key to The Post and Courier's viability. We are consistent, dedicated readers. We keep your circulation up so you can draw in advertisers.

Are we now to be treated as 'second class citizens' compared to those who buy from newspaper racks?

Why should those casual, occasional buyers get the complete paper, while subscribers have to pay extra for the pieces and parts?

This is a bad business decision. I predict it will result in lost subscriptions, lower revenue and ill will from the very readers you should be trying hardest to please.

Steve Kappler

Moon Shadow Lane

Summerville

GOP to blame

The Republicans complaining about the federal deficit is very much like the Menendez brothers complaining because they are orphans.

Taxes are at a 60-year-low and the federal deficit is at a record high. Duh.

Wayne Salkeld

Cross Timbers Drive

Mount Pleasant

Ford is right

Hats off to you, Sen. Robert Ford. If God had said what you did about 'brothers' vs. Mexicans, it would not have been truer, legal or not.

They are slowly but surely taking over some industries, and it's because they are hard workers. They don't rely on government to support them.

If Dot Scott and Carol Fowler aren't living under rocks, they know this is so, and if they don't, they should wake up and smell the beans. In fact, what torques their jaws is that Ford is telling the truth — in print.

It took some courage to say what he did, and he owes an apology to no one.

C.B. Jones Jr.

Stono Ferry

Hollywood