Antonio and I first met years ago as classmates in Leadership Columbia. I knew he was very involved in community events but had no idea how far reaching his services had become until earlier this month when we caught up.

His employer,HOPE Worldwide, is an international charity that changes lives by harnessing the compassion and commitment of dedicated staff and volunteers to deliver sustainable, high-impact, community-based services to the poor and needy.

It had been a few months since we had spoken and I quickly realized why. He has been to Nairobi, Kenya, London, Rome, and Zurich Switzerland in just that short span of time.

He was promoted to Vice President of US Programs and is now responsible for HOPE’S 40 program cities that work with over 20,000 volunteers and 132 churches.

He still oversees South Carolina but travels extensively throughout the country providing Technical Assitance and direction to their US Programs.

In this worldwide organization, there are only eight Regional Directors. Antonio is one of those: Africa – Marc Aguirre, United States – Antonio Boyd, United States – David Chaney, Cambodia/China – Daniel Liu, Global HIV Coordinator – Mark Ottenweller, Caribbean – Peter Swaby, Indonesia – Mark Templer and Eurasia – Shawn Wooten.

Antonio and I stay in touch and he’s another example of the great people that live right here in our community!

*** I’d like to regularly introduce outstanding members of our community who are making a difference in the lives of others. If you have a spouse, friend, or colleague who you’d like others to know more about, please contact me here online and I’ll do my best to share their accomplishments with our community.***

“I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” – Harry Callahan

Yes, I can hear those words in the House Chamber should this bill become law.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for the Second Amendment but with all the problems in our state right now, is this one that we really need to address?

Since we House members recently received a letter from the Justice Department suggesting that members may have too much information available on-line, security for us and our family is a concern. I’m just not sure why we should get any special designation on this matter. While we’re at it, I’m not sure why other classifications of public servants (Supreme Court justices and other judges, along with solicitors and workers’ compensation commissioners) were ever given it either.

If you’re pining for the good ole’ days of gun duels, then maybe you should give your Representative a call and we can go “old school” like Andrew Jackson once did. I’m just not sure that’s what’s important to most in our state.

I’m thinking things like improving education, growing the economy, fixing immigration problems, paying for our roads and highways, and slowing down government spending may be higher up the wish list. Maybe I’m out of touch.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. This bill could be to the House floor before March.

Tonight’s vote for a new municipality in our area was 682 Yes, 950 No.

As I stated throughout the past year and a half, I’m glad tonight’s vote was able to finally take place so that we could move forward one way or another and hopefully work together towards what I really believe are common goals. Mainly, having our voices heard.

Whether you were one of the 682 that wanted it or the 950 that didn’t, I’m glad you went today to cast your vote.

There’s nothing that says democracy like giving people a chance to vote on their future and that was what this was about. That’s why I applaud the folks that worked to make the vote even possible. I remember the effort I put in (and continue to put in) to represent our area and I also know the work required for folks (on both sides of the issue) to go door-to-door, stuff newspaper boxes, have forums, make signs, etc.

A year ago, the chance to even have this vote seemed like an impossibility. There was such friction between the Town of Irmo and the Ballentine community that it seemed there would be no middle ground.

I applaud Irmo Council Members Kathy Condom and Harvey Hoots and Irmo Town Administrator John Hanson who agreed to my request to meet with a group from the Ballentine-Dutch Fork Civic Association to talk about “Walmart and annexation“. My role was easy – just rely on my friendships to help people sit down and talk. I only needed to mediate the two groups that night. Their role was tougher – putting aside any hard feelings and meet in one room for an hour – and they did just that.

Tonight’s vote was a result of that meeting. Hopefully, the movement behind it will only help to allow our community/communities to co-exist with a better understanding of one another. I also hope Richland County Council was listenting too. Our area pays a LARGE portion of taxes to the county and all we ask in return is to have our Council Member, Bill Malinowski, be listened to when he presents needs and concerns. I honestly believe our goals are the same in our community, people just have different ways of accomplishing those goals.

It’s no different than what I face daily in Columbia in the General Assembly. Sure we try to put labels on many things: R’s and D’s. Liberal/Conservative. More government/Less Government. Raise taxes/Reduce services. Regardless, I really believe people ultimately want what they feel will best improve their quality of life!

Ok, I don’t really know what this says about me that I’m posting tonight on Valentine’s Day about “cheap gas” but I had to share this with the community.

