Goalkeeper David White holds the championship trophy Saturday as he and his teammates celebrate Greenwood Christian’s boys soccer state title after defeating Beaufort Academy 3-1.
Goalkeeper David White holds the championship trophy Saturday as he and his teammates celebrate Greenwood Christian’s boys soccer state title after defeating Beaufort Academy 3-1.
A butterfly rests on a finger before taking off during the butterfly release ceremony at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Marlee Milford approaches a newly released butterfly at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Shelia and Brantlee Brown attended the butterfly release ceremony Saturday at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
A girl checks out a temporary tattoo of a butterfly she got Saturday at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Erin and Beth Charles get acquainted with a friend at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont’s butterfly release ceremony.
Stefanie Bonham gets a close-up shot of a butterfly she released Saturday at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Cellphone cameras came out almost as quickly as butterflies during the release ceremony at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Marlee Milford approaches a newly released butterfly at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
A butterfly takes a breather before taking off at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Marlee Milford checks out a newly released buttefrly Saturday at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont.
Losing a loved one is never easy. Perhaps butterflies make dealing with grief easier.
That was the hope as more than 150 people who converged Saturday on Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont for its butterfly release program.
Painted lady butterflies “bloomed” at the event. They arrived Friday wrapped in small white wedges of cardboard. After a brief countdown, visitors opened 700 containers to reveal yellow and black wings mottled with white spots. Some flew off immediately, while others lingered as children tried to stroke their wings before taking off, and adults broke out cellphone cameras to get pictures.
Hospice staff have been doing releases for 23 years, said Andrea Scott, the hospice’s development manager. Butterflies are symbol of rebirth. It’s a symbol of new life. The goal is outreach to families who have lost loved ones.
That was the goal for Terry Creswell. He and several relatives released butterflies in honor of his mother, who died at 99 years and eight months old.
They were getting ready to work on her 100th birthday party, he said. She was healthy right up until the end. Her sister is still alive at 103.
“I’ve got some good genes,” Creswell said.
He had never worked with hospice, he said. It is a wonderful place for loved ones who are transitioning.
The event is for the whole community, Scott said. You don’t have to have a relative who is a patient with hospice.
A lot of staff members visit with relatives. With these events, families like to see nurses and staff who helped them. A lot of times, they thank them for the help they were given.
“I think it goes both ways with that,” Scott said.
Beth Hammond visited for the first time with her grandson. A friend who works at hospice invited her, she said. She planned to release butterflies in memory of another friend and two great-grandmothers.
Hammond said she has never used hospice, but it’s comforting to know it’s there.
Cynthia Trammell’s family has attended the butterfly releases since her elementary school-aged granddaughters were “yay high” (about half the size they are now). They were both in strollers years ago during a visit on behalf of their great-grandfather. A newly released butterfly came out and rested on her granddaughter’s nose. It was like their great-grandfather was there, she said.
Hospice uses a holistic approach. It doesn’t just serve patients, but families, as well, for up to 13 months after death of loved one, Scott said.
Programs such as Christmas memorials, grief support groups and Easter holiday events help families.
“It’s all about helping families through grief process,” Scott said.
Contact staff writer Robert Jordan at 864-943-5650.
Adoption has been a blessing to the Rowe family, enabling Henderson, left, and his wife, Ellison, second from right, to grow their family after infertility struggles. They welcomed their daughter, Linzie, second from left, in 2020, and son, Poston, in 2022.
Toddler Linzie Rowe, wearing a bow in her hair and seated in her adoptive mother Ellison’s lap, next to her adoptive father, Henderson, meets her baby brother for the first time, who was also adopted by the Rowes.
Mother of two Ellison Poston Rowe didn’t know until recently that National Infertility Awareness Week “was a thing.”
Typically observed the last full week of April, National Infertility Awareness Week works to remove barriers and stigmas faced by those challenged to start a family. It is recognized before Mother’s Day in May.
Ellison, 34, of Greenwood, is a registered nurse who works in wound/ostomy care with Self Regional Healthcare. She is married to Ninety Six High School agriculture teacher Henderson Rowe, 35, and they are parents of a 10-month-old son, Poston, and a daughter, Linzie, who turns 3 in November.
