Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:
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Sept. 28
The Times and Democrat on violence against women:
For a society that professes to celebrate women, disturbing realities remain.
A national survey in 2019 concluded that one in 16 U.S. women say their first sexual experience was forced or coerced intercourse in their early teens.
The experiences of 3.3 million women between ages 18 and 44 amount to rape, according to the authors of the study published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
And too often, violence against women goes beyond rape - resulting in death. South Carolina has a real problem with men killing women — but at least by the numbers, things are better than they have been.
South Carolina ranks 11th in the nation in the rate of women murdered by men, with a rate of 1.68 per 100,000, according to the most recent edition of the annual Violence Policy Center study “When Men Murder Women.” This is the first time in the 23-year history of the study that South Carolina has not been included among the 10 states with the highest rates of women killed by men.
South Carolina statistics from research conducted for the study include:
- In South Carolina, 44 females were murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents in 2018, at a rate of 1.68 per 100,000.
- For homicides in which the age of the victim was reported (42 homicides), 2 victims (5%) were 65 years of age or older. The average age was 38.
- Out of 44 female homicide victims, 22 were white and 22 were black.
- For homicides in which the weapon used could be identified, 69% of female victims (27 out of 39) were shot and killed with guns. Of these, 81% (22 victims) were killed with handguns. There were five females killed with knives or other cutting instruments, two females killed by a blunt object, and five females killed by bodily force.
- For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 98% of female victims (41 out of 42) were murdered by someone they knew. One female victim was killed by a stranger. Of the victims who knew their offenders, 71% (29 victims) were wives, common-law wives, ex-wives or girlfriends of the offenders. Among the female intimates who were murdered, 62% (18 victims) were killed with guns; 89%% of these (16 victims) were shot and killed with handguns.
- For homicides in which the circumstances could be identified, 90% (27 out of 30) were not related to the commission of any other felony. Of these, 81% (22 homicides) involved arguments between the victim and the offender.
Each year the VPC releases the report in advance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. The study uses 2018 data, the most recent year for which information is available. The study covers homicides involving one female murder victim and one male offender using data from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report.
The study found that nationwide, 92% of women killed by men were murdered by someone they knew and that the most common weapon used was a gun. Nearly 2,000 women were murdered by men in 2018 nationally.
In addition to supporting reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the study urges state legislators to adopt laws that enhance enforcement of federal legislation and ensure that guns are surrendered by or removed from the presence of abusers.
As VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states: “The sad reality is that women are nearly always murdered by someone they know. Although advocates and many community leaders are working tirelessly to reduce the toll of domestic violence, there is still much more work to be done to protect women in harm’s way.”
Online: https://thetandd.com/
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Sept. 26
The Post and Courier on universal internet access:
In a lackluster year that saw lawmakers cast aside huge portions of their agenda in order to stay away from the Statehouse in the midst of a pandemic, Thursday’s last-minute approval of a bill designed to bring high-speed internet access to more of rural South Carolina was a standout success.
Granted, the bill did not require a great deal of legislative creativity. It was the electric cooperatives - member-owned nonprofits created to serve the needs of their members - that brought lawmakers the idea of using their infrastructure to reduce the cost of stringing digital cable in areas that traditional internet providers were ignoring; the work involved winning those traditional providers’ support.
And as legislators black and white, Republican and Democrat, in the Senate and the House lined up to emphasize, the legislation - already in the works before COVID-19 appeared - is not going to solve the problem that sent our state scrambling to provide Wi-Fi access to students who lacked it.
Although it will free more co-ops to provide broadband access to their members, its success still depends heavily on the interest of digital providers that could now string cable from their power poles - providers that unlike co-ops are in business to turn a profit.
But legislators were so determined to work through to an agreement that COVID-nervous House members stayed in Columbia an extra day to give the bill what turned out to be perfunctory, unanimous approval - approval that came only after representatives spent 65 minutes expounding on the importance of the legislation, and of expanding it next year.
That extraordinary show of support came on top of the Legislature’s earlier decision to invest federal CARES Act funding in more traditional broadband expansion efforts, which grew out of the enthusiastic endorsement from Gov. Henry McMaster and the business, nonprofit and government leaders on his AccelerateSC Task Force.
It emerged from a political culture that can’t agree on whether COVID-19 is even a threat, much less how our government should react to it, but for which - as a result of COVID-19 - Wi-Fi access has suddenly become central to … everything. To our children’s education. To our medical care. To keeping in touch with friends and family. To our very jobs.
This marks a vital turning point for our state.
South Carolina now uniformly recognizes that broadband access is not a nice extra. It is, like electricity and telephone, an essential service, one that must be available, and available at a reasonable cost, to everyone in our state. Even those whose homes are spread so far apart or so difficult to reach or those who have so little money that it’s not worth it to the Spectrums and AT&Ts and even smaller digital providers to reach them. Even if it requires taxpayer subsidies.
H.3780 does not provide those subsidies. What it does, beyond creating the framework for the cooperatives to provide broadband themselves and sell access to their equipment to other providers, is make it the official public policy of our state to “facilitate the development and investment in broadband facilities in order to facilitate access to broadband services at all locations in the state, as this development is vital and necessary to induce, create, and promote industrial and economic development and to create job opportunities, enhance health care, and enhance educational advancement in the state.”
It will be up to the many legislators who stood in line to claim credit for the legislation - and those who did not but who voted for it without any indication of reservations - to make that policy a reality.
Online: https://www.postandcourier.com/
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Sept. 25
The State on a proposal to close Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island :
According to a report by Military.com, the Marines’ top hierarchy is weighing a proposal to close Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island to speed up the military branch’s effort to have modern training sites that fully allow male and female recruits to train together.
No.
(Insert choice word here) no.
Absolutely not.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
It must not be allowed to happen.
And our community, Gov. Henry McMaster, every official who represents this state and every South Carolinian who cares about it must gather together as a united force - and speak in unison as one forceful voice - to ensure the closure of Parris Island does not happen.
A PILLAR
For nearly 105 years the island on Port Royal Sound has served as more than simply a historic training base for new Marines - millions of whom have gone through boot camp there since its establishment in October 1915.
In reality Parris Island is one of the cultural, institutional and, yes, even spiritual pillars of the Lowcountry.
Parris Island is a powerful and unshakable symbol of this region’s deep, abiding love for America and all of its treasured ideals.
Parris Island is an enduring touchstone of this region’s reverence for the brave and selfless Americans who, for generations now, have taken their first steps toward serving and defending our nation on its grounds.
Parris Island is a foundation of our region and our identity alike, one that we can not allow to be stripped and uprooted - and one that must maintain its proper role of importance in the nation’s military fabric
Parris Island must stay, and any proposal by the Marine Corps leadership to remove it must be met - from across the Lowcountry and throughout the Palmetto State - with the relentless pushback and sustained opposition that such an ill-considered venture clearly deserves.
‘HYPOTHETICAL’ ISN’T ‘NEVER’
In the aftermath of the initial alarm over the Military.com report, Dan Beatty, chairman of the South Carolina Military Base Task Force, said that closing Parris Island is all “hypothetical at this point.”
And besides, according to Beatty, it “would take a considerable amount of time” anyway to actually close Parris Island in favor of a new Marine Corps training depot.
Well, that’s fine and all.
But “hypothetical” isn’t the same as “never.”
And as long as the word “never” isn’t being used when it comes to closing Parris Island, South Carolinians need to remain on guard - and on point.
The campaign to save Parris Island must begin now.
It must begin in earnest.
And it must bring all South Carolinians together to wage it.
Online: https://www.thestate.com/
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