S.C. State University’s bowl win should earn Coach Pough raise and contract extension

Why not Buddy?

Buddy Pough and the South Carolina State Bulldog football team has won what many consider to be THE championship of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Hopefully, he won’t have to come on television and basically beg to keep his job for another year. It has been depressing to watch him the past couple of years when he didn’t know if he would have a job or not.

With most universities, when a conference or national championship is won, the coach automatically gets a contract extension and a raise in pay. Some coaches get major raises.

Why not Buddy? He represents our state well. He seems to be a man of honor and his players seem to love him.

Why doesn’t the S.C. State Athletic Department and administration show him the same level of love?

Congratulations, Coach Pough and the entire Bulldog football team.

Come on, S.C. State. Do the right thing.

David B Stout, Chapin

Thanks to an angel

My husband has been in the hospital for the last week. Hoping that he might come home on the 23rd of December, I ran to the Ballentine Walmart at 6 in the morning to pick up a few things to eat.

I usually put my phone in one pocket and my wallet in the other. When I rang up my purchases, I discovered that I had forgotten my wallet and became upset.

The man at the register beside mine reached over and swiped his card and said, “Merry Christmas.”

In my frazzled state, I did not get his name. I am hoping that he reads “The State” and will see this and understand what a blessing he was to me.

I am very thankful for this kind angel.

Georgia Metz, Irmo

Nature’s beautiful lessons

It is rare that one newspaper article can generate so many deep-felt emotions.

“Endangered Right Whale and Her Calf Surprise S. Carolina Fishermen” (12/12/21) has had that effect on me.

The story took me back to when my family and I had just returned from a visit to Antarctica, just after the emergence of COVID, but before precautions had been put in place to try to contain the virus.

Antarctica is almost other-worldly. Mere words do not do it justice.

How do you describe the awe of coming so close to a whale that you can hear its breathing while being sprayed by the water coming from its blowhole? How do you explain the tender moments engendered as you watch that mother whale protect and instruct her calf? How do you explain your dumb-struck admiration of nature and the richness that it provides? How do you inform others of the importance of sustaining that richness?

Caitlin Byrd with her artfully expressed phrases and exceptional journalistic skills comes very close as does Bryan Hawkins with his gentle urgings about appreciating and protecting what nature provides, regardless of potential monetary gain.

That COVID is still here is regrettable, but perhaps part of what we have gained is a new appreciation of what we still have and of how we can sustain it rather than of what we believe we have lost. The lessons are there. It is up to us to recognize and act upon them.

Carol Dodson, Elgin

Tiger King nightmare

Netflix’s latest installment of the Tiger King saga, “The Doc Antle Story,” is the stuff that nightmares are made of, and I’m embarrassed that this man is in our state.

My heart goes out to the women who were allegedly preyed upon by Antle, and I hope that, if nothing else, their trauma has been eased by the opportunity to finally tell their stories.

I also grieve for the animals who surely suffer under Antle’s control at Myrtle Beach Safari.

After all, anyone who treats a fellow human being so heartlessly is not likely to be any kinder to animals and the accounts of Antle putting a monkey in a freezer, tigers pacing until their feet were bloody, and abandoned animals left to starve are testimony to that.

Those images will haunt me forever.

Stacey E Besser, Swansea