In a social media post, Ellison recently shared, “Simply wanting to start a family and love a child becomes so much more when things don’t work like they are supposed to. And, I hate that so many others have been right where we were, because I wouldn’t wish it on a single soul. But, at the same time, here are some words that I never thought would leave my mouth: thank you, Lord, for my infertility.”
Ellison said she wants others facing infertility to know they are not alone.
“When I was going through infertility, it was a lot to take on,” Ellison recalls. “I talked to my pastor (Tony Hopkins, now retired from First Baptist Church of Greenwood) a lot. He told me that we often unconsciously just think we will get married and have kids. You make plans, but when things don’t go that way, for a long time, you kind of have to grieve the way you thought your life was going to go. He told me that.”
Ellison said she had to grieve the fact that her body could not carry a baby.
For Ellison and Henderson, building a family took a different turn.
“It ended up being better than I ever thought,” Ellison said. “Our two children are adopted and they share the same birth mom. It is such a blessing that they get to grow up together. Family, friends and faith get you through.”
Ellison said her infertility journey was five years. First meeting with her regular obstetrician-gynecologist and later being referred to out-of-town specialists in Augusta, Georgia. Ellison underwent courses of treatment such as medications to help with ovulation, intrauterine insemination and in vitro fertilization. When those didn’t work, the couple met with Lakelands area families “through word of mouth” who have adopted to find out about that process.
“And, a beloved aunt who adopted was an encourager, too,” Ellison said.
“To start the process, you have to complete a home study, which is like a huge background check,” she said.
Adoption is different for every couple, Ellison said, noting she and Henderson worked with a Greenville attorney, Ray Godwin, and their children’s adoptions have been what’s considered open, as opposed to closed or confidential.
“Years ago, open adoptions were not as common,” Ellison said. “You might not have even known the birth mom. ...But, in our case, things have been open. Linzie was born in 2020. We found out when her birth mom was about two weeks away from her due date. We found out about Poston when the birth mom was about six weeks from delivery and Linzie was 17 months old.”
Ellison said the birth mom has multiple children and has coped with various traumas.
“To me, Linzie was still a baby to me,” Ellison said. “It wasn’t on our radar to adopt another child then, but it was the way it was supposed to be. I’m really thankful the birth mom felt comfortable enough with us and adoption to have these babies together. Only God could orchestrate that, but the adoption agency did the legwork. Their birth mom chose me to be a mom. I’m thankful for the trust she put in me.”
After years of wanting a baby, getting to see Linzie for the first time was extremely emotional, Ellison said.
“I couldn’t get my hands on her fast enough,” she said. “And, then getting to see Poston come into the world was amazing. Even in clinicals as a student nurse, I never saw a baby being born. Poston is the first baby I got to see come into the world. That blew my mind. That made me think, ‘Lord, maybe you knew what you were doing with me.’ Labor was intense.”
Ellison said she and Henderson are thankful that adoption was financially viable for them.
“I know a lot of people aren’t in that situation,” Ellison said. “It’s very expensive on the front end. I hate that that’s a barrier for a lot of people.”
In the Lakelands, two attorneys with experience in family law and adoption are Brad W. Knott and Thomas P. Austin, both of Greenwood.
Knott said it’s not uncommon for Lakelands adoption costs to range between $3,000 and $5,000, but fees and costs associated with adoption can also include those covering guardians ad litem, as well as other attorneys who might witness consents and relinquishments pertaining to one’s case.
“Fortunately, I have not had it happen often that a birth mother changes plans before placement or finalization,” Knott wrote the Index-Journal via email. “You breathe a sight of relief at each step (of adoption). When the baby is born, when the mother signs a consent and relinquishment for adoption and, of course, when you walk out of family court with the adoption being granted.”
Austin’s first experiences with adoption came when he served as a guardian ad litem, a court-appointed person representing a child’s best interests during a parenting or child-related case.
“You work from there representing families for termination of parental rights and adoptions,” he wrote to the Index-Journal via email. “Look for an attorney with a lot of family court experience.”
Austin said natural parents might consent to adoption and relinquish parental rights, but not all do. Sometimes, natural parents contest the matter. In that instance, a mediator might be part of adoption proceedings and this can add to costs.
