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 W
e hope this issue finds you in fine feather, reveling in the thaw,
remembering again why you choose to make South Carolina your home. "Oh,
yeah," we say when the azaleas and dogwoods begin to bloom. "I love this
place."
And we must be in love to put up with everything else that
comes with living at this Third World address. Okay
 so
we've got rednecks, xenophobia, fatty food, grinding poverty, a cowboy
government, jails filled to overflowing, shrinking social services and
people who wear sheets to make political statements; this is still a
great place to live. We have sultry seasons, wide-open skies, fatty
food, religious convictions, familial sensibilities and a reverence for
those who came before. For the most part, we are a decent, grounded lot.
Don't you think?
It is that brand of optimism that feeds the members of the South
Carolina Progressive Network, the coalition of grassroots activists
which is holding a conference this month at Penn Center near
Beaufort. POINT staffers have been involved with organizing the
event, and we are excited about the prospect of meeting together, in one
big gang, the best and brightest of South Carolina's social and
political activists. The weekend conference on April 13 and 14 will be a
strategy session, primarily; the secondary agenda is simply to have a
big time. We hope you will consider joining us. For details and a
brochure, call 803-254-9398 (in Columbia) or 1-800-849-1803 statewide.
We got word from one of our supporters this month that we thought
warranted repeating. Bob, who owns Emerald Earth Trading Company in
Greenwood, began advertising in POINT a few months ago. Recently,
he had a carload of shoppers who arrived at his place of business with
POINT in hand, saying they made the two-hour drive to his store
after reading about it in this rag. They bought enough goods to pay for
his ad. The moral of this story is that if you are a business owner you
may want to consider advertising in these pages. If you aren't a
business owner, but a shopper, tell POINT advertisers you found
them because you saw their ad here. Freelance ambassadors is what this
paper needs to stay alive.
Thanks to all of you who suggested names for the POINT canine
find. The winning submission was from Jason Vest. The puppy has been
named Emma, as in Goldman, one of America's finest revolutionaries.
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