The massive power outage need not have been so severe. An obvious solution to outages, though an expensive one, would be to bury more power lines — undergrounding, it’s called — leaving fewer utility poles and power lines vulnerable to high winds and falling trees.

A “No” vote will mean more crumbling roads, higher vehicle maintenance costs and decreased safety for all drivers.

Let’s hope Anderson County voters look to the future and approve the roads referendum in November.

Sept. 15 is Democracy Day. We are approaching an election that people of all political persuasions agree is crucial for the future of our nation.

Sadly, many qualified citizens choose not to participate in this most basic method of influencing how we are governed.

However, there is a solution: When enough people understand that despite obstacles, our votes can be truly powerful.

Twenty-two years after 9/11, many Americans, and people around the world, have forgotten. The history of that day still feels fresh to many who lived through it: the uncertainty, the incomparable loss, the hope for survivors, the realization that our world had changed forever. But for more than 100 million Americans, 9/11 is not a memory lived, but history to be learned. This is why the 9/11 Memorial & Museum that I lead has made education about 9/11 — and about terrorism itself — central to our mission.

South Carolina has the lowest rate of union members, at 2.3 percent of all employees, of any state in the country.

In an apparent effort to bring diversity to the Anderson County Library Board, the county council named two new at-large members on Tuesday night. While they certainly added some diversity, both choices were men, with one being African American and the other Hispanic, council seems to have overlooked academic and library experience as a criterion for selection.

One headline “Seven Killed in Battle at Chiquola Mill” pointed out that a total of ten died and scores were injured in the “sanguinary (bloody) conflict.” And it could have been far worse.

Roughly 300 striking local textile workers, and they were local in spite of rumors of “outside agitators” (a phrase later used to blame civil rights unrest in the South, wanted to shut down the mill to discuss arbitration.

But mill owners and bosses sought to prevent strikers from shutting down production, meeting strikers with rifles, shotguns, dynamite, clubs and tear gas. A machine gun nest on the roof of the mill jammed, or the number of dead could have been catastrophic for the Honea Path and Belton communities.

Workplaces thrive when people cooperate rather than compete. That’s why I joined the Communications Workers of America. Our union members do everything from laying telephone lines to reporting the news, to fundraising for nonprofits across the country.

As we mark another Labor Day, working Americans, both union and non-union, have a long list of reasons to thank the labor movement-including giving workers the right to paid and unpaid leave. Many of these men and women in the labor movement gave their lives to secure a better future for all workers in this country.

Along with churches, libraries, schools and national parks, labor unions are among the building blocks that made America great.

This past week offers a shining example of why local politics can be so important. While national lawmakers are often frozen by fighting across (and sometimes within) party lines with few results, local government is more immediately responsive to the needs of and to protecting the character of our community.

But coupled with the international impact of Green Pond Landing Event Center, which brings in thousands of anglers and millions of dollars each year, Anderson County’s new designation as a prime concert destination will only boost entertainment opportunities for those of us who live here and visitors from all over the world.

Council often works behind the scenes with the county legislative delegation on such projects, seeking wisdom and input, but it is not the purview of members of the legislature to chide or lecture council.

He was a caring friend to me. In 2012, he pestered our church staff to give him my cell phone number before we even moved to town so that he could touch base with me and let me know that he had been on the phone with the School Dist. 5 office and his friend Mike Mahaffey to get my wife, a school teacher, a job.

On July 1, the new South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) officially launched as the state’s official public health agency, devoted to advancing and improving the health of South Carolinians and the communities in which they live.

This is a new day for public health in South Carolina, a state with a proud history of public health innovation going all the way back to 1712, when the then colony of South Carolina created the first health officer position in all of North America.

As voters head to the polls in Anderson County for the South Carolina Primary Runoff Elections Tuesday, it’s a good time to consider a few modest changes that would improve both voting integrity and the voting experience.

By Paul Hyde

One prominent candidate, Mark Burns, has said in the past that parents and teachers who talk to children about LGBTQ issues should be tried for treason and, if found guilty, should be executed. Burns, who Time magazine called “Donald Trump’s top preacher,” also suggested that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should be executed for considering gun control legislation.

In Anderson County 123,032 of roughly 195,000 eligible citizens are registered to vote, which means nearly one-third of those citizens who could vote are not even registered.

Like proclamations of “Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men” tossed about for a couple of weeks during the Christmas season with little thought to the idea, Mother’s Day is relegated to a far more restricted single day of well wishes.

One month ago marked the 163 anniversary of South Carolina’s shelling for Fort Sumter, which launched the Civil War and eventually cost the lives of more than 600,000 citizens, and a day that was marked four years later to the day by the return of the United States flag over what was left of the fort, where it belonged.

First, find a path, and a little light to see by. Every single spiritual tradition says the same three things: 1) Live in the now, as often as you can, a breath here, a moment there. 2) You reap exactly what you sow. 3) You must take care of the poor, or you are so doomed that we can't help you.