EDITOR'S NOTES: Independence Day has special meaning here in Summerville

Originally published in the Summerville Journal Scene

By David Kennard

dkennard@journalscene.com

I knew something wasn’t right last year on the Fourth of July when my daughter quietly walked into the living room and interrupted me to say, “Um, Dad, there’s been an incident.”

She and her college-aged friends were out on the street in front of the house celebrating with fireworks. I know this because the TV show I was trying to watch was interrupted every few seconds by artillery fire that she and everyone else in the neighborhood were blasting well into the night.

No blood was drawn, but the neighbor’s cedar fence had a sulfur burn, as did the neighbor’s garage door across the street, as did the neighbor’s rose bushes around the corner. In fact the errant aerial sent blasts everywhere except into the air.

Everyone was a little shook up, but otherwise OK.

My garden hose put a quick end to the fireworks for the night. Friends went home and my daughter reluctantly went to each neighbor to apologize for “the incident.”

The Fourth of July has been a day to celebrate since the earliest days of our nation, but like many of our holidays, the reason we celebrate has been diluted amongst the many celebrations.

Here in the Lowcountry, we have a connection to the Revolutionary War and the cause of independence that many of our fellow Americans enjoy only by proxy.

As one of the 13 original colonies that united to fight against tyranny, South Carolina and its earliest residents will forever hold a place of honor to all who still today call themselves South Carolinians.

As a recent arrival, I’ve come to understand the significant role of South Carolina in the formation of our nation.

Just last weekend I found myself on a guided tour of Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site.

What a treasure we have just minutes from downtown Summerville.

As most longtime residents know, the town of Dorchester was one of the earliest settlements in the area, providing a center for commerce and civilization in the wilderness that still surrounds much of the area.

Little remains of the original settlement – a brick bell tower and a tabby-walled fort protecting the remains of a brick powder magazine. The fort was built during the late 1750s and fortified in 1775 to provide protection from invading British forces.

Several archaeological digs as well as remaining maps have provided clues about what Revolutionary War-era life was like for our earliest residents. The solid brick homes and walled fortress tell us that defending against invading forces was always on their mind.

The war that granted America its freedom – as well as the changing economy and improvements in transportation – ushered in the end of the settlement of Dorchester and beginning of the town of Summerville.

Although Summerville didn’t become an official town until 1847, we owe our development to the settlers that moved to this area to find freedom, prosperity and opportunity.

Now more than ever we should honor the vision and sacrifices of our town’s earliest forefathers. To them celebrating the cause of freedom was much more than an incident.

Enjoy a safe Fourth of July holiday.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.

EDITOR'S NOTES: Fathers day gifts come in various packages

David Kennard

dkennard@journalscene.com

Fathers Day is upon us.

That means a new tie, perhaps some new socks and maybe a card from the kids – perhaps a phone call, or a mention in a Facebook post.

Despite what Home Depot would like you to think, Father’s Day isn’t really the same holiday as Mother’s Day. It’s really more along the lines of Secretary’s Day – worth a mention but otherwise it’s just another day, with perhaps an excuse to grill some steak and watch some baseball on TV.

At least that’s the way it is in our house.

I’m not complaining. I’ve received some pretty nice things over the years – lawn equipment, electronics, most of the socks in my drawer – but some of the best gifts have been more subtle.

As a father of four, now mostly grown children, I’ve prepared a list of the Best Father’s Day gifts – both given and received.

No. 1 on my list: A game of catch with my oldest son, Nate. He played Little League baseball growing up, which meant we often spent time in the back yard throwing a baseball back and forth. Working on form, aim, distance, whatever. There’s something really satisfying to a father about the sound of a fast ball thrown by his son as the ball smacks the sweet spot of a leather mitt.

No. 2: Bamboo pole fishing with your children. Any lazy Saturday afternoon is a Father’s Day gift if you can catch a ton of sunfish on a bamboo pole baited with a simple red worm.

I’ve got some pretty cool fishing gear that has mostly not caught much, but the most enjoyment I’ve had is watching the excitement on my children’s faces when they latch onto a wriggling blue gill.

No. 3: Eating burned hot dogs. My children will tell you that I am a hot dog snob. They must be all beef; they must be cooked until they plump and they must be topped only with ketchup and mustard, maybe some sauerkraut. My children, on the other hand, all like them blackened. The blacker, the better. I don’t get it, but at least they’re easy to cook that way.

