South Carolina is full of smart people and good ideas.
Maybe there's a better way to take advantage of that resource than the Statehouse and governor's mansion are capable of providing. Maybe change is up to us.
A number of Beaufort County residents traveled to Columbia last week to talk about changing the state for the better. The gathering didn't get the attention of a rally by great change agents Barack Obama or Sarah Palin, but it will be more effective in the long run.
Organizers of the first Liberty Fellowship Summit hoped 400 or 500 people might come. But nearly 750 from all over the state filled the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
The summit was the high-water mark for the Liberty Fellowship, started in 2003 by former Liberty Corp. CEO Hayne Hipp of Greenville, with help from Wofford College president Bernie Dunlap and a heavy influence from the Aspen Institute.
It invites young Fellows from around the state to "hit the reboot button on your world view." Fellows are immersed in four five-day seminars. It is apolitical. They read, discuss, reflect and then do something concrete back home. They are assigned mentors from among the brightest and best our state has to offer. So far, 140 men and women have gone through the program, which is now expanding its scope through forums and summits.
The whole thing is based on principles as simple as kindergarten -- listen, learn, share, don't shout, be nice. It offers, in other words, everything you won't find in today's political and media world.
But it inspires those who get involved. Their minds soar like Socrates, and their spirits burn like Amway salesmen.
Allen Ward of Bluffton is a Liberty Fellow. He co-chairs its ongoing health and environment forum with Dr. Faith Polkey of Beaufort. He was in Columbia last week. Among other local people to go were retired U.S. Army Gen. Art Brown, Shawn Young, David Rosenblum, Chris Long and Jane and Michael Frederick.
They heard Dan Heath talk about his book, "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard."
Ward said they did not come home with an action plan or 95 theses to nail to a door. But all their conversations on health, the environment, education, economic development and public policy were research-based.
They did not gripe, he said. Their discussions were spirited, positive and results-oriented. They discovered widespread passion for a state that is often maligned. They met a lot of doers from different regions, genders and politics.
Hipp sees all this as a long-term investment in South Carolina, one smart person and good idea at a time.
