Monday letters: Thanks to Ariail for remembering

Since we South Carolinians have had no one for decades to chronicle our cherished state history, I must express my appreciation to Robert Ariail and to your newspaper for printing Mr. Ariail’s fine cartoons.

As one of the nearly 7,000 people whose lives were ever changed — and some destroyed — by the displacing of total populations of several small towns and communities in the early 1950s for the federal government’s location of a facility to make heavy water for a powerful bomb, I appreciate Mr. Ariail’s recalling and referring to this event by drawing several cartoons about the state’s possible acceptance of more nuclear waste at the dump near Barnwell.

I suspect that few people who live in South Carolina, including natives, have any memory of an event that affected so many people and enriched so many politicians. It’s shameful that it’s overlooked these days by anyone who is considered a state historian.

Columbia

This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Monday letters: Thanks to Ariail for remembering."