No 4: Packing for your first Boy Scout trip. One of the fondest memories of my own father was the days and days he spent gathering all the equipment I needed for my first 5-mile back-packing trip with my Boy Scouts troop. I had a brand new 6-pound external frame pack, a new 4-pound folding trench shovel, a new 2-pound aluminum mess kit, A 13-pound two-man tent with rain fly, a new 3-pound D-cell flashlight, at least 5 pounds of canned beans, sardines and beef jerky. A sleeping bag, sleeping pad rain poncho and assorting clothing, fishing gear, and miscellaneous other odds and ends.

When I showed up to the church parking lot to load up with the other boys, I could barely lift the pack, which weighed something close to 60 pounds. At 11 years old, I think I may have weighed 90 pounds.

Most of the gear that Dad had gone to great lengths to shove into that new pack was left in the back of my scoutmaster’s pickup truck. Dad was great, and I believe I still have that old folding shovel somewhere.

No. 5-10: Riding roller coasters together with your children, watching Ohio State play for the National Championship, reading the Sunday Funnies together, daddy-daughter dates that include Peanut Buster Parfaits, building tree forts and blanket forts.

Father’s Day Life Hack: Finally here’s a secret tip for fathers that my father-in-law shared with me sometime around the birth of my only daughter. When she becomes a teenager and wants you drive her and her friends all over town, but doesn’t want you butting into their conversations, just adjust the car’s speakers so the sound fades only to the rear seat. It makes it a lot easier to eavesdrop.

Happy Father’s Day.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.com.

EDITOR'S NOTES: Sweet tea world record a good way to celebrate big move

By David Kennard
dkennard@journalscene.com

A new world record is expected to be broken today in Summerville when thousands will sample sweet tea from a 2,400 gallon “mason jar.”

The tea will be brewed using 210 pounds of local tea and 1,600 pounds of sugar. The newly constructed tea container - which is made from an industrial sized water tank – will be filled using a fire hydrant to dwarf last year’s batch of just 1,425 gallons.

The record will be set in the Guinness Book of World Records under the category of “World’s Largest Iced Tea” because there is no category for sweet tea. But because the event will take place in Summerville, birthplace of sweet tea – and the fact that it will be made with 1,600 pounds of sugar – there is little doubt that anyone will mistake it for anything other than sweet tea.

Tea will begin to be served at 5 p.m. Friday outside Summerville Town Hall.
This is the second year Summerville has brewed the world record-setting tea, but it will be my first time attending. Since I arrived in town in December, I’ve heard lots of build-up to the event and I am certain it won’t disappoint.

Last week, as I moved my family across the country to South Carolina, I got to see a few other “world’s record” things.

We began our tour at the southern Utah ghost town of Sego. The only thing that remains of the town now are a few roofless stone buildings and an old rusted car. In its day it was a coal-mining boom town, but the lack of a reliable water source doomed the settlement to be reclaimed by the arid southern Utah desert and red rock.

On the way to the ghost town, which is only about 10 minutes off of Interstate 70 just past the almost ghost town of Thompson, Utah – there is still a gas station there – we discovered some of the world’s oldest graffiti drawn on sandstone cliffs. Created by the Fremont culture sometime between AD 1 and 1300, these rock drawings included both petroglyphs and pictographs. Dozens of images of bighorn sheep and hunters with bows adorned the cliffs. The images also contained drawings of weird alien looking figures that no one has been able to figure out.

Further west as we traveled through Colorado, we drove through the world’s longest and highest elevation road tunnels. The Eisenhower tunnel was constructed in the early 1970s to allow traffic to travel under the Continental Divide rather than over the treacherous Loveland Pass, which also holds a record as the highest mountain pass in the world, (11,990 feet) that is maintained year-round for passenger travel.

For what it’s worth, Loveland Pass also is home to Loveland Ski Area where, at 16 years old, I taught my father how to ski when he was in his 50s. That’s not a world record of any kind, but still impressive in my mind.

As we moved into Kansas, however, well that’s where the world records began to really shine. We first stumbled upon the world’s largest artist’s easel in Goodland, Kansas. Because Kansas is the Sunflower state the painting on the easel is a version of “Three Sunflowers In A Vase” by Van Gogh.

This man-made wonder stands 80 feet tall and is the centerpiece of a local city park maintained by the local Rotary Club. Further east in Kansas is another obscure world record - the world’s largest ball of bailing twine sits majestically in a small roadside park under its own covered structure. I am not sure why, but like Goodland, the fine residents of Cawker City, Kansas, have latched onto this oddity, giving the house-sized ball of twine its own annual festival where visitors can add to the ball each year.

Our trip took us through St. Louis, world’s largest man-made monument, 630-foot Gateway Arch; Nashville, world’s longest-running radio broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry; Atlanta, world’s most aggressive drivers (my opinion), and finally Summerville.