If you need gas, stroll on over to the Kroger’s on St. Andrews and Lake Murray Boulevard (a gallon is under $2.70 with your Kroger card!)

Karen and I were coming back from taking Sarah to cheerleading…oh, this was after a “romantic dinner” sitting in the Sonic Drive Thru with all the kids, when I realized we needed gas in her car (99 Ford Expedition over 150,000 miles).

We pulled in the new Kroger Gas Station and filled up with 22 gallons at $2.659 a gallon!

Stations in the same area ranged from $2.83 all the way up to $2.90! That means the $5 I saved tonight can go towards the $39.99 roses (from BiLo) that I bought for Karen, Sarah, and Emma today.

Am I cheap or what? Or another question…..how does my wife put up with me?

Today, South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal addressed a Joint Assembly of the SC Legislature and specifically spoke about the recent “bar exam flap”.

The full text of today’s speech can be viewed by clicking here but I wanted to at least share her comments about the controversy with you.

Soon after this story initially “broke”, I was an Educator of the Day at Dutch Fork Middle School. Those 8th graders were on top of their current events because they not only knew about the story but also had their opinions. The general consensus was that “something didn’t seem right”.

In politics, it’s easy for folks to second guess officials and others (and I get my fair share of that myself). While I won’t question the integrity of the highest court in our state, I would question the judgement and the decision they made.

Feel free to share your thoughts. My second-guess here is simply this – why not tell the ONE person who passed (due to an error) that he actually did NOT pass? Seems that decision would be better than allowing 20 other students who DID NOT pass to end up now passing. Passing because you decided to throw out a section of the test so that you wouldn’t have to tell that original ONE young man that his passing grade was actually due to an error?

To put this into an analogy at my paying job at Wachovia Mortgage…..if I inadvertently told an applicant he was approved but later learned that was a mistake due to a certain part of his application being graded incorrectly, would I just explain that mistake to that borrower (yes) or would I then go throw out that section of the application for EVERYONE that applied that month and let them get a mortgage they otherwise would not?

You play the role of one of the highest judges in our state. What would you do?

Chief Justice Toal today….

NOW I WANT TO TURN TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA BAR EXAMINATION PROCESS, WHICH HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SOME CONTROVERSY. ON BEHALF OF MY COURT, I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU DIRECTLY, UNFILTERED BY THE GLOSS OF OTHERS.

EACH OF US IN THIS ROOM LIVES OUR LIVES AND RAISES OUR FAMILIES IN A SMALL STATE WHERE WE KNOW EACH OTHER WELL. UNLIKE LIFE IN A LARGE ANONYMOUS PLACE, WE PRIZE A LIFE OF RICH AND ENDURING PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN OUR BELOVED STATE IS NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FOR THE CIVILITY, DECENCY, AND INTEGRITY OF OUR APPROACH TO PRACTICE.

IN OTHER JURISDICTIONS, A LAWMAKER MIGHT NEVER MEET THE MEMBERS OF THE STATE’S HIGHEST COURT. IN SOUTH CAROLINA, YOU SEE JEAN TOAL, JIM MOORE, JOHNNIE WALLER, COSTA PLEICONES, AND DON BEATTY AMONGST YOU REGULARLY. OUR BENCH IS THE SMALLEST PER CAPITA OF ANY IN THE COUNTRY. YOU KNOW US VERY WELL.

OUR COURT HAS ISSUED SEVERAL STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE RESULTS OF THE JULY 2007 BAR EXAM. I CAN’T IMPROVE ON WHAT WE HAVE SAID AS A COURT, BUT I WANT YOU TO HEAR DIRECTLY FROM ME WHAT WE DID AND WHY.
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What if cold was hot? What if up was down? What if slowing spending down turned into speeding spending up?

Welcome to the General Assembly, or specifically the State Senate.

Only in “Bizarro World” would comments like these appear:

From www.statehousereport.com…….

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

House rule change meant to slow spending could speed it up

By BILL DAVIS, editor

FEB. 1, 2008 — State Rep. Nathan Ballentine was not pleased when he heard this week that a new change in House rules designed to slow spending might actually spur it in the Senate.

“That is not what I fought for in the four years since I came to Columbia,” said Ballentine, a Republican from Irmo.

Ballentine, joining with others, fought to require House members to sign their names to spending projects. Prior to the rule change, unsigned earmarks, often the target of the governor’s veto pen, could sail through into the state budget without the author being revealed.

