Letters to the editor

A good neighbor
As the commitment grows to support local businesses, Crisis Ministries wants to thank an essential local partner in our fight to end homelessness and hunger. Piggly Wiggly’s “Local Since Forever” campaign reminds us of the dedication this company shows to the people who make their business possible.

Using local suppliers and businesses, and being employee-owned, is only part of their local commitment. Piggly Wiggly’s pledge to support local charities and causes makes good business sense and makes our community stronger.

In 1987, Piggly Wiggly donated the location at 573 Meeting St. that is the current home of Crisis Ministries. When we launched the campaign to raise money for our new building, Piggly Wiggly came to the table with a meaningful investment.

As we continue to build support for and raise funds for Charleston’s new homeless shelter and soup kitchen, we are thankful that Piggly Wiggly is with us every step of the way.

I know I’m not the only one who was moved by the new Piggly Wiggly ad campaign. The campaign means that much more to me because I have seen the benefits of their support first-hand. From donating food to our Food Rescue program, to volunteering in the Soup Kitchen, to supporting our capital campaign, Piggly Wiggly is acting local to help those in need.

Stacey W. Denaux
CEO
Crisis Ministries

Meeting Street
Charleston
A case of survival

The Supreme Court will soon decide the fate of the nation. The very existence of the Republic and liberty is at stake.

The founders feared a government with strong central powers. Consequently, they designed a system of dual sovereignty (state and federal) with specifically enumerated powers. James Madison wrote that the powers of the states are “numerous and infinite” while the federal government’s are “few and defined.”

Creating a spirit for individual and economic freedom, this diffusion of power formed the foundation of American exceptionalism. As a result, America became the freest, most productive and richest nation on the planet.

In 1937, intimidating the Supreme Court, President Roosevelt expanded the Constitution’s Commerce Clause with new federal regulations. His actions created a legacy of judicial activism and expanding federal power.

Despite Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Commerce Clause has always applied directly to active commercial or economic transactions, and not to people. The Constitution distinguishes between the two.

Simply stated, the states can pass laws to regulate people simply because they are citizens. Known as police powers, the Constitution withholds that power from the federal government.

For example, the states can require their citizens to have automobile insurance, or a driver’s license, etc.; the federal government cannot make those demands. However, by requiring everyone to have health insurance, Obama-Care’s individual mandate will do just that.

In a new use of the Commerce Clause, the government is arguing that inactivity, i.e., the absence of commerce, is commerce; in short, deciding not to buy health insurance economically affects inter-state commerce. It claims, therefore, the right to mandate health insurance for everyone.

Upholding the individual mandate will effectively grant the federal government police powers, eliminating the distinction between state and federal sovereignty while destroying our federal system of government. The states will simply become subsidiaries of the federal government whose power will virtually have no bounds.

Madison wrote that freedom is lost by “gradual and silent encroachments,” not by “violent and sudden uurpations.” Finding ObamaCare unconstitutional, the court can strike a blow for limited government and preserve our way of life.

Bill Bissette
Short Street
Charleston

Drug testing
Conservative legislators in Columbia, backed by Gov. Nikki Haley, are pushing a bill that would require unemployed workers to pass a drug test before they can receive unemployment insurance. Wouldn’t it make more sense to drug-test the legislators?

After all, legislators make important decisions every day that deeply affect every one of us. Shouldn’t we know for certain they are making those decisions while they’re not under the influence of drugs? We already test other people who make decisions that affect us all, such as police officers, firefighters and members of the military. Why shouldn’t we require the same of our legislators?

Better yet, why not drug-test all public officials? One can only guess at how many decisions former state treasurer Thomas Ravenel made while flying around on cocaine, and what effects those decisions had. Anybody think he was the only one?

All of which makes me wonder: Why hasn’t one of those legislators introduced a bill that would demand drug testing of all legislators, if not all public officials? Why would any one of them oppose it?

By the way, how much would drug testing all those unemployed people cost us? And where will that money come from?

Skip Johnson
Meeting Street
Charleston

Protect yourself
I totally agree with Gail Collins’ commentary on March 3 “Gun ‘rights’ go wrong when they cross state borders.” I don’t think any law-abiding, concealed weapon carrying (or just smart) South Carolinian should visit New York, especially New York City.

A total of 292 people were killed by gunfire in New York City in 2011. Last Labor Day weekend, that city had 52 shootings in just three days.

North Charleston had 55 reported gun-related crimes last month. In 2005, 477,040 people were victims of firearm crimes in this country.