Finally home in South Carolina, we were able to enjoy a rest from our weeklong road trip across the country. I’m now looking forward to settling in a bit and I can’t think of a better way to start than enjoying tonight’s festivities in Summerville. See you there.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.

Editorial: Enough; Town uses council form of government

The Town of Summerville uses a “Council Form of Government.” We urge our town leaders to accept it and get on with doing the business of Summerville.

Much debate has surrounded the various forms of government used in municipalities around the state – Council, Mayor-Council, Council-Manager.

With the Local Government Act of 1975, also known as the Home Rule Act, Summerville selected the “council” form of government. Since that time, the town has made modifications to fit its needs over time.

The difference in each form of government is defined by where the executive and administrative powers of the local leadership are vested.

In all cases, however, the legislative function – the lawmaking/ordinance creation – remains with council members.

The actual “form of government” is determined by the roles and responsibilities of each local entity – mayor, council and chief administrator

Summerville adjusted its council form of government when it allowed former Mayor Bill Collins to take on the bulk of the administrative responsibilities. At the end of his term he then gave up his expanded administrative duties, which allowed the council to put the town back in line with the council form of government it selected in the mid-1970s.

The motives behind that move were obvious. Council members and the seated mayor did not want to give administrative power to a new mayor – a new mayor who they suspected would use his powers to wrest control of the town and appoint anyone he saw fit to any number of positions of under him.

From the tone of the rhetoric that we’ve seen go back and forth for the last six months, their suspicions appear to be valid.

A referendum petition that would restore the administrative powers of the mayor and give Wiley Johnson increased power continues to move forward. The petition has been circulating at various venues.

Reverting back to a modified form of government is not what the town needs right now. Instead, we urge voters to support the pure form of government that was established years ago.

Further we ask those who continue to fan the flames of discontent to instead rise above the bickering and find ways to build unity in our community. We continue to hear derogatory monikers such as the “Gang of Four” and “Good Ol’ Boys” assigned to some members of the town council.

But shifting the power from a council of seven to one man is not wise – especially in Summerville’s charged political climate. We have great respect for Mayor Wiley Johnson and his desire to guide Summerville into prosperity through managed growth.

He is passionate about many of his desires. Voters saw that and elected him to execute his vision.

Much like a business that has a board of trustees with a board chairman and chief executive officers, we see our town council as a board with the mayor at its helm and our newly hired town administrator as the city’s CEO.

Any operation is doomed to fail if the chairman of the board demands all the power in order to be effective. Likewise if this is the only way Mayor Johnson and his supporters feels he can be successful, then he and our town are doomed to fail.

The petition for a referendum restoring the enhanced powers of mayor is dividing this town. Now, more than ever, we need unity with our city, not name-calling and political posturing.

We urge Johnson to use his position as Summerville’s leader to build alliances on council and find common ground. He should use statesmanship and decorum to push his agenda forward. Likewise, we expect town council members to work toward compromise and agreement to move Summerville forward. We have seen some evidence that this is possible.

There may be a time when Summerville needs a different form of government, but that time is not now. Now is the time to set differences aside and work to benefit all residents.

EDITOR'S NOTES: Flower tunes for Flowertown Festival

David Kennard
dkennard@journalscene.com

The Flowertown Festival begins Friday in Summerville, but there’s no reason not to get in the flower spirit now. Here are 10 songs – some classic, some obscure – that will help you prepare for – or take your mind off – the 200,000-plus people expected to visit our area in the next few days.

A good share of these favorites feature roses, but in this musical bouquet you’ll also find buttercups, orange blossoms and tulips.

1. “Kiss From a Rose,” Seal: We’ll lead off the list with this tune timely for its connection to 1995’s “Batman Forever.” Now 20 years later, the film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” opened in theaters Friday. Seal’s “Kiss” made it to No. 1 on U.S. charts in August 1995.

2. “Daisy Bell,” Harry Dacre. Also known as “A Bicycle Built for Two,” this is a tune you may have heard your grandparents whistling as they worked in the garden or hung laundry on the line. It was written in 1892 and became popular because of its scandalous lyrics that contain several double entendres and sexual innuendos, such as the name Daisy, which was selected to poke fun at a royal affair by King Edward II.

3. “Flowers in Your Hair,” The Lumineers. Here’s one for the kids. Still relatively new to the music scene, this Americana folk rock band has seen huge success and is currently on tour -- although most of its 2016 venues are sold out. “Flowers in Your Hair” is the first track on the band’s first album, but it was “Ho, Hey” that’s seen the most traction.