The thinking behind the rule change was that by forcing representatives to sign their earmarks, they would be less likely to champion projects like a Green Bean Museum proposed for Lake City.

But, as everyone knows, House rules don’t apply in the Senate.

“I always thought the problem with the Green Bean Museum was the name,” joked Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg). “If they had called it the Rural Heritage Museum, no one would have had any problem with it.”

How about “La Musée d’Haricots Vert”?

“Nope, can’t do that; the state only allows for the English language now,” said Hutto, who represents one of the poorest and most rural swaths of South Carolina.

Seriously, Hutto said Ballentine’s rule change would be welcomed in the Senate, where legislators were hungry to have their constituents know what projects they brought to the state and their hometown.

Hutto said the rule change dovetailed nicely with the Senate now being able to better inform their constituents as to what their senator was doing. [Read more...]

Tonight, I received a copy of a request that I wanted to share with our community.

If you’re not familiar with the SC Association of Student Councils, you need to know that our community is well represented as we have several students holding leadership positions! Our schools have some of THE BEST student councils in the entire state!

Your help is needed next month as more than 300 students from all over our state will be spending time right here in our community. It’s important that our community make this a great experience for tomorrow’s leaders!

Here are some of OUR STUDENTS students that are involved in this statewide council; as well as a list of other recognitions our community has received from the organization last year and this year:

SCASC Executive Committee:
President – Matt Orck, Dutch Fork High School
District Five Chairman – Karlee Gibson, Dutch Fork High School
District Five Vice Chairman – Tyler Leaphart, Chapin High School
District Five 2nd Vice Chairman – Matthew Hite, Chapin Middle School

Gold Honor Councils:
Chapin High School
Chapin Middle School
Dutch Fork High School
Dutch Fork Middle School
Irmo High School

SCASC Advisor’s Association:
President: Bonita Guram, Chapin High School
AAA/AAAA Awards:
Community Service: “Home for the Holidays”, Chapin High School
School Spirit: Homecoming Court-er, Chapin High School

Read the letter requesting your help as a host family by clicking here [Read more...]

If you are the parent of a high school senior living in House District 71 that plans to attend USC, Clemson, Midlands Tec, or Winthrop/Columbia College in fall 2008, click here for information and an application for a one year scholarship. There are two $500 scholarships for Midlands Tec, and three $1,000 scholarships (one each) for USC, Clemson, and either Winthrop or Columbia College.

Please note: the student may be educated at any public/private high school in our state or be homeschooled. To be eligible though, the student must live in House District 71. The student may confirm he/she lives in House District 71 by visiting www.scstatehouse.net and choosing “Find Your Legislator”.

Past winners include include:

(2007)
Kristin Leskoske – Dutch Fork High School: John Dewey Winburn, Jr. Scholarship
Logan Ross - Chapin High School: Bernard Carroll Ballentine Scholarship

(2006)
Chelsey Moses – Dutch Fork High School: Margaret Jane Winburn Clarke Scholarship
Zach Brunson – Homeschool Student: Bernard Carroll Ballentine Scholarship
Jessica Corley – Dutch Fork High School: John Dewey Winburn, Jr. Scholarship

Here’s this month’s regular update to keep you informed of what’s going on in the State House and in our community!

If you have events you’d like me to share on the site, please email me at BallentineN@scstatehouse.net and be sure to put the word CONSTITUENT in the subject line so that I can reply to your email before the hundreds of others I receive daily.

STATEHOUSE

I want to thank those that have already returned this year’s survey. The survey was mailed to almost 7,000 voters in our district so that I could get a broad sense of our community’s feelings on reforming state government. I personally open and read all correspondence and plan to have the survey results posted here on the website next month. Your responses better able me to serve our community and state. Setting policy requires leaders to not only lead; but also listen. In addition to the surveys, I appreciate those who participated in my most recent Constituent Service Night and those who regularly call or write on pending issues before the General Assembly.

This year all 124 House members and 46 Senators will be up for re-election. Already there is a buzz in both chambers because of several stories that have surfaced over the past weeks in local papers . In addition to the elections to return to the State House, there are already two (and perhaps more) highly contested elections underway INSIDE the State House. Presently House members are campaigning for the Chairmanship of the Labor, Commerce, and Industry Committee and the Chairmanship of the Agrictulture,Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs Committee.

YOUR MONEY

If we don’t slow down spending this year….well, I don’t even want to think about it.
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