Columns

Most reactions to the march by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., last month condemned the marchers, their message and their use of swastikas, chants and Nazi imagery. But there were also questions about why they were allowed to hold their march and spread their vile message of hate.
The latter question is just one of the latest examples of a recent trend in which some are asking whether certain groups and individuals should be permitted to express views that offend others.

Suppose you had next-door neighbors who, year after year, did not adequately feed their children or provide them health care.
And suppose that you regularly talked with your neighbor and showed them how they were not measuring up, and told them there were resources available to help them do better.
But after many years, their kids were still worse off than over 80 percent of the other kids in the neighborhood.
Would you call this systematic “child abuse?” Well, thus is the status of children in South Carolina.

Since Hurricane Irma put Florida in its sights, there have been thousands of reports of price gouging on everything from water to gasoline.
The most notable complaint was not, however, the one alleging a $72 charge for a six-pack of water. Rather, it was the $3,200 reportedly asked by Delta for a ticket out of Florida.
That’s because it wasn’t actually hurricane-related price gouging. Airlines were charging similar fares to last-minute buyers two weeks ago – and have been for years – long before Irma became a threat.

The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) is spending money to find out how much the state made off the eclipse.

According to PRT’s newsletter, museums, state parks, etc. were sold out or nearly sold out due to this “rare celestial event.” It goes on to say: “Because this type of anecdotal evidence is so strong all across South Carolina, we’re excited about seeing the final picture. We hope it informs us of the true economic impact of such an historic event.”