4. “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” Lynn Anderson: This gem from 1971 peaked at No. 3 on the US Hot 100, and remains a standard on many country stations. Anderson’s cover of this Joe South written tune from 1969 helped Anderson collect a Grammy Award in 1971 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Country music superstar Martina McBride performed the song at the Grand Ole Opry in September 2015 in tribute the Anderson, who died a few months earlier in July 2015. The two performed the song together on the same stage in 2005.

5. “Build Me Up Buttercup,” The Foundations: Originally released in 1968, this tribute to the buttercup flower was written by Mike D’Abo and Tony Macaulay, both of whom went on to become musical legends with connections to many hits and groups such as The Hollies and Andy Williams. Regarding the flower known as the buttercup, the plant Ranunculus translates from Latin as “little frog,” because of its tendency to be found near bodies of water.

6. “Tip Toe Through the Tulips,” Tiny Tim: This song should serve as a reminder that your parents didn’t understand your taste in music just as much as you don’t understand your children’s. Tiny Tim’s most famous song also was his last as he collapsed of an apparent heart attack on stage in 1996 at the age of 64. Tulips, often known as the flower of love – take that, rose – originated in Persia and Turkey, according to the website telaflora.com. “Tulips were brought to Europe in the 16th century, where they got their common name from the Turkish word for gauze (with which turbans were wrapped) - reflecting the turban-like appearance of a tulip in full bloom.”

7. “Run For The Roses,” Dan Fogelberg. This is a song about a horse. Specifically, it’s about a horse growing up to run in the Kentucky Derby, also known as the “Run for the Roses” because of the wreath of flowers draped over the winning horse. The Kentucky Derby, by the way, will take place almost a month from now on May 6 in Louisville, Kentucky. Dan Fogelberg’s sappy horse song debuted at the 1980 Kentucky Derby in apparent move to get free tickets. “I always wanted to come to the derby,” Foglerberg said, in quote attributed to him by the website, songfacts.com.

8. “Sugar Magnolia,” Grateful Dead. The Magnolia trees around Summerville originate from the ancient genus that some believe appeared even before bees, instead relying on pollination by beetles that could not damage the resilient petals on the blossom. One variety of the tree has been found in fossil remains more than 20 million years old, even older than members of the Grateful Dead, which first sang about magnolia’s in June 1970. The song, which carries the name magnolia in the title, actually make reference to several other plants and flowers. Listen for the following phrases: “under the willow,” “rolling in the rushes,” “through rays of violet,” “ringing that bluebell,” “A breeze in the pines,” and “walking in the tall trees.”

9. “The Orange Blossom Special,” Johnny Cash. A list of music wouldn’t be legit without a Johnny Cash tune. Sometimes just known as “The Special,” this classic fiddle tune made it to No. 3 on the Billboard Country Album chart with Johnny Cash’s lyrics and a seemingly-out-of-place saxophone solo. If you don’t get enough with that song, there’s another version of just the instrumental from the “best there’s ever been,” Charlie Daniels.

10. “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand (live at the Grammy Awards). “Flowers” began as a solo project by Diamond in 1977, but it reached No. 1 of Billboard’s Top 100 twice in 1978 after he sang it with Streisand. The other song that reached No. 1 twice that year? “Le Freak” by the band Chic. That same year saw a No. 1 hit by Barry Gibb and sung by Frankie Valli, thanks in large part to the movie “Greese,” which featured another power duo – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, who never sang about flowers as far as I can tell.

11. “Every Rose Has its Thorn,” Poison. Written after a failed love affair, lead singer Bret Michaels is said to have filled a yellow legal pad full of verses in a carthetic attempt to deal with his emotions. The song was No. 1 for three weeks in a row in late 1988. More than 20 years later in 2010, Miley Cyrus covered the song, but nobody cares about that.
A couple more “rose” songs before we get to my top pick: “Delta Dawn,” Helen Reddy. You loved her in “Pete’s Dragon,” the delightful Disney tale about human trafficking, and her voice became the battle cry of women’s rights in the mid-1970s with “I am woman, hear me roar.” Also, “The Rose,” Bette Midler. This powerful ballad found its way into the 1979 movie “The Rose” which is based on the life of Janis Joplin, who also recorded a song titled “Flower in the Sun,” which, aside from its historical significance, is very forgettable.

12. “Edelweiss,” This iconic lullaby is often mistakenly thought to be the national anthem of Austria or an Austrian folk song. In reality, it was written by composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for their 1959 musical “The Sound of Music.” In the 1965 movie by the same name, actor Christopher Plummer sang the song twice. Found in the high Alps, the flower is protected by law in Austria, France, Germany, India, Slovenia and Switzerland. The plant can be grown in your garden as an annual if you have a place that receives lots of sun.

