Richland County, SC — The “new normal” apparently refers not only to the sluggish economy, but also to the new standards for employment for public employees. Public servants can now join the ranks of ex-athletic coaches in some sort of pay-to-not-play sweetheart parachutes, to avoid calling poor performance what it is: incompetence.

Lillian McBride has set a new normal for what we will accept when it comes to accountability. This is not the way a society competing on an international scale can survive. Let the countdown begin.

Richard C. Fadeley

Columbia