Letters to the Editor

‘Buy local’
We hear a lot about buying local but rarely about what locally owned businesses contribute to the community.

The Yoga House, located off Highway 61 in the Total Wine Shopping Center, is giving back to the community in several ways.

Every Sunday at 4 p.m. it has a Purpose Class. A donation of at least $5 is suggested. All donations are distributed to a local charity/cause.

So far The Yoga House has supported the Ronald McDonald House, the Charleston Center and Yoga Benefits Kids. The Yoga House will be helping Blessings for Becky (colon cancer awareness) the Ruth Craven Foundation (postpartum depression prevention) and Hugs for Harper in the summer.

The Yoga House also offers free yoga to those who suffer from many of the conditions supported by these foundations.

At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, it offers a restorative yoga class free to cancer survivors and at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, a Mom & Baby class free to anyone with a child under the age of 18 months suffering from postpartum depression.

Fathers are welcome, too.
It gives me a great feeling to support local, knowing that local supports me.

Patty F. Tennant
Sheldon Road
Charleston

Gender abortions
It is ironic that lawmakers pandering for women’s votes would vote down a ban on gender-based abortions.

These “sex-based abortions” have been used for a generation in Asia to kill millions of females.

This will be a great way to suppress the future women’s voting block that they are pandering to and have their total buy-in at the same time.

David Bourgeois
Chucker Drive
Summerville

Powerful concerns
The June 4 story about our lieutenant governor was interesting, but a few words used about Glenn McConnell have stuck in my craw. Those words are “most powerful man in South Carolina.” I’ve seen them over and over again regarding McConnell.

Nothing I’m saying here applies specifically to him. But while it was good to have the most powerful man in Charleston County, do we as citizens really want a “most powerful man”?

Charleston has a powerful man as mayor, and other counties have powerful men in various positions too. Do all of them always — do any of them? — do the best thing for their constituents?

I would like to be the most powerful man myself. That would be good for me, but would it be good for everyone?

A powerful person in Columbia stopped almost 200 candidates from being on ballots across the state. Power is never used just for good.

Wouldn’t it be better to have a governor or lieutenant governor represent the state’s interests rather than local interests? Shouldn’t we want honest, respectable men in government rather than powerful men?

We in Charleston want all the good stuff in Charleston, but people in Richland and Oconee counties want all the good stuff in their counties too. If resources are better suited elsewhere, wouldn’t it be better for the state to put that stuff there?

I have long been a supporter of term limits at every level to keep us on a level playing field. There would never be a most powerful man.

Elections are our way of limiting terms. I hope we will make the most of our power on June 12 and again in November.

Lowell H. Knouff
Elaine Street
Johns Island

To each his own
I find it more repugnant that people are so offended by “Fifty Shades of Grey” than anything the series contains. No, I’m not a fan of some of the scenarios in the books, but it is fiction.

Some people are prudes to the point of being ridiculous. I happen to love the series and am halfway through the second book. I wouldn’t recommend this set to a minor, but nothing wrong with a consenting adult reading it.

If you don’t like it fine, but don’t put down others who do.

Susan Cales
Floydtown Road
Jamestown

Home of God
A plan by a “restorationist” to convert the venerable church at 43 Wentworth Street into a residence is exceedingly problematic.

The proposed conversion probably will require compromising the interior of the church, which is characterized by a large, high-ceilinged open space, with galleries on three sides, an expansive arch defining the apse, box pews, an exquisite carved wood pulpit, and a painting of the risen Christ.

Not really a homey atmosphere, it is reflective of the ancient concept of the temple as the home of the God, a place for contemplation, not for cooking and couch potatoing.

Any changes to the exterior will have to be approved by the Board of Architectural Review. But the BAR has no jurisdiction of any alteration of the interior. This is yet another argument, which many preservationists have been making for years, for the jurisdiction of the board to be expanded to include review of proposals affecting significant historic interiors.

The Board of Zoning Appeals approved a usage variance on June 5, and according to a June 8 story the sale of the property to the private owner was to be completed the same week.

Built ca. 1840 for a Methodist congregation, the temple-form building with a Greek Doric portico afterwards became St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church. The Lutheran congregation left downtown some years ago and title to the property was conveyed in 2009 to Holy Spirit Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bees Ferry Road.

Redundant churches are a problem in Charleston, as in other communities. But the historic church at 43 Wentworth Street is still in use, by the small but active congregation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

It might be better to focus on ways to allow Redeemer Presbyterian to continue to use the property.

The property also includes a large and handsome fellowship hall, built in 1934 and designed by Simons & Lapham, the most important Charleston architectural firm of the 20th century. There is also a churchyard in which tombs and gravestones remain.

Homey? Maybe if you are the Munsters.

Robert P. Stockton
Montagu Court
Charleston

Belated blessing
Now that the Town of James Island is the size of a postage stamp and far from representative of the island of James, Mayor Riley big-heartedly gives the town his blessing.

Bah!
Alfred F. Croucher III
Riverland Drive
Charleston

Still unclaimed
I read in the June 2 Post and Courier that 23 of our 170 state legislators have been identified by the state treasurer as owning unclaimed property being in his Palmetto Payback Program.

This raises several questions:
1) Are these the same legislators who are in charge of managing our state’s business who cannot or have not kept track of their own property? Just how well do you think they will do managing our state’s resources?

2) If in fact the state treasurer knows the owners of the property, why is it listed as unclaimed?

3) Why is the state treasurer doing research for legislators with unclaimed property? I doubt he is doing so for me or you.

Thomas E. Clark
Mendenhall Street
Summerville

Economics lesson
Borrowing or printing new money to stimulate the sagging economy with “make work” jobs is like the unqualified seaman aiming a portable fan at the sails of his boat and wondering why it won’t move forward.

Any 12-year-old “C” student will be happy to explain why.

Thomas F. Kistner
Magwood Drive
Charleston