OK, so my top 10 list had 12 songs about flowers. There are many more tunes about flora that I’m sure you can think of – “Yellow Rose of Texas” for instance, or “Scarborough Fair (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)” or Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee (Honeysuckle).”

We’ll save some of those for next year’s list.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.com.

Dorchester County officials cut ribbon on first county park

Editor’s Notes: Make voting a family tradition

Summerville Journal Scene

Mothers teach us lots of things. Mine taught me to vote.

From my earliest memories, I recall my mother serving as a volunteer election judge. The voting precinct for my neighborhood was my elementary school. So, on every Election Day, I could count on seeing my mother sitting behind a desk outside the principal’s office helping people cast their vote.

Election Day will be forever tied to memories of my mother and the lessons of civic responsibility that she taught me.

With primary elections upon us, I can hear my mother again reminding me to get out and vote.

Likewise, my father was the example that taught me the sacred nature of voting. Dad took a keen interest in elections and made sure I was a part of the voting process, often taking me with him as he marked his ballot.

His process of preparing for an election was almost ritualistic. He read newspapers, listened to the debates on the radio and television.

Dad almost always voted Republican, but he told me that I should understand the issues before I cast my vote for either party.

By the time I turned 18, voting had become almost second nature. It was a proud moment for both my parents to see me walk into the voting booth and pull that lever for the first time.

In today’s paper you’ll find a story by Lindsay Street about voters preparing to vote. The goal of the story was to find undecided voters and explore their thought process.

Berkeley County resident Aldo Napoli’s method seemed to be exercise of elimination.

“I’ve never not voted so I’m not going to start here,” he said. “I guess I’ll see whose left because they seem to be dropping out one by one.”

Napoli, like many of us here in the Lowcountry, has been bombarded with election rhetoric for the past few weeks.

That rhetoric will only escalate in the coming days.

The Republican primary election is Saturday and the Democratic primary is a week later on the following Saturday.

Results for each race should be available by late Saturday night.

Here at the paper, we’ll be watching the elections closely and we’ll be reporting throughout the day. Lindsay Street will be reporting from Berkeley County and Jenna-Ley Harrison will be reporting from Dorchester County.

Their coverage, of course will include statewide data as it comes in from Columbia.

You can follow their coverage all day Saturday online, by following both reporters on Twitter. Find Jenna on Twitter at @jlharrison_news. Find Lindsay at @LindsStreet.

Of course we’ll have a roundup of state and local results online late Saturday night once all precincts have reported.

South Carolina’s primaries are just the third to take place so far. As other states stage their primary elections, we’ll be watching closely to see who we’ll be voting for in November.

The nice thing about voting early in the process is that South Carolinians’ vote still matters. Of course every vote matters, but those states voting later in the primary process may feel less motivation as the races narrow.

Already we’ll see on the ballot the names of some candidates who have dropped out of the race. It’s important to understand that and know who you’re voting for before you go to vote. (Do you see how I am channeling my father there?)

Mother would say the same thing. She’s gone now and my old elementary school where she helped so many people fulfill their civic responsibility is now a Jewish community center. But last I checked, the voting booths still appear every Election Day.

If you’re a registered voter, now’s the time to show your children how to participate in the upcoming elections.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.

Editor's Notes: Zika virus is nothing to sneeze at

Summerville Journal Scene

The Zika virus has the media abuzz.

That was probably a poor pun. It’s not my intention to make light of this serious, sometimes fatal disease. Instead, I have to poke at the virus-like panic that has spread through major media outlets.

As a “member of the media” myself, I have a unique perspective when it comes to news coverage. Most regular news consumers also are well aware of the panic that can follow poor or incomplete reporting.

The word “pandemic” fits nicely in a headline and it has a shock value that sells papers. And, regardless of what any purist may tell you, journalists are in the business of selling papers — or websites, or mobile device apps.

Last week the Post and Courier ran an editorial headlined, “Don’t let Zika induce panic.”

“Zika is exactly the kind of epidemic that tends to cause people to panic — and generates plenty of sensational headlines to boot,” the paper’s editorial board acknowledged. In conclusion, though, they warned, “Panicking is the worst thing we can do.”

As reporter Lindsay Street states in today’s edition, the Zika virus can have little to no effect on most people, although there is a higher risk of birth defects in women who are pregnant.

Because the virus is spread mostly through mosquitoes, Lowcountry residents have perhaps taken a greater interest in the story. After all, mosquitoes are something we know a little about.

Arguably South Carolina could claim the pesky insect as its state bird. Luckily, Louisiana and Minnesota already have dibs on that claim.

Mosquitoes, however, have continued to be the bearer of horrible diseases throughout time.

