We enthusiastically support the effort by three local nonprofit groups to transform the inactive 31-mile Saluda Grade railroad corridor into a rail trail from Inman, S.C., to Zirconia, N.C., that could be used by local residents — as well as visitors and tourists — to walk, run, bike, or whatever.

If the plan is realized, it would provide a delightful (albeit steep) connection 

from Upstate South Carolina through Western North Carolina.

(As to whether the Saluda Grade too steep to be a rail trail, the website upstateforever.org stated, “While the Saluda Grade rail line is famously steep, the dramatic grade is only in a small section of the line. Much of the trail is level or moderate in its grade.”)  

In essence, a coalition of three local nonprofit organizations — Upstate Forever, PAL, and Conserving Carolina — “are working together to transform this unused line into a vibrant trail corridor passing through downtown Inman, Gramling, Campobello, Landrum, Tryon, and Saluda, as well as the picturesque Piedmont countryside, the Pacolet River valley with its plunging waterfalls, and the spectacular scenery around the Green River and Lake Summit,” according to upstateforever.org.

“Converting the inactive Saluda Grade rail line into a ‘rail trail’ would expand access to outdoor recreation, leading to a wide range of health benefits for local communities. 

“It would make our communities better places to live, with more economic opportunity and more ways to explore the beautiful countryside and charming small towns,” upstateforever.org noted. 

 Details of the plan have not been hammered down permanently yet, but the coalition reportedly “envisions the Saluda Grade as a multiuse path that will beckon people outdoors for walking, running, biking, adaptive mobility, and other compatible modes of recreation and travel.” 

Morever, the website reported, “Following in the footsteps of Greenville County’s beloved Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail, which has revitalized communities along its nearly 20-mile stretch, the Saluda Grade Rail Trail would serve as an economic engine to attract tourists, strengthen local businesses, and grow the local tax base. “

The Saluda Grade Railroad, built in the 1870s, operated for more than a century. “It holds a special place in history as the steepest standard-gauge mainline railroad in the United States,” upstateforever.org noted.

“To link Spartanburg, S.C., and Asheville, trains crossed the dramatic Blue Ridge Escarpment, with its treacherous grade (as high as 5 percent). The line has been owned and operated by Norfolk Southern since 1982, and the last trains ran on this line in 2001.”

We encourage community members to actively show their support for this abundantly worthwhile rail-trail project.

Netflix could not have produced a better series.

Like bookends, its first and last hearings were especially powerful. On June 10, the committee opened by showing never-before-seen video of the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In this week’s finale, the committee closed by documenting what Donald Trump was doing at the White House for 187 minutes, while that violent attack was taking place.

The answer? 

He was sequestered in his private dining room for over three hours, watching Fox News. Which, as members Adam Kinzinger and Elaine Luria pointed out, doesn’t mean Trump was doing nothing. He made a conscious choice not to do anything to stop the violence. He called Rudy Giuliani. He called Republican senators. But he did not call the Pentagon, the D.C. Metropolitan Police, or the Department of Homeland Security to ask for help. He didn’t even call Mike Pence, whose life was literally on the line.

Why? Because Trump didn’t want the violence to stop. He liked what he saw on television. This was his last chance, the final plank of his seven-part plan to overturn the election and stay in office. 

As Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary, relates in her book “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” while Trump was “gleefully” watching television on Jan. 6, he kept saying out loud: “Look at all those people fighting for me.”

In Trump’s sick mind, the armed mob wasn’t trying to hang Mike Pence, kill members of Congress, or destroy the Capitol, they were fighting for him. He was just sorry the Secret Service wouldn’t let him join them.

Among all the evidence of Trump’s “missing in action” on Jan. 6, there were several highlights. 

Most shocking of all: the radio traffic among Secret Service agents, trying to figure out how to get Vice President Pence to a secure location. Even though heavily armed themselves, they were clearly nervous and afraid for his life and their own. Some even made goodbye calls to loved ones. Again, while Trump did nothing.

Another highlight: the outtakes of Trump’s video message on Jan. 7. All day long, staffers and allies in Congress and the media had been imploring him to make a statement condemning the violence of the day before. 

Otherwise, they warned, Cabinet members were about to invoke the 25th Amendment. 

Finally, late in the day, Trump agreed. And yet, 24 hours after the siege on the Capitol and two months after the election, he could still not bring himself to utter the words “The election is over” – and refused to do so. In fact, he still won’t utter those words today.

My favorite highlight, I must admit, was the slow-mo video of Sen. Josh Hawley running out of the Capitol to escape the mob — the same mob he’d saluted earlier with a fist pump while walking into the Capitol. 

That clip produced howls of laughter inside the committee room. Some have criticized the committee’s use of the video as a “cheap shot.” 

But, as the first senator to say he’d vote against certification of the Electoral College and a constant critic of the Jan. 6 committee’s work, Hawley deserved it.

This last hearing wrapped with two powerful closing statements, both of them by Republican members of the House. 

No matter how hard Trump tries to dismiss the hearings as a “witch hunt,” Adam Kinzinger pointed out, Trump’s actions leading up to and on Jan. 6 transcend politics: “Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this: Donald Trump’s conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation.”

And, as usual, it was Vice Chair Liz Cheney who closed the hearing with a bombshell. 

After noting that all committee witnesses were Trump’s own appointees, friends, campaign officials, staffers, and family, not political enemies, Cheney raised the most important question of all: “Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”

The answer is: Of course not.