Editorials from across South Carolina: mopeds, ethics & Confederate monuments

Moped restrictions

It should not have taken seven grueling years to get moped legislation off the shoulder of the road, but we are glad legislators saw fit to support what most would say is a common sense approach to regulating the two-wheeled vehicles.

The measure adopted by the state Senate and House, and signed into law Friday by Gov. Henry McMaster, is not an attack on the sale and use of mopeds; rather, it is a law that addresses a very real public safety issue.

Sure, many of us have been frustrated when caught behind a moped operator, but that’s not what is at issue. The law is designed to focus on abuses similar to those committed by operators of cars and trucks, namely driving while intoxicated. Still 18 months away from taking effect, the law will allow moped operators to be charged with DUI.

Logical. Common sense. Yet, it was fought for too many years. It’s no secret that in more than a handful of cases, mopeds are the go-to method of transportation among people who have lost their licenses to DUIs. That was a loophole that needed closing.…

The law is not perfect. To get the DUI loophole closed, lawmakers had to drop the bill’s initial requirement that operators wear reflective vests at night but retained a requirement that teens wear helmets when operating mopeds. That too seemed to be a common-sense approach, but similar legislation was vetoed last year by then-Gov. Nikki Haley who saw the vests, and a requirement that operators under 21 wear helmets, as overreach on the part of government. Requiring reflective vests for nighttime moped operators is as sensible as requiring the use of seat belts by drivers of cars and trucks.

Ethics Commission

The eight commissioners will consider complaints against public officials under the new rules approved by the Legislature last session, following years of inaction. Or they were scheduled to do so beginning April 1.

But the House didn’t get around to a vote on the appointees until May 4, and the Senate failed to vote before the regular session ended earlier this month. They will still have the opportunity to do so when they return to vote on the state budget.…

“The whole area of ethics is very important in our state,” said Gov. Henry McMaster, in urging confirmation of the appointees. The Senate should endorse that view with a last-minute vote that will enable the commission to start its work.

The low priority level is fairly obvious at this point. But senators can still reassure constituents that they are willing to implement their own reforms from the previous year.

Confederate monuments

The flag, despite previously being removed from an official position on the dome, remained embroiled in controversy.

But the banner’s removal immediately kindled debate about other symbols associated with the Confederacy, even the memorial statue near where the flag had been. And around the state, monuments and statues extending from before and after the Confederacy became sources of controversy.

Some insisted that such historical markers be removed because of the Confederacy’s direct association with slavery. The argument extended to calls for stripping away monuments, statues and building names of those associated with segregationist polices after the war, with fingers being pointed forward in time to the likes of one-time segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond.…

As much as some monuments, memorials, building names and other fixtures mark history that is deeply troubling in eyes of the 21st century, people from other times cannot be judged by today’s standards any more than what we do today can be judged fairly by people hundreds of years from now.

Monuments, Confederate and other, are reminders of our history – the good and the bad chapters. They should be protected, not removed.