On a brighter note, the FBI stated that in 2011 gun crimes decreased as gun ownership had increased. Imagine that. We live in a society with people who care nothing about your property, your rights nor your life. To assume that “Central Services” will protect you is wishful ignorance. Unless things change, don’t become a statistic.

Pat Kilroy
Milton Drive
Goose Creek

Reckless notion
One of the finer old traditions of this country, and what separates us from other countries, is the belief that we settle our differences at the ballot box, and not with guns.

For The Post and Courier to publish a letter from a citizen who advocates using guns to remove from government people who were elected in the democratic process is profoundly irresponsible and incendiary.

The timing is especially unfortunate as the Supreme Court seems poised to declare unconstitutional the individual mandate, which was signed into law in the due process assigned to a democratically elected Legislature, has been successfully defended in conservative courts, and will probably shake out in a close decision along party lines. As for the ongoing push to ban assault weapons, requiring a measure of mental stability for a person wanting to purchase a gun, and restricting the purchase of multiple weapons to prevent black market sales, haven’t we had enough tragedies in the recent past to justify such common-sense precautions? I would remind your readers that it is the people who are charged with protecting the peace, the police, who are most concerned with pushing these reforms.

It is frightening to me that there are people out there who believe that the remedy for government decisions that they don’t agree with should be settled with guns, and horrifying that our local newspaper gives them a measure of credibility by publishing such extreme views. What were you thinking?

DEBBY McGREGOR
Acacia Street

Charleston
Shoddy products
It may surprise the writer of the April 3 letter titled “Short-lived fridges” to know that most appliances are no longer made in the United States. They are made mainly in China because of the very cheap labor, yet we have to pay high prices for that junk.

When my wife and I bought our last fridge and washer, we bought Whirlpool. We did so because the salesman informed us that Whirlpool appliances were about the only ones still made in the U.S.

Also, if you read the April 2 business section, go to the “Recalls” section. You will find that most of the recalls are on products made in China. They are sending us junk, and we have to pay top dollar for it so that the big name appliance manufacturing companies here in the United States can post a big profit.

Joseph Ohorodnyk Sr.
Vickie Street

Ladson
Road construction
After reading Allyson Bird’s Crosstown construction article and watching the video posted online, I was shocked that the Westside neighborhood was being subjected to chronic noise above the 85 decibel level that induces permanent hearing loss, as stated by the EPA in 2009, with nighttime recommendations no higher than 50 decibels.

Ignoring this at even 60 decibels causes stress hormones to elevate, putting adults and children at risk for heart attacks, ulcers, learning and emotional difficulties, high blood pressure, and depression. Excessive noise during pregnancy can result in newborn hearing loss, prematurity, and congenital abnormalities.

Road construction happens, but detours do, too, and undoubtedly alternate routes can be found allowing for daytime construction offering a more humane solution than imposing unlivable conditions on neighborhoods comprised of 200 children as pointed out by Kennedy Street resident La’Sheia Oubre.

To make matters worse, the water, which is running brown, and the diminished air quality most certainly exacerbate the situation.

This is a blatant disregard for residents with city leadership turning a blind eye. When cognitive impairment, emotional issues, heart disease, and fetal distress are at stake this is more than a traffic story.

Terry Monell
Beverly Drive
Charleston

True democracy
What is the biggest threat to our nation’s economic success? According to Daron Acemoglu, an MIT economics professor, there is a direct correlation between successful economies and political equality — where every citizen has an equal voice and hence influence.

He refers to “extractive elites and institutions,” those privileged few with inordinate access to the political process and system, corrupting it to enable them to gorge on the riches of the nation. Our upcoming election offers a good insight into where we are heading on this issue.

Jack Abramoff describes how easy it is for our massive lobby industry to influence our elected officials and their staff through incentives and inducements, abandoning their commitment to representing constituents’ interests thereby devaluing their voice and vote. The Citizens United ruling has allowed shadow entities with vast resources to ensure their specific self-serving agenda is inserted into the legislative process.

The illogical resistance to leveling the tax burden on the wealthiest 1 percent (who now account for a record 25 percent of the nation’s income) enables these obscenely rich to influence and resist any form of government oversight, so they can continue to freely pursue their often highly leveraged, extractive risk ventures.

Unless we level the playing field for everyone, whereby the nation’s talent pool can be fully harnessed, we will decline. With median household wages stagnant for 30 years, costs of college tuition prohibitive for many, job insecurity and lack of health care common, our nation’s hallmark innovative strength is at risk. And at the core is the ability for every citizen to have an equal voice in how their government represents the interests of the majority at all times — it’s called democracy.

David J. Waldron
Cottonfield Drive

Mount Pleasant