Letters to the Editor

Reading a must

In response to Brian Hicks' Oct. 23 column titled 'Wouldn't it be nice if South Carolina did get hard-nosed?'

Yes, stop children from advancing to the next grade if they cannot read. Hicks mentions how 'it's easy to beat up the schools, but it's not entirely their fault.' Correct again. Reading should start at home. But allow me to point out two major problems I've not heard mentioned that involve the school system.

Every school or teacher who passed a student who is now a 9th grader reading on a 4th grade level is not only hurting the child but hurting the 9th grade teacher trying to teach that student along with the other students who do read at grade level.

My daughter attends West Ashley High School and is in a few honors classes. She loves to read. She was prepared to read multiple books this past summer. It turned out she was required to read three books, and write essays on each for her Honors classes.

This is fine. However, students not in Honors classes were not required to read books. What sense does that make? What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Jennifer Larson

Hunters Rest Drive

Charleston

Being informed

I am 79 years old and enjoy reading various opinions. I also enjoy listening to various news channels. I consider myself a conservative (as opposed to Democrat or Republican). I find Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and the rest of the Fox lineup informative, fair and far from neurotic.

I can only consider people like columnist Dick Polman an attack dog of the liberals, and he is to be counted among those who do personal attacks rather than factual information such as I find with Glenn Beck & Co. Sorry, but I really want to be informed about those who are running this great country, and I am quite shocked at the people in this administration. Who are they?

DON McCAW

Center Street

Walterboro

Upgrade lights

Hello, Department of Transportation. How about installing left-hand turn signal lights on Savannah Highway? How many accidents does it take to warrant this?

The flow of traffic has steadily increased. Shouldn't upgrades to the traffic signals be increased as well?

Janis Esclavon

Elsey Drive

Charleston

Traffic flow

I live on the 'old' side of Mount Pleasant and work west of the Ashley. When the new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge opened it was wonderful to be able to commute to work from Mount Pleasant and enjoy the lack of traffic on the ride home. All four lanes going to Mount Pleasant moved freely, and it was glorious.

In the past year or so that has changed in the evening. On my commute home I come to a complete stop at the top of the span on the bridge between the hours of 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. My question is: Why?

Once stopped, the traffic in all four lanes inches down Coleman Boulevard and Highway 17. There is no disabled car or wreck, so why is this happening? It is frustrating to waste time in stopped traffic, not to mention burning gallons of expensive gas and air pollution.

Something is wrong. I think it is ill-timed traffic lights on both Coleman Boulevard and Highway 17. Yes, Mount Pleasant may have grown but not that much.

I do not go home that way in the evening even though it is the shorter route. I travel I-526 because I get home faster even though it is five miles longer. I think we should all write the S.C. Department of Transportation and ask why our time and gas are now being wasted even after constructing a bridge that was supposed to ease our commute to and from Mount Pleasant.

Cindy Dawson

Inlet Drive

Mount Pleasant

Not global cooling

This is in response to the Oct. 20 letter titled 'No problem' concerning global warming. There are a number of statements made by the letter writer that are at variance with reality. Perhaps the one that is most easily discredited is that 'Global warming alarmists conveniently overlook that the Earth has been cooling since 1998.'

That statement flies in the face of information from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the World Meteorological Organization, and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. Those organizations conclude that 1998 and 2005 were the warmest years since the use of reliable instrumental measurements became widespread in the late 1800s.

Perhaps the simplest response to the letter writer and others who deny global warming is to ask the question: Why are polar ice caps and continental glaciers receding? I doubt that it is the result of global cooling.

William Anderson Jr.

Clearview Drive

Charleston