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35 Genuinely Southern “Dum spiro spero” (While I breathe, I hope) is South Carolina’s motto. I learned it as a child, taught it as a public school teacher, and recite it at almost all of my graduation speeches, regardless of grade level. I have been stimulated and incentivized by that motto and many other maxims that have echoed in my ears over the years. My mother’s axiom “I believe I could live in Hell for three months if I felt I was going to get out,” my dad’s admonition “The world would much rather see a sermon than to hear one,” Professor Howell’s sociology lesson “We are but the sum total of our experiences ,” and from my in-laws, that old Gullah/Geechee gnome “What goes around comes around.” If there is a synergy generated by these aphorisms, my story is the epitome of the result. My past has been shaped by God’s good graces, several strokes of good luck, a caring and nurturing family, and a plethora of loyal and supportive friends. Emily’s Jolt Good luck in my personal choices was underscored a few months after I moved from Charleston back to Columbia in 1971. I was invited back to Charleston to address a housing and community-development conference at the Francis Marion Hotel. Emily took the trip with me. I was so hypersensitive about the speech that I didn’t trust myself to write it on my own. So I appealed to Phil Grose, the governor’s chief speech writer, for some professional help. Phil was also my supervisor in the governor’s office, and became my chief collaborator on this book project. It was my first attempt at delivering a speech that I had not written myself. So when Phil handed me his treatment of the thoughts I had shared with him, I read and reread it several times, pushing and pulling here and there so that the flow would better accommodate Phil’s and my cultural differences. I was satisfied with the finished project and thought I delivered it rather well. At the conclusion of my remarks the applause was thunderous, and the audience of four-hundred-plus rose to their feet. As best as I can remember, it was the first time I had ever received a standing ovation. We were returning to Columbia immediately after the speech, and I could hardly wait to get in the car and hear Emily’s assessment. When we got onto I-26 for the one-hundred-plus-mile drive to Columbia, I waited for her to say something about the speech. Instead, she opened a book and started reading. 320 Blessed by the Past As we approached Aviation Avenue, about ten miles from downtown Charleston , I could not take the deafening silence any longer, so I asked Emily what she thought about the speech. Without looking up she sort of whispered, “I just wonder when you are going to stop talking about South Carolina’s problems and start doing something about them.” Her response was about as sobering as the “brag gently, weep softly” note she left on my mirror the morning after that tumultuous primary victory party. It created a deafening silence that lasted the rest of the way home. I was still reeling from Emily’s jolt the next morning. I started asking myself some questions: Was my speechmaking doing anything to change things for those students I stood before for three years at C. A. Brown? How would a well-received speech change conditions for those migrants and seasonal farm workers I abandoned when I moved into that little office on the first floor of the State House? What impact would that standing ovation have on my children and the millions of other children who looked like them? Was I more interested in garnering headlines than making headway? What would Edna Lukens and Rowena Tobias think? I was very uncomfortable with the conclusions I drew from that little exercise in self-analysis. The Blessings of Children To date I have been blessed with three daughters, two sons-in-law, two granddaughters , and one grandson. As I go about my duties and responsibilities to the people of South Carolina’s Sixth Congressional District, I often think about the dreams and aspirations Emily and I had for our children and ourselves, our experiences and challenges of watching them grow up and mature, and the challenges they now face as adults and...

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