According to the American Mosquito Control Association, “Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other organism — over one million people worldwide die from mosquito-borne diseases every year.”

A million is a big number, but most of those deaths occur in places with poor access to health care, consequently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to get educated on this latest virus of note.

The medical world first identified Zika virus in the 1950s, and it has occurred primarily in equatorial regions in Africa, Asia and most recently Central America.

Like its cousins, yellow fever, West Nile virus and other horrible sounding diseases, Zika exhibits itself through flu-like symptoms. In fact many people who contract it don’t even know they have it.

In today’s front page news story, Sarah Hearn with Carolina Women’s Care in Summerville said the best thing people can do is learn about the Zika virus.

“Information is power. I want my patients to be informed,” Hearn said.

She said the best place to find up-to-date information is at the CDC’s website at cdc.gov.

The other thing that people can do is to keep their properties clean and free of standing water, use bug spray, see a doctor if you think you may be sick, and don’t panic.

Of course if you want to panic think about this, some of those million people who die every year from mosquito bites contracted many other more ominous diseases: malaria, dengue, encephalitis and yellow fever. Remember West Nile virus? Mosquitoes. Heartworm? Mosquitoes.

As someone who spends quite a bit of time outside, I’ve come to accept that mosquitoes are just one of those annoyances like sunburn and wet socks. OK, wet socks aren’t quite as bad as yellow fever and they don’t cause birth defects in pregnant women.

So perhaps I’m not giving this disease proper respect. But here’s the thing, there are many things out there that can kill you. A little preparation and a moderate amount of education will make you feel more at ease the next time you go outside.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.

Editor’s Notes: Context adds meaning to hike in the woods

I went for a walk in the woods over the weekend and stumbled across a piece of history.

Sitting on the banks of the Santee River in eastern Berkeley County is a Civil War site managed by the National Forest Service.

The site is quiet now, disturbed only by the gurgle of the slow moving water pushing along the shores and an occasional hoot owl somewhere in the thick grove of pines that surround the site.

Battery Warren is a collection of earthen mounds that once concealed cannons and other guns used by Confederate forces to protect a railroad bridge that crossed the Santee.

There’s not much left of the structure now. Tall pine and hardwood trees have grown up between many of the former structures, but it is still relatively easy to see the layout of the old fort.

An informational plaque at the site explains that slaves built most of the structure that is named after Colonel Samuel Warren, a Revolutionary War hero who once owned the land where the fort is located.

Sitting in a remote part of Francis Marion National Forest, my guess is the site is preserved in an environment very much like it was when soldiers lived and worked there more than 150 years ago.

The visible history of the area, although almost reclaimed by the forest, added significance to my Saturday afternoon hike.

As a journalist, the historical context of things intrigues me.

You’ll notice that most news stories that we write here in the paper contain some piece of history to them. Sometimes the history makes up the bulk of the story. And, quite often, the history is the most important part of the story.

For instance, you may recall a couple weeks ago, we wrote a story about the spillway at Santee Dam. The story began as a simple piece about officials saying that water was going to be released to increase the storage capacity at Lake Marion.

On its face, that piece of news is not that interesting, but to anyone who experienced the flooding last fall, high water is a big deal. So reporter Lindsay Street made sure to include information about the significance of flooding in the area.

We added more context to the story by including information from the National Weather Service, which said water saturation in the ground remained high from the October flooding and people downstream of Lake Marion should be prepared.

In that story, context is everything, especially for residents in the Lowcountry who know it’s wise to keep an eye on the water.

You’ll find another story in today’s paper by Monica Kreber about lawmakers trying to figure out how to equitably fund local schools. Again, not too exciting on its own, but the context of the story is built on the state supreme court ruling that South Carolina has failed to provide a “minimally adequate” education to children in the poorest school districts.

When readers understand that the state is failing school children in poor districts while children in affluent districts see many more resources coming their way, suddenly the story becomes a little more interesting - especially if you live in a poor district.

Likewise, visitors to Warren Battery have little idea what those strange mounds of dirt are along the high banks of the Santee River.

Years ago, however they meant a lot. The threat of advancing Union forces up the Santee kept the soldiers at the fort on their toes. The toil of the slaves that built most of the structure will likely never be known, but a visit to the site will testify to the effort they made.

As the great, great, great grandson of a Civil War soldier, I can appreciate better now the conditions that must have existed during that time period. That context added meaning to my short hike in the woods.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.

Editor’s Notes: Registering journalists is a bad idea

South Carolina lawmaker Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, has sponsored one of the most idiotic bills you’ve ever heard of.

Pitts, who is angry at the way gun issues are being reported, wants every journalist in the state to be registered with the government.

