FEEDBACK

10/27: Keep the focus on manufacturing

To the editor:

Many, many thanks for your article in this Sunday's newspaper regarding the apparent lack of focus on maintaining or recruiting manufacturing jobs for South Carolina...[In the Pee Dee] we are about to begin investing $34 million in developing a training facility that will sustain advanced manufacturing techniques and processes and provide the training that will attract economic development clients that want to continue a manufacturing presence in the U.S. and want to be located close to a facility totally devoted to sustaining their workforce needs.

As I listen to the Palmetto group talk about endowed chairs and all of the manufacturing that will flow to the state once we become a research hub, I am a little mystified when I look at the folks being laid off and the ones just coming into the workforce. I am a bit dismayed that anyone would say that protecting local manufacturing jobs can't be the state's top business priority. The present state of manufacturing is analogous to the state of agriculture in the sixties. Huge changes are occurring but the key is to roll with the changes that are occurring in manufacturing and provide an environment that will be attractive to the new role manufacturing will play in our economy.

In spite of the apparent lack of interest in this endeavor, we are not giving. up. Jim Morris is exactly right, we can not walk away from the history of manufacturing support we have built in this state....There are manufacturers [in Switzerland and Germany] who are very interested in having a U.S. presence. They use high tech processes and employ fewer people than previously, but they employ. The key for us is to realize that this is a new era in manufacturing and we may have seen the passing of the large manufacturing entities that employed large numbers of people only to be supplanted by an increasing number of smaller manufacturers who employ fewer but highly technically trained individuals. I hope you will write more on this topic. Every little bit helps.

-- Name withheld by request, Florence, S.C.

10/26: It's our duty to question government

To the editor:

I enjoyed your latest article on the Government. not being the enemy. As a writer, it is your job to create thought provoking questions for your readers. This provocation was accomplished by taking one side of the argument to the extreme. I do not believe that there are many reasonable folks out there who believe that all taxes are bad and we should eliminate them all together.

I also do not believe our founding fathers thought that an individual who pays 50 percent of his annual income to state and federal taxes was a good thing. The intent was to get out from under a Government that taxed us without representation. In actuality, The fat cats iI believe the founding fathers did not like the Government. they were under so they decided to fight it instead of roll over and blindly trust those in power. It is our duty as Americans to question the role of our Government and to make sure they do as the folks would have them. It comes down to accountability. n Washington obviously do not feel accountable to the people they represent or they would be more concerned about how they spend the folks money.

-- Jay Auld, Bluffton, S.C.

10/6: Hollings will still be able to learn

To the editor:

"I have been introduced to your column and am reading some in the archives. In your 5 August 2003 column, you quoted Senator Hollings as saying, "My wife, Peatsy, helped a lot of students when she was a teacher." As one of Miss Liddy's students from St. Andrew's Parish High School in the mid-60s, I can fully agree with the Senator. Miss Liddy was one of the most challenging teachers I have ever had. Her love of US government, history, and especially politics motivated her students to understand our wonderful country and its unique place in the world. When the Senator is retired, he will still be able to learn from Miss Liddy.

-- Dale L. Theiling, Charleston, S.C.