If pot holes and childcare costs impact all, why is infrastructure vote dividing us?

Infrastructure for all

I don’t understand our U.S. senators.

Do they not think all the items in the two infrastructure packages are needed in our state? Are they thinking about their constituents or themselves?

Parents can’t go to work because they can’t afford a babysitter with the pay they are offered.

We all have to get our cars repaired because of the bad roads.

How old are our bridges?

Seniors need lower prescription prices. I could go on.

Every constituent in South Carolina, in fact, in the whole United States, needs to call, write or email their folks in D.C. and let them know how they feel.

Our senators need to get their coworkers to think about their constituents and not themselves and pass the much needed bill. It’s not about politics it’s about need.

Jacqueline L. Blakey, Conway

Careful what you censor

The governor has ordered a book pulled from school libraries because of its “pornographic and obscene” prose.

Educated people know that censorship represents what Thomas Jefferson called a “tyranny over the mind.”

Censorship in the schools can stifle inquiring minds from exploring their world, seeking reason, looking for truths, and, most importantly, developing critical-thinking skills. We need books that will meet students where they are and help them grow both emotionally and intellectually.

The works of Nobel Prize winners, including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Toni Morrison, have been pulled from some school libraries. Also banned have been Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Adults who censor books must be able to recommend appropriate substitutions and explain how they serve the same purpose. People have varying opinions of what offends community standards. Look for redeeming social value in questionable works.

After all, we still read the Bible with all of its sex, violence, slavery, and stories that can lead to nightmares. How about the Old Testament book “The Song of Solomon,” or has it been censored out of your Bible?

Elizabeth Jones, Columbia

Repeal WEP

I am a retired federal employee writing to raise awareness about the effects of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) experienced by nearly 2 million people.

This policy reduces the earned Social Security benefits of local, state and federal retirees who worked in Social Security-covered private-sector employment, and who also earned an annuity from their non-Social Security-covered government employment.

The WEP can result in a reduced monthly Social Security benefit, causing financial distress.

Additionally spouses are feeling the burden of the Government Pension Offset (GPO), a similar penalty that prevents them from collecting the Social Security benefits their spouses earned from private-sector jobs due to their public service.

The GPO affects beneficiaries of which a large percentage are women.

I am inviting other retirees affected by the WEP and GPO to join me in calling on Congress to repeal these provisions. It’s time to allow us to collect what we earned.

Lester Jee, North Myrtle Beach

Stop the double-talk

A hearty bravo to those brave, constituent-minded Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill that recently passed Congress. Shame on those Republicans who didn’t.

In the parlance of many party regulars (largely Trump cultists) this bold minority are traitors to the cause, especially as they apply to wise public policy that benefits most people.

Like every state, South Carolina has major infrastructure issues that need vast infusions of federal money. One in the Columbia area is the oft-sited “Malfunction Junction” that is both a cruel joke and horrendous headache to the multitudes who travel the roads to and from the city.

G. Kent Krell, Columbia

This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 6:00 AM.