“It strikes me as ironic that the first question is constitutionality from a press that has no problem demonizing firearms,” Pitts said. “With this statement I’m talking primarily about printed press and TV. The TV stations, the six o’clock news and the printed press has no qualms demonizing gun owners and gun ownership.”

What’s ironic is the misguided idea sacrifices the First Amendment to promote the Second Amendment.

Pitts has already said he has no expectation that his bill ever make it into law, which only tells me that he is wasting his time and our taxpayer dollars so he can tell people he doesn’t like some news reports.

As a gun owner and unregistered journalist working in South Carolina, I don’t agree with everything I read about guns either, but you can bet I will defend the rights of journalists to report on the issue.

Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, said he found the bill bizarre and he planned to lobby hard against it.

Bizarre is putting it politely. This is just a bumble-headed idea that has done nothing to advance the conversation on gun control, but instead has started a huge conversation on how nutty South Carolina politics is.

“Any registration of journalists would be unconstitutional — unless you lived in Cuba or North Korea,” Rogers told The Associated Press last week.

Well said.

You may remember Representative Pitts from headlines he made last summer as he opposed the push to remove the Confederate Flag from South Carolina’s Statehouse grounds after the slayings of nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME in Charleston.

He said his opposition was motivated as a stand for state tradition, not anything related to racial issues.

Whatever Pitts’ motivation is for throwing out the First Amendment, it seems like a far stretch to link it to a handful of news stories he doesn’t like.

Messing with any of our Constitutional rights is something that really needs to be thought through. Perhaps a better way to go about this would have been to, say, talk about guns and gun issues, which we should talk more about.

What Pitts and I do agree on is that guns deserve great respect.

This is something I learned early growing up, although I didn’t go hunting until I was about 16. And it was years later that I first became an actual gun owner. Today, my children own their own firearms, and we enjoy shooting as a family on a regular basis. To them gun control means a steady hand, and that the only real safety mechanism is keeping your finger off the trigger.

Here’s the thing: We need more conversation about hot button issues ­— racial injustice, responsible gun ownership, domestic violence, etc. But limiting who can say what about these issues is just wrong thinking. Again, we need more conversation, not less.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.

Editor’s Notes: Weather a big part of local news

Editor's Notes

Last week, Santee Cooper announced that it was opening its floodgates on Lake Marion and spilling into the waterways downstream.

For Richie Wimmer that news came too late.

Wimmer and several friends were fishing from his brand new pontoon boat on Lake Marion when Santee Cooper pulled the lever. Like a tiny floating toy in a bathtub, Wimmer, his three friends and his new boat were nearly sucked down the giant drain.

FIND VIDEO HERE

When reporter Lindsay Street heard about it she immediately started asking questions. You’ll see her story in today’s edition.

Santee Cooper says the lake was too full and spilling water into the streams and lakes below was necessary. No doubt.

All the rain we’ve seen lately in the Lowcountry has filled our lakes as well as saturated the ground - giving more rainwater nowhere to go.

More rain over the next few weeks and months is highly likely. And while it’s doubtful we’ll see a repeat of last fall’s catastrophic flooding, it’s wise to be prepared nonetheless.

“We are continuing to monitor the weather and any impacts it may have so that we can respond safely and promptly to any issues that arise,” said Mike Poston, from Santee Cooper.

Weather is one of those things that affects our communities in so many ways.

As a news organization we’re always watching the weather because, well, people love to talk about the weather.

As a relative newcomer, I am still hearing tales about Hurricane Hugo that blew through here more than 25 years ago. I’m sure we’ll be talking about the floods of 2015 for years to come as well.

Most of our weather information comes from the National Weather Service, which keeps detailed – and I mean detailed – records on everything you can think of – rainfall, snow levels, humidity, relative humidity, wind chill, wind speed, moon phases and tide cycles, everything. All of that data is great information, and news organizations like ours love information.

The National Weather Service measures rainfall in any given year from October to October, which means this year’s rainfall totals could be skewed a bit from all the rain we got early in the season. By the time the water year ends in September, we may have numbers telling us that we’ve had a heavy rain year - even if it’s dry for weeks and weeks.

In my news career, as I’ve figured out to report on weather events, I’ve learned that farmers and ranchers care a great deal about the weather. They are the first to call me when I’ve got something wrong.

Water is life or death to farmers.

A few years ago, when I was working in central Washington, a huge snowstorm blew in, closing roads and knocking out power. The hardest hit were the dairy farmers. Cows have to be fed and milked twice a day, rain or shine. And while all the dairies had some way of generating their own power for their milking machines, they had limited capacity for storing all the milk.

After a couple of days of no milk truck pickups, farmers had little choice than to dump their milk onto the frozen ground.

