In my 25 years working for the South Carolina Senate, I got to know a number of men and women whose dedication to their communities was unmatched. An unexpected perk of my job was learning what first inspired them to pursue a life of public service.
For one of my committee chairmen, Don Holland of Kershaw County, it was a Future Farmers of America leader who spent more time teaching his students about civic service and democracy than agriculture. Holland told me his FFA instructor had broadened his horizons beyond his tiny farm community of Cassatt.
Inspired, a 16-year-old Holland enlisted in the U.S. Army just as World War II was ending. This young teenager from rural South Carolina was stationed in post-war Tokyo. There, he worked as a criminal investigation translator—employing his fluency in “street” Japanese to translate and mediate disputes between aggrieved Japanese citizens and the Army.
The experience kindled Holland’s sense of justice and fairness. When he returned home, he earned a law degree from the University of South Carolina and spent the next six decades using it to help people.
Holland would joke that he “never practiced above the magistrate courts.” But when I was asked to help clean out Holland’s law office after he died, I found more than 50 file cabinets’ worth of cases. In those files were heirs who needed help saving family properties that hadn’t been well documented. There were orphans who needed help navigating life after tragedy. There were wives who needed protection from abusive husbands. Their cases might not have made newspaper headlines or reached the Supreme Court. But they mattered, and helping them had mattered to my old boss, Holland.
Last summer, a South Carolina teenager discovered a similar drive to improve his community.
Jordan Brown was one of about 60 students from across the Palmetto State who are sent to our nation’s capital each year by their local electric cooperatives. Thanks to York Electric Cooperative, Brown toured monuments, memorials, museums and the U.S. Capitol. He participated in question-and-answer sessions with U.S. Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham as well as his congressman, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.
Brown says the trip and his interactions with those elected leaders inspired him to become more politically engaged. He returned from Washington excited to share that passion with his peers.
Like most of his fellow seniors at Fort Mill High School, Brown recently reached the milestone age of 18. He can now buy a lottery ticket, open a bank account and legally purchase fireworks.
Most important to Brown, however, is his newly acquired ability to vote. That’s why he and some of his classmates organized a voter registration drive at their school. After they finished their exams, they set up in the cafeteria for the last few days of school and helped 54 of their classmates register to vote for the first time. It went so well, Brown found himself helping several more with their registration outside of school.
The dozens of votes yielded by Brown’s registration drive might not swing a presidential or gubernatorial election. But they could impact a race for school board or town council. And Brown’s efforts have helped introduce a new generation of voters to their roles as the future stewards of our democracy. The seeds of civic engagement Brown helped plant will likely grow far beyond the halls of his high school.
As a history nut, I frequently use my “Dialogues” to recall and celebrate the contributions that members of past generations made to rural communities. Sen. Holland and his small-town law practice are just one example. But in cases like Brown’s, it pleases me to no end to share stories about a new generation of contributors.
As long as there are electric cooperatives, there will be co-op initiatives like Washington Youth Tour that inspire the next generation. And there will be talented young co-op members, like Holland was and Brown is today, who act on their passion to better their communities.
Mike Couick is the president and CEO of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, Inc., the statewide association of not-for-profit electric cooperatives.