Letters to the Editor

Video poker's value

Regarding the comments made by the letter writer who said that Sen. Robert Ford's support of video poker was "bad for the poor":

I would comment that we cannot control what people do with their lives. If video poker is not available, there is the state lottery. If the lottery "went away," there would still be bingo. If all forms of legal gambling were banished, there would still be illegal gambling.

All I know is that during the period when video poker was legal in South Carolina, our state budget operated in the black and not in the red as we have for some years now.

State regulation and taxation of video poker could raise sorely needed money for schools, roads and social programs that have been cut deeply and are continuing to be cut.

Money is not going to come from the palmetto trees that grace our state anytime soon.

LEIF & SUSAN GRYTEBUST

Bramblewood Drive

Summerville

Make love not war

As I read the Dec. 27 front-page story titled "All's fair in love and war," my heart raced, and I felt assured that the Bush administration had finally come to its senses. Love is all you need!

SHEA ONOFREY

Brookbank Avenue

Charleston

Audience behavior

My husband, son and I attended the evening performance of "The Nutcracker" by the Russian Ballet at the Performing Arts Center recently. What a shock the audience behavior was.

This is the first time we have been to this venue. Usually we attend the Gaillard Auditorium, the Sottile Theater, the Dock Street Theatre (before it closed for renovations) and other Charleston locations.

Many in the audience carried beverages and popcorn, etc., to their seats, putting those they climbed over or those who were seated nearby in danger of having the snacks and drinks dropped on them. It was disruptive and showed a lack of respect to the performers.

Can't people watch anything for more than a few minutes without chomping or guzzling something?

Is it possible for audience members to refrain from removing their shoes, leaving them in the aisle for others to trip over while they sit on their feet, or stick their bare feet onto the seat in front of them, "perfuming the air"?

Perhaps, if people would stand up when others attempt to reach their seats, they wouldn't have to trip over those who were seated.

I enjoyed the ballet, but it seemed more like being at a circus or a baseball game than like being at a theater performance.

Thank goodness that in most theaters in Charleston, people show a bit more consideration. Could it be that the theater's management is more interested in the revenue from selling food and drinks and that it feels there is simply not enough time before the show or during intermission for them to make the most money?

At any rate, I'll stay in Charleston from now on.

PHYLLIS FULLMER

Stanyarne Drive

Charleston

Where is NAACP?

The recent proposal for the closing and consolidation of a number of Charleston County schools under the guise of financial crisis is affecting only schools that are predominantly black. The NAACP is frighteningly silent regarding this matter. The community is in an uproar.

All of the meetings that were held supposedly to explain the proposals should give the school board and other community organizations, including the NAACP, a reading on the pulse of the community. Both blacks and whites are opposed to the reorganization or closure plan.

Yet the local NAACP has not made a sound about how devastating these closings would be for black children. For example, the proposed closing of E.L. Frierson Elementary School would mean that 4- and 5-year-old children would have to get up at 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. in order to be bused to schools on James Island and Johns Island.

They would probably not return home until 4 p.m. at the earliest. That is a tremendous amount of stress to put on a young child.

Does the local NAACP not realize that the children who would be dislodged from St. John's High School on Johns Island to West Ashley High or from Lincoln High School in McClellanville to Wando High in Mount Pleasant would be severely impacted?

Is the local NAACP in the vest pocket of the Charleston County School Board and those who control it?

Perhaps Arthur Ravenel is right in saying the local NAACP is an irrelevant organization.

While I might not go that far, I do think the present leadership of the local NAACP is not doing any good for the Charleston community regarding the school closure problems.

REV. MICHAEL R. MACK

Barnes Drive

Charleston

Lost in translation

The Charleston County School District administration should have been studying school closings and consolidations for five years.

Instead, they began doing it only after administrative salaries had gone up by millions of dollars.

Talking about saving money now loses something in translation, doesn't it?

SANDI ENGELMAN

Julia Street

Charleston

Keeping funds safe

Your recent editorial criticized the policy of the U.S. government to invest the funds of Old Age Survivor and Disability Insurance in Treasury bills, as those funds are supposed to be earmarked for the benefit of retired persons, survivors and the disabled.

This is a comment I hear much about — that the funds from this largest of Social Security programs are commingled with the general funds of the Treasury.

However, I think this commingling is a good idea. It is better to invest that money safely and securely than let it sit idle.

After all, Treasury bills pay interest: The government just doesn't repay the coffers of the OASDI fund what it borrowed, but it also pays the interest.

IRVING S. ROSENFELD

Simpkins Street

James Island

Need traffic light

Right by the Waffle House by Long Point Road there is no traffic light. I want to put a traffic light there. There have been several crashes, and it is not safe.

I am 7 years old, and my friend's mother had an accident.

ISABELLE CHUY

Hibben's Grant Boulevard

Mount Pleasant

Bridge parking

A Jan. 5 Post and Courier article stated that the town of Mount Pleasant (a public organization, building a park with public funds) has criticized the Omar Shrine Temple (a private organization) for not allowing walkers and runners of the Ravenel Bridge (a public structure) to park for free.

Does this make sense to anyone? If the town of Mount Pleasant is so "upset," why doesn't it simply allow free parking at the soon-to-open Memorial Park (a public park paid for with public funds)?

Maybe the town will pass a law (based on eminent domain), which forces the Omar Shrine Temple to allow people to park for free.

It seems only fitting with the way things are headed.

CRAIG McLAUGHLIN

Beauregard Street

James Island

Victims not paid

I am writing to express my dismay that none of Al Parish's victims have received a cent of their money back.

Everyone else has received money, including attorneys accountants, appraisers and mortgage companies.

But the very people this money came from are being forgotten.

Someone I'm very close to and who is retired lost all their savings. It is time for action to be taken.

BRY MARTIN

Fairmont Avenue

Mount Pleasant