A8
|
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2016
N.G. Osteen 1843-1936 The Watchman and Southron
THE SUMTER ITEM
H.G. Osteen 1870-1955 Founder, The Item
H.D. Osteen 1904-1987 The Item
Margaret W. Osteen 1908-1996 The Item Hubert D. Osteen Jr. Chairman & Editor-in-Chief Graham Osteen Co-President Kyle Osteen Co-President Jack Osteen Editor and Publisher Larry Miller CEO Rick Carpenter Managing Editor
20 N. Magnolia St., Sumter, South Carolina 29150 • Founded October 15, 1894
McCain has heart issue at right time COMMENTARY
BY RICK CARPENTER rick@theitem.com
O
n Saturday, April 16, Sumter County Councilman Jim McCain repre-
sented the county’s team in the American Heart Association’s 2016 Sumter County Heart Walk. The Heart Walk raises money to promote heart disease awareness and research. He finished the 3.3mile course among the leaders after walking a quick pace Rick despite a noticeable Carpenter limp from having broken his leg in multiple places and an ankle after falling off a ladder about two years ago. It’s not unusual to see McCain representing the county. A couple of weeks ago, I covered three events in
one day and saw McCain (as well as Colleen Yates, representing the city) at each event. We joked about seeing each other so many times the same day. We even changed clothes between a domestic violence awareness event at breakfast and a black tie event for the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce McCAIN Gala that night. When I asked McCain about the walk, he said he wanted to support the county’s team. After all, at 65, McCain looks like the model of good health. Thin, energetic and always on the move with a positive attitude. But two days after the Heart Walk, right in the middle of a nuclear stress test where he was walking rapidly on a treadmill, a doctor monitoring him stopped him in his tracks and called 911. “My cardiologist stopped the test and told me I was on the verge of having a heart attack,” McCain wrote on his Facebook account for
friends to learn about his condition. Doctors rushed him to Palmetto Health Tuomey, only to learn they needed to transfer him immediately to Palmetto Health Heart Hospital in Columbia. While the ambulance was en route in normal driving conditions, McCain complained of feeling pressure on his chest. The attending medic ran an electrocardiogram and said “that’s not good.” The medic advised the driver who then turned on the siren and lights and sped up to get him to Columbia as quickly as possible. It might have saved his life. When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, a heart doctor looked at the EKG results and, when McCain tells the story, also said, “that’s not good.” The doctor rushed him to the cardiac catheterization unit on another floor in the hospital where doctors quickly determined he had 95 percent blockage in one main artery and 80 percent blockage in the second of three main arteries. The third artery appeared fine. During the procedure, the doctor placed stents in the two blockages
that opened the blockages to normal flow. All of this happened on Monday following the stress test. McCain walked out of Palmetto Health Heart Hospital on Tuesday and walked 3.28 miles on Wednesday with no ill effects. Doctors often refer to heart disease as a silent killer because you often don’t know you’re in danger until it’s too late. McCain testifies to that. He just thanks God his cardiologist was monitoring his stress test when things went haywire. He’s convinced God has a plan for the rest of his life. “It’s not for me to know what that plan is,” McCain wrote. “He will show me by and by.” Consider him a new-born evangelist for heart disease awareness. McCain slammed the door on the silent killer when he came knocking this week. He should be the poster child — or adult — for next year’s Heart Walk. Rick Carpenter is managing editor of The Sumter Item.
