Today I ready a fantastic article by ROBERT KRULWICH at NPR on ancient sea-shores giving rise to the SC cotton country, and thus a reliably blue vein of counties in an otherwise sea of red. Click on over for some awesome maps and analysis.
More thoughts below the orange squiggle.
This literal sea of blue is also the area of the state that folks in Columbia like to forget exists. It's the Corridor of Shame and one of the most economically depressed areas in the state, if not the country. The quick trip down I-26 from Columbia to the beaches doesn't do it justice. One has to travel the back-roads of the area to realize the full impact of the economic and racial injustices that have played out over the past few hundred years and continue to this day. These are the counties that barely have money to keep schools open and teachers paid. The fire departments are all volunteers and it takes just about everything they have to keep the trucks running. This is an area where Gullah is still a dominant language and trees painted white at the base to ward off evil spirits.
Last week it was announced that the state had a major security breach and millions of SSNs and bank account numbers had been stolen. The security breach happened at the beginning of the month, and the state informed the public on October 26th. The reasoning for the delay...to allow the state to investigate. The state still can't tell you if your information has been compromised, but happily offer identity theft protection to everyone involved. Small comfort - at least to those who can take advantage of it.
I was traveling in TN at the time without reliable access to the internet, hoping that my information had not been compromised. Thankfully it hasn't. I worry for those who may not be able to keep an eye on their own financial situation - that they may lose what they have. Our governor, in response to this situation, declared October 29th Marcus Lattimore day - a fitting distraction for a complete lack of competence on the part of the state and the Governor. (see Grizzard's diary here)
Unfortunately this is an ordinary maneuver here in SC. Screw up and distract. It's unfortunate that the folks living in the blue shores of SC may never know what has been stolen from them. The tragedy is that the republicans in Columbia don't give a damn.