Step up, speak out for Murrells Inlet
Last Updated on 12/4/2008
Published on 7/22/2008
By Tim Callahan
Who speaks for Murrells Inlet?
Murrells Inlet 2007? Preserve Murrells Inlet? The civic association? County Councilman Jerry Oakley?
The answer is none of the above. For the past three years, a message I have heard consistently from these individuals and groups is: The residents have to speak themselves. The answer is you.
Go to meetings. Speak out. Write letters to the editor. E-mail your representatives. But, please, do not sit at home and expect someone to do it for you.
Too often Murrells Inlet residents rely on a message bearer to talk to these groups. Bill Chandler is one such messenger, one good example.
Bill has appeared before Murrells Inlet 2007 and the civic association several times in the past few years with concerns about land use issues. But his message is weakened when one man says he is speaking for a 100 people. When the media doesn't see the other 99, they question the seriousness of the issue at hand.
Now I know and trust Bill Chandler. If he says 100, then it is probably 100. But if he says people are up in arms over something, and the only arms I see in the air are Bill's, well....
Bill is human. Maybe the message won't be relayed quite the way you said it or meant it. Maybe what the board says to Bill will get back to you in a slightly different fashion. How? Ask five people what happened at a car crash site and you will get five different versions. It's just the way it is.
Some of you may not even know Bill Chandler, former Murrells Inlet 2007 chairman and current member of Preserve Murrells Inlet. You may have your own Bill, your own messenger. But I will say it again: If you have something to say about Murrells Inlet -- good, bad or ugly -- then it is up to you to say it. If you want something to improve or change, or stay the same, you have to let people know. And I'm not talking just the massive issues only, the dry stack boat marina-type things, when there is a bandwagon with everyone on it. I'm talking about the every day Murrells Inlet stuff you gripe, or brag about, to your friends.
How about starting right here, right now? Write a letter to your local newspaper.
So get informed. Get educated. Find out where the meetings and events are and go. It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback when you are safe on the sidelines with nary a scratch.
The Times has taken one more step this year in giving Murrells Inlet the coverage it deserves, but often does not get, lying on the outskirts of the northern part of the county. The Times is going to be using me to help Clayton Stairs bring more Murrells Inlet news to its residents.
But I can't cover it if I don't know about it. Here's another chance to make a difference. E-mail me. Let me know what concerns you, what is coming up, what I missed, what you would like to see happen, or not happen, in Murrells Inlet.
And, please, give Bill a rest. He's earned it.
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Tim Callahan is an author and freelance writer from Pawleys Island who has covered the Murrells Inlet community for several years.