COMMENTARY
Black votes matter C
HARLESTON — African-Americans in the South can’t get a break when it comes to voting, as history can’t deny. After all they’ve endured through slavery, Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, their voices are still treated dismissively by tone-deaf politicians who would ask for their votes. If you’re thinking Bernie Sanders, you’re partly right. Earlier Kathleen this month, having lost Parker massively to Hillary Clinton across the Southeast, Sanders commented that the bevy of early Southern primaries “distorts reality.” In other comments soon thereafter, perhaps covering for what was obviously a lapse in political acumen, he clarified that those early states are the most conservative in the country. Not really. And not really. While some segments of the South are undeniably conservative, Dixie is also home to a large and reliably Democratic cohort — African-Americans. Many of the most liberal people serving in today’s Congress were elected by Southerners, and especially black Southerners. The reality is that Sanders failed to earn their votes in part by treating the South as a lost cause. Many took Sanders’ remarks as insinuating that the black vote isn’t all that important. Adding to the insult, actor Tim Robbins, a Sanders surrogate, said that Clinton’s win in South Carolina, where more than half of Democratic voters are African-American, was “about as signifi-
‘Clinton shares none of Obama’s sparkle, but she has more than paid her dues, and African-American voters have rewarded her loyalty. For his part, Sanders not only confirmed African-Americans’ concerns about his disconnect from their daily lives, but was also badly mistaken about the South’s distance from reality.’ cant” as winning Guam. Not cool, Mr. Robbins, but you were great in “The Shawshank Redemption.” The gentleman from Vermont (black population: 1 percent) and the gentleman from Hollywood failed to charm Southern Democratic leaders, who recently responded with a letter condemning Sanders’ remarks. The signatories, including the Democratic Party chairs of South Carolina (an African-American), Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, expressed concern that Sanders’ characterization of the South minimized “the importance of the voices of a core constituency for our party.” The letter writers also pointed out that some of
Sanders’ victories have been in states that are more conservative than Southern ones, such as Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho. That black voters would prefer a familiar candidate such as Clinton over someone whose personal experience among African-Americans seems to have been relatively limited, notwithstanding his participation in civil rights demonstrations, is hardly surprising. For decades, the Clintons have worked for issues and protections important to the African-American community. But the Clintons, too, have been dismissive toward black voters when things didn’t go their way. During the 2008 primaries when it was clear that Barack Obama would
trounce Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, Bill Clinton remarked that Jesse Jackson also had won the state in both 1984 and 1988. No one needs a translator to get Clinton’s meaning. His next hastily drawn sentence — “Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here” — did little to distract from the implication that Obama would win because he was black. Not cool, Mr. President. Hillary Clinton got herself into a hot mess when she asserted that President Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the Civil Rights Act, which many saw as dismissive of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s legacy. She scrambled to explain herself and mitigate the damage, but feelings once hurt are hard to mend. Then again, time is a miracle worker, and all is apparently forgiven. Hillary Clinton is the new black and has been duly rewarded for her loyalty, patience and sportsmanship. She played nice with Obama, crushing her resentment beneath the heel of her sensible shoes and erasing from memory Obama’s condescending “You’re likable enough, Hillary” during a debate. On the campaign trail, Clinton now tosses rose petals at Obama’s feats, promising to carry on his policies not be-
cause she necessarily agrees with them but because it’s politically savvy. For his part, the president has all but endorsed Clinton, returning the favor of her indulgence and her husband’s vigorous support. The truth is, only Obama could have defeated Clinton for the 2008 nomination, and he probably did win at least partly because he was African-American. The country felt it was time for a black president and Obama’s message of hope against a purple-colored backdrop of streamlined unity, baby, was intoxicating. He was a dazzling diamond in the rough world of partisan politics. Clinton shares none of Obama’s sparkle, but she has more than paid her dues, and African-American voters have rewarded her loyalty. For his part, Sanders not only confirmed AfricanAmericans’ concerns about his disconnect from their daily lives, but was also badly mistaken about the South’s distance from reality. In the South, black votes matter — a lot — and no one has understood this better than the Clintons. Kathleen Parker’s email address is kathleenparker@ washpost.com. © 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? Send your letter to letters@theitem.com, drop it off at The Sumter Item office, 20 N. Magnolia St., or mail it to The Sumter Item, P.O. Box 1677, Sumter, SC 29151, along with the writer’s full name, address and telephone number (for verification purposes only). Letters that exceed 350 words will be cut accordingly in the print edition, but available in their entirety at www.theitem.com/opinion/letters_to_editor.