Letters to the Editor

Pruning overkill
Residents throughout Wappoo Shores are just tickled pink with SCE&G and its tree-butchering contractors. They did a stellar job this week in scalping live oaks, tulip poplars and other formerly beautiful trees throughout the neighborhood.

The power company’s formula for success must be to raise our rates for nuclear plants we don’t need, and then find folks to slice and dice our trees to wreak more havoc on our pocketbooks.

Thanks, SCE&G, for lowering our property values. And thanks for all of the overkill tree haircuts. Lord knows if there will be any trees left the next time rates go up.

Andy Brack

McClain Street

Charleston

Debate analysis
What did we learn? Not very much.

President Obama tried to tell us about what he has done, and it’s not much.

He has shown no leadership ability to get the Congress to resolve a wide variety of very serious problems, including the $1 trillion deficit each year of his term, high unemployment and the problems in the mortgage market. Also, his policies are not what the American people want.

Mitt Romney offers change and hope but he has little Washington experience. Hopefully he can get help from solid cabinet appointments.

Well, America, our choice is not clear. My own take on all this is that we cannot afford another four debt-ridden years.

So I’m voting for Romney, but without too much enthusiasm, and hope that the next four years will be better.

Phil Siegrist

Plantation Lane

Mount Pleasant

Harrell’s assets
Bobby Harrell is a statesman, and I am proud of his service to our great state.

In getting to know him, I have been most impressed by his dedication to advancing conservative principles that make South Carolina not just a great place for the average citizen to call home, but an attractive place for major businesses like Boeing.

Bobby Harrell spends most of his time doing what’s best for our state: Serving as an exemplar for other lawmakers in Columbia by working hard to encourage the passage of sound laws and to protect the tenets of our state’s constitution that matter most.

He is also an important member of our community, not just because of his leadership position in state government, but also because of his willingness to lend a hand to many important causes that make the Lowcountry a great place to call home.

It’s not uncommon for stones to be cast at people at the top of the political food chain. Having known a lot of political leaders, I can say I’ve yet to meet one without faults — after all, like the rest of us, they are but mere mortals.

Still, Bobby Harrell stands out among the long list of political leaders I know as a person of immense moral character, and someone who is guided by a strong moral compass.

South Carolina is at a pivotal point. Will we capitalize on the successes we have realized through many important business development efforts, in which Bobby Harrell has played important roles bringing to fruition?

Or will we say, “Let’s just be happy with all the new things we have”?

I’m confident most South Carolinians want more. And I know Bobby Harrell is not just someone who wants more for us, but someone who knows how to deliver results.

If we want South Carolina to be the best state it can be, we don’t just need a dedicated statesman like Bobby Harrell representing us in Columbia — we need more people just like him serving in state government.

James E. Livingston

Major General

U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Market Street

Charleston

Rate increase
The Public Service Commission has scheduled a hearing on Monday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. at the Longshoreman’s Assoc., 1142 Morrison Drive. This hearing is essential to the outcome of SCE&G’s request to increase electric rates. If they are granted the rate increase, it would make our electric rate one of the highest in the Southeast.

SCE&G’s stocks and dividends are the highest in a decade, so it is making a healthy profit now.

The questions that need to be asked are what has the company done to decrease its operating costs, what improvement in service such as meaningful assistance for its customers to purchase or lease and install solar panels, assistance in the purchase and installation of solar tubes for lighting, substantial assistance in the purchase of Energy Smart appliances and the exploration of domestic wind energy wherever feasible.

Household income should be considered in payment plans for those who cannot afford to pay the full amount of bills. SCE&G can do more for its customers, just as other companies offer “new and improved” quality to justify more money.

Your attendance is important to show the commission that the rate increase is a community concern, even if you are not a speaker.

Because SCE&G is a monopoly, the commission is our only voice to protest rate increases and adjust the company’s singular control of essential electrical power. Please attend.

Eleanor Horres

Bank Street

Mount Pleasant

A ‘good woman’
It is said that “behind every good man, there is a good woman.” Peatsy Hollings was a perfect example of this. While I did not not know her well, I did do work for her and Sen. Hollings for several years in the late 1990s.

At that time my sister-in-law was a German citizen. (She is now an American citizen as well.) Early one morning she called me in tears to say her father had passed away and she had been told that she could not leave the United States to be with her family.

There was a pile of red tape, and it would be at least three weeks before it could be cleared.

I made several calls to the American and German embassies with no success. Then it occurred to me to call Sen. Hollings’ office for help. I was told that the senator was tied up but I could speak with Peatsy. I briefly explained the situation to her. Within 20 minutes, one of her aides called to say that everything had been cleared up, and that Gisela (my sister in law) could leave on the next available flight from Atlanta to Frankfort, Germany.

In less then 12 hours my sister-in-law was in Germany with her family. Peatsy had made what seemed to be the impossible, possible. Later that week we received a condolence card from Peatsy, in her own handwriting.

Peasty Hollings was one of the best. We are saddened at her passing but will never forget her doing something that she certainly did not have to do.

Thomas Hood

Family Circle

Charleston

Church outrage
It seems to me that the (formerly) Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina is going to enormous trouble and expense to express outrage over gay people getting married and/or ordained as bishops.

The irony is that if gays were to play the hypocrite by staying in the closet and pretending to be straight, they would be welcomed with open arms.

It kind of makes one question what kind of authentic Christianity this might be — not to mention the kinds of people who profess belief in it.

Edmund LeRoy

Yeadon Avenue

Charleston

Obama’s fault
Mr. Obama made a statement during the last debate that floored me. He said to some extent that he knew the people that were assigned to the consulate in Benghazi, he had met their families and he was the one that sent them into harm’s way.

That being said, if he truly thought that way, if he knew he was sending Americans into harm’s way, why in God’s name didn’t he make sure that those embassies or consulates had sufficient security to help ensure that what happened in Benghazi didn’t happen?

Eight weeks prior to the attack the consulate in Benghazi requested their security forces be enhanced due to the fact that on two separate occasions bombs expoded at their gates. They were denied those enhancements.

Those who died in that terrorist attack on Sept. 11 did so needlessly. If the security forces had been enhanced they would still be alive today.

So Mr. Obama, I will take you at your word on this subject. It was, and still is, your responsibility and as such the blood of those who perished in that attack is on your hands.

Don Westland

Windsor Mill Road

Goose Creek