As an industry, millions of dollars of raw milk went to waste.

Here in the Lowcountry we don’t see much snow, but we are very familiar with the costly damage that Mother Nature can bring.

Santee Cooper is well aware of that. We depend on officials there to understand what the weather can do and how to adjust to it.

“Santee Cooper’s dams and dikes are secure,” according to a statement from the company last week. “Spilling is a normal part of Santee Cooper’s hydroelectric operations in periods of increased flows into the lakes.”

Local businesses still suffering from October’s flood damage – and even Mr. Wimmer who lost a brand new pontoon boat – can appreciate that despite all our efforts to control Mother Nature, sometimes all we can do is watch.

David Kennard is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.com.

Zion National Park to halt daily shuttle service beginning Sunday

PHOTO: National Park Service

By DAVID KENNARD

www.davidbkennard.com

SPRINGDALE – Zion National Park will halt its daily shuttle service through Zion Canyon after Sunday. Higher-than-expected crowds this year prompted the National Park Service to extend the shuttle service into the colder weather months.

Visitors traveling to the park will have to use their own transportation -- and compete for limited parking -- in Zion Canyon after Sunday.

Park officials said shuttles will operate on weekends through November 22, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week.

Officials said traffic on Oct. 26, the Monday after shuttles stopped running for the season, traffic quickly overwhelmed the available parking in the canyon.

“Shuttle service routinely ends the last Sunday of October each year,” according to a statement from Zion National Park officials. “However, on Monday, there was far more traffic than the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, with its 400 or so parking spaces, could accommodate safely.

“At 10 a.m., once all the sanctioned parking spaces were filled, entry to Zion Canyon Scenic Drive was regulated to allow visitors to enter the Scenic Drive only as others departed. A number of people who were planning on visiting Zion Canyon were unable to due to the traffic safety, congestion and parking difficulties.”

The park has seen almost visitors increase by nearly 1 million more people over the past two years, according to data provided by the National Park Service.

Officials said last week that overcrowding on some trails is diminishing the extraordinary "Zion experience." Damage to the park resources, such as social trailing and human waste have increased dramatically, officials stated.

"For years we have heard the expression 'Zion is being loved to death,'" said park superintendent Jeff Bradybaugh. "Together with our partners and nearby communities, we must address these problems."

Coming in 2016, the park will implement its Visitor Use Management Plan to help define the park's capacity in key areas, Bradybaugh said. The plan will be tested during the next two to three years, the determine the effectiveness of its adaptive management strategies.

Bradybaugh said in a statement last week that the goal is to “promote safe, enjoyable experiences, protect park resources, ease visitor crowding, and manage traffic and parking congestion as part of the planning process.”

Details about the plan have not yet been released.

 

 

IF YOU GO

Shuttle service in the park will operate between 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. This will be mandatory for access to the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. Visitors can board the shuttle in the usual locations within the park and on the Springdale Town route. A single shuttle bus will run through Springdale starting at the Majestic Lodge at 9 a.m. The last town shuttle will leave the Park's pedestrian entrance at about 6:45 p.m.

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LDS Church breaks ground for Tucson Arizona Temple

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the Church’s First Presidency, presided Saturday at the groundbreaking of the Tucson Arizona Temple.

The temple was announced by President Thomas S. Monson in October during the Church’s general conference.

The 34,000 square-foot building will be the sixth LDS temple in Arizona serving more than 416,000 church members.

“We have come together with joyful hearts and with a feeling of overwhelming gratitude to participate in the groundbreaking for a house of the Lord,” Uchtdorf said in his dedicatory prayer. “Please help us as we not only dedicate this piece of land but also rededicate our lives to Thee and Thy purposes as we prepare for the time when this new temple will be completed in all its beauty.” READ MORE HERE

SPORTS: Provo quarterback pics Utah over BYU

When one of the most sought after high school quarterbacks in the state announced he hoped to play for the University of Utah instead of BYU, it left local fans wondering why.

Daily Herald reporter Neil Warner got an interview with Timpview’s Britain Covey. Covey was part of the schools perfect season, finishing with 2,600 passing yards and 72 percent completion rate.

“Utah offered me first, actually a while before any other schools did and I got to know them a little bit better and I got excited about it,” Covey told the Daily Herald. “I still love BYU but I wanted to best thing for me.” READ MORE HERE

WEATHER: Rain expected for next day or two

Rain in the Utah Valley will continue today, according to National Weather Service forecasters, who said there is a 70 percent chance of precipitation. Rain is expected taper off tonight. Highs will be in the low 60s for the next few days with lows dropping into the mid 40s through Wednesday. READ MORE HERE: