Simpkins: Get to the heart of reconciliation

The Center for a Better South's John Simpkins looks deeply into a statement made earlier this week by S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who admitted that it likely would be awhile before South Carolinians elected a statewide black candidate.

Sanford's prescription -- for lawmakers to pass his restructuring act -- is politically convenient but is "like prescribing pain medicine to a heart patient who really needs an invasive cardiologist," Simpkins says in an op-ed in today's issue of The (Columbia, S.C.) State. "The underlying condition remains unresolved." More:

"There is deafening silence on this issue from our elected officials who profess to be reformers, independent thinkers and people of faith. Too much can be lost politically from engaging in a conversation about the volatile subject of race.

"However, a state that remains politically and economically closed to one-third of its population can never hope to be truly competitive on any meaningful level.

"The absence of any real attempt at racial reconciliation in a state that professes to be populated with “values voters” is disappointing. South Carolinians of all races live amongst each other, and a heroic few have demonstrated the capacity to reach beyond their racial circumstances to build meaningful relationships with those in other communities. Still, we dwell collectively in soul-killing apartness. We really don’t know each other."