Letters to the Editor

Thanks to Dad
It is not flesh and blood but heart and devotion that make a great father.

Fourteen years ago, Jim Emery married my mother and entered our lives. I am so thankful for him — thankful that he loves my mother and his family more than himself.

Although he never rocked me to sleep, read me bedtime stories or helped me ride my first bike, he has been there for me in so many ways. I am thankful for the love and support he gives daily.

A great father shows that a man of character is responsible, unselfish, dependable, patient and loving. He is a positive influence and faithful to God.

As I have watched him over the years, I have seen a man who shows all of these characteristics daily. I appreciate all he has done for my three boys, my brothers and me. He is a disciplined all-American dad who has worked, laughed, played and shared his affection, kindness and devotion with us.

I thank God for him. He is in Summerville, and I have moved away, so miles are between us. But in my heart I know he is close.

KIM WILLARD
Fairhaven Drive
Yorkville, Ill.

Want to help
It’s the hot topic at every social gathering, and it has become the principal reason county residents lose sleep. We rack our brains through the wee hours and pray for guidance. “How are we going to find ways to help out the Beach Company?”

Comes the answer, booming from on high: “Subsidize a sewer for them to run through their estuarine marsh.”

What an elegant expression of appreciation from the county. Why, it just has the feel of divine guidance, doesn’t it?

PHILIP SNEAD
North Edgewater Drive

Charleston
Smoking ban
When MUSC banned smoking earlier this year, it gave the hospital’s public image a boost; however, instead of improving anything, it just forced the issue off campus. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

The problem is that the ban has forced employees, patients and visitors who wish to smoke to cross the street and find a place to do so. I live directly across the street from campus, and our apartment complex parking lot has become a mecca for smokers, day and night, who loiter here, filling our private property with cigarette smoke and covering the ground with cigarette butts. This is the scene all along the periphery of the MUSC campus.

The new ban on smoking has not deterred anyone from smoking. As an MUSC student, I can understand the good intentions of this new policy, but it has not been handled well.

I wish MUSC had considered the consequences before hastily implementing this flawed plan.

MAGGIE HORTON
Doughty Street

Charleston
The true ‘treasure’

Sen. Lindsey Graham says he is sick and tired of sending the money of hard-working American families overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts.

Too bad he doesn’t express the same opinion about how we are wasting our greatest treasure — the lives of young American men and women fighting wars on behalf of people who hate our guts.

SKIP CRANE
Seabrook Island Road

Seabrook Island
It’s who you know

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey’s daughter, Joanna Summey-Fuller, has been appointed a Charleston County magistrate to fill the remainder of the term held by her mother, Deborah Summey.

The process involved Mayor Summey approaching Sen. Robert Ford but not, he says, knowing how the process works — even after his wife had held the position for two terms.

Sen. Ford recommended her, thinking he was doing so for a brief period, not three and a half years. Sen. Larry Grooms thought he was supporting Deborah Summey.

It seems they were not clear about the situation, but each dutifully signed off on the appointment.

Sen. Chip Campsen asked, “Should Ms. Summey-Fuller be disqualified simply because she is the mayor’s daughter?”

I would say “no.” But I would ask, “Should she be put in the position because she is?”

The position was filled without considering other qualifed applicants.

Ms. Summey-Fuller assumed her new position June 1 with a salary of $55,692, rising to $74,256 in four years.

I am sure with some experience she will do a good job. Also, now that the entire Summey family is on the payroll (the mayor’s son Elliott is on Charleston County Council), we should let these civic-minded individuals serve. Let’s keep it in the family.

And we wonder why folks outside South Carolina laugh at our politics and fitness for office!

JUDY DILLOW
Nantuckett Avenue

North Charleston
Corrupt culture

Has our moral compass gone so far askew that Rep. Jim Merrill doesn’t recognize that his behavior — accepting large payments from the Realtors’ PAC and then promoting their agenda — is unethical?

Offhand, I can’t think of anything more arrogant or dismissive than his statement, quoted in the Monday Post and Courier, that “people may not like it, but that’s the way it is.” That is the equivalent of shrugging off everyone who thinks elected office should be about serving the public and not enriching oneself at the public’s expense.

What is more disturbing is the fact that the House Ethics Committee, the Ethics Committee, finds nothing wrong in this obvious conflict of interest.

When my wife and I moved here from Chicago two years ago, it was both with a sense of anticipation and relief that we were leaving what we thought was the most corrupt state in the nation. It appears that South Carolina may have a culture of corruption so entrenched as to make Illinois look like a model of probity by comparison

ROB WIEBOLDT
Perseverance Street

Mount Pleasant