Saved our lives

On Wednesday, Jan. 9, we had a boating mishap in the Inland Waterway just north of the Santee. Thanks to two boaters who pulled us out of the water and the wonderful medical staff at Georgetown Hospital, we survived with minor injuries.

We do not know the names of the boaters who saved our lives but we want to thank them. No amount of thanks can express how grateful we are to be alive.

Lew and Ann Westcott

Surfside Beach

Special thank you

The family of Stanley E. Howard would like to say thank you to the staff of Georgetown Memorial Hospital for the care they gave our brother.

Sincere thanks go to Dr. Lala, Dr. Metts, Dr. Young, Dr. Nichol and Dr. Skinner.

We appreciate your professionalism and support that you gave Stanley. You were there not only for him, but were an encouragement to our family through such a difficult time.

To all of the ICU nurses and the two Parrish nurses, we want you to know how much your dedication was appreciated. We can’t really put into words the true feelings in our hearts. It was an emotional time due to the seriousness of Stanley’s illness.

We are grateful for every prayer that was prayed, the visits, calls and all the love and support. We are truly a blessed family, for God gave our loved one back to us, who was so close to death.

Again, to the doctors and nurses, we salute you for the true dedication that you showed our brother. Because of our heavenly father and your direction, our precious loved is a walking miracle.

May God richly bless all of you.

The family of Stanley E. Howard

Delores Turner

Georgetown

Here we go again

Whoopee! South Carolina’s Republican hero is back for another go. The absent governor of several years ago now wants to garner the support of the voters in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district for a seat in Washington.

In a recent interview the former governor said that “he wants to be judged on politics, not scandals.”

The last time I checked (and I believe most would agree) it was politics and complete disregard for the office of governor when he, as chief executive of the state, took off for unannounced locations without even notifying his protection force nor his second in command. With all the current problems and low ratings of Congress do we really need an abdicator of office representing us?

That is abandonment of the office big time. Now, he suggests that we should not judge him on that.

In the same interview, he leads us to believe that the minions are “begging” him to run. I doubt if too many are doing so (or at least I certainly hope not). After making the begging statement, Sanford goes on to say the following. “I thought my time in politics was over …” I’m not saying it was God-ordained or anything like that, but a series of rather miraculous events have coincided here …”

How gullible does this vain man think we are? Right, he is suggesting he is running because God sent him a message to do so. Well, for certain, the God code will set him in good stead with the conservative elements in this conservative state which, of course, is his base. Let’s hope, though, that his self-proclaimed, divine-driven destiny will be over the top even for the base to which he is sending these messages.

Jim Mallow

Pawleys Island

Recent letters on gun control

Thank you for publishing the great letters showing hope for control of rampant proliferation of assault style guns and ammunition.

Gun lovers are embarrassing themselves. Their raving is merely illustrating how obnoxious their gun lust is to the rest of us. Where are our rights to the pursuit of happiness and a civilized life, when these violent minded people have the upper hand with a poisonous vision of a new wild west and an armed public?

It is time to say "cease and desist" to those who perpetuate the myth of NRA invulnerability. The role of the big business of an expanding gun market, which is driving much of this gun rights zeal, needs to be brought more into light.

The idea that the educator in Connecticut could have stopped a raging assault-ready individual with her pistol is ludicrous.

So-called "sportsmen" at gun ranges do not need to hone their skill with killing machines at the expense of the lives of children or any other part of the public. Armor piercing weaponry has become a menace to our police and must be made unavailable.

With reduction of the stupidly easy access to the kind of killing equipment and ammunition used in the recent tragedies, society will be, maybe not perfectly safe, but safer, from the possibility of classrooms full of riddled bodies. And we all must support the President and other leaders; we must all write and call our lawmakers who will make the decisions that will help rid the United States of a hideous menace to public safety.

As Ms. Bader put it, at least make it a little harder instead of insanely easy to acquire mass killing equipment.

Elizabeth Wiley

Pawleys Island

Opinions that appear on this page in Letters to the Editor or in columns do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.