Washington lawmakers must eliminate filibuster to protect voting rights

Filibuster must go

Since the 2020 presidential election, state Republicans have passed 31 voter suppression laws in 18 states across the country. And there will be more coming out of GOP-held state legislatures before the end of the year unless Congress acts swiftly to protect our voting rights.

So far, I have seen more talk than action in the way President Biden has handled our voting rights crisis. He’s advocated for voting rights legislation and asked Congress to take action, but he’s failed to do one very obvious thing that would change this fight: unequivocally support ending the filibuster.

The Jim Crow filibuster is the thing standing in the way of passing once-in- a-generation legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. If Biden wants the Senate to pass those bills, he needs to use his influence as president to get the Senate to abolish the filibuster.

Anything less is a failure to meet this crisis.

Gail Siegel, Myrtle Beach

Where is the unity?

Last Saturday I watched the ceremonies honoring the people who lost their lives when our nation was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

Forty people on Flight 93 gave their lives when they prevented the takeover of the plane by terrorists. The plane was headed for Washington with the presumed target being the Capitol building. These men and women perished in their efforts to prevent damage/destruction of our Capitol building.

On Jan. 6, 2020 we saw Americans, not terrorists, attacking the Capitol to stop the verification of the Presidential Election. One officer was killed, over 140 officers were injured, and four officers later took their lives. The damage to the building was over $30 million dollars. On Sept. 11, 2001, 40 people gave their lives to ensure no harm would be done to our Capitol. Did they give their lives in vain?

I was born of immigrant parents. I heard them say over and over again that America is the greatest country in the world. It saddens me greatly to see that people born in America do not appreciate that they are incredibly blessed to have been born in this amazing country.

The tremendous division in this country is the greatest threat to our democracy. I thought that the COVID outbreak would unite this country. Instead hospitals are full to capacity with COVID patients who are very ill and dying because they refused to get the COVID vaccine. So instead of us all joining together to put this pandemic behind us, we are once again widely divided on how to deal with this continuing threat to our health, educational institutions, our economy and our way of life.

What will it take to unite us?

Kathleen Sheil, Bluffton

Ban billboards, save lives

South Carolina’s spectacular scenery is consistently being denigrated by the prevalence of every size, shape and style of billboard.

In South Carolina we have a law, the Highway Advertising Control Act. The purpose is to prevent motorists from being distracted,, promote the safety, convenience, and enjoyment of travel on S.C. highways, and preserve and enhance our highways’ natural scenic beauty.

Clearly, we are not following the law.

How is it that we pass laws to ensure that drivers are not distracted by cell phones, yet we plaster the sides of our roadways with large signs designed to make drivers take their eyes off the road and look at them?

Certainly, there are tax revenues that cities and towns receive from billboard companies, but this pales in comparison to the cost of numerous vehicular accidents and the loss of life due to distracted drivers.Vermont and Maine, among others, have prohibited billboards. It can be done, so let’s require that billboards more than 10 years old be removed.It’s simply common sense to ban billboards.

Douglas Storrs, Beaufort

Choices shorten lives

In a recent conversation with a smoker, I was informed in no uncertain terms that she had no intention of ever stopping the use of tobacco. “I plan to smoke until the day I die,” she said.

I wanted to tell her that the life expectancy of a smoker is roughly 10 years less than that of a non-smoker, and that more than 480,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related diseases.

The health-related comparisons between those who choose to smoke and those who choose not to be vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus are, in many ways, very similar. Both are voluntary behaviors that invariably shorten lives. Both behaviors largely ignore science and data advising behavior modification. Both behaviors espouse ill-advised and illogical theories about trampling on individual freedoms. And, most sadly, loved ones responsible for caring for individuals contracting diseases resulting from these two irresponsible behaviors usually suffer immeasurable hardships.

Financially speaking, it seems that the two primary institutions currently making a killing from treating these two ill-advised behaviors are hospitals and funeral homes. How sad.

Ray Brayboy, Myrtle Beach