He said, in addition to adoption, potential parents can also train to become foster-adopt parents.
“It’s a wonderful thing for people to step up when a natural parent is unwilling or unable to be a parent,” Austin wrote. “Foster parents go all in and take the responsibility for and obligations associated with raising a child.”
Ellison said she was worried, at first, about bonding with babies who don’t share her and Henderson’s DNA.
“But, it feels natural,” she said. “We got Linzie the day she was born, but we couldn’t be in the delivery room at the time because of restrictions during COVID. For Poston, Henderson and I both got to be in the delivery room. That was just a sweet surprise. We don’t think about the fact that they are adopted until somebody says something about it.
“I already talk with Linzie about the fact that she’s adopted, but she doesn’t completely understand yet,” Ellison said. “We want it to be something that she and Poston know. Linzie and Poston both have their birth mom’s beautiful blue eyes. Seeing everything in the world through our kids’ eyes is amazing.”
Contact St. Claire Donaghy at 864-943-2518.
WASHINGTON — Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election.
The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or two away.
No more.
Sophisticated generative AI tools can now create cloned human voices and hyper-realistic images, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to powerful social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread far and fast and target highly specific audiences, potentially taking campaign dirty tricks to a new low.
The implications for the 2024 campaigns and elections are as large as they are troubling: Generative AI can not only rapidly produce targeted campaign emails, texts or videos, it also could be used to mislead voters, impersonate candidates and undermine elections on a scale and at a speed not yet seen.
“We’re not prepared for this,” warned A.J. Nash, vice president of intelligence at the cybersecurity firm ZeroFox. ”To me, the big leap forward is the audio and video capabilities that have emerged. When you can do that on a large scale, and distribute it on social platforms, well, it’s going to have a major impact.”
AI experts can quickly rattle off a number of alarming scenarios in which generative AI is used to create synthetic media for the purposes of confusing voters, slandering a candidate or even inciting violence.
Here are a few: Automated robocall messages, in a candidate’s voice, instructing voters to cast ballots on the wrong date; audio recordings of a candidate supposedly confessing to a crime or expressing racist views; video footage showing someone giving a speech or interview they never gave. Fake images designed to look like local news reports, falsely claiming a candidate dropped out of the race.
“What if Elon Musk personally calls you and tells you to vote for a certain candidate?” said Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, who stepped down last year to start the nonprofit AI2. “A lot of people would listen. But it’s not him.”
Former President Donald Trump, who is running in 2024, has shared AI-generated content with his followers on social media. A manipulated video of CNN host Anderson Cooper that Trump shared on his Truth Social platform on Friday, which distorted Cooper’s reaction to the CNN town hall this past week with Trump, was created using an AI voice-cloning tool.
A dystopian campaign ad released last month by the Republican National Committee offers another glimpse of this digitally manipulated future. The online ad, which came after President Joe Biden announced his reelection campaign, and starts with a strange, slightly warped image of Biden and the text “What if the weakest president we’ve ever had was re-elected?”
A series of AI-generated images follows: Taiwan under attack; boarded up storefronts in the United States as the economy crumbles; soldiers and armored military vehicles patrolling local streets as tattooed criminals and waves of immigrants create panic.
“An AI-generated look into the country’s possible future if Joe Biden is re-elected in 2024,” reads the ad’s description from the RNC.
The RNC acknowledged its use of AI, but others, including nefarious political campaigns and foreign adversaries, will not, said Petko Stoyanov, global chief technology officer at Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas. Stoyanov predicted that groups looking to meddle with U.S. democracy will employ AI and synthetic media as a way to erode trust.
“What happens if an international entity — a cybercriminal or a nation state — impersonates someone. What is the impact? Do we have any recourse?” Stoyanov said. “We’re going to see a lot more misinformation from international sources.”
AI-generated political disinformation already has gone viral online ahead of the 2024 election, from a doctored video of Biden appearing to give a speech attacking transgender people to AI-generated images of children supposedly learning satanism in libraries.
AI images appearing to show Trump’s mug shot also fooled some social media users even though the former president didn’t take one when he was booked and arraigned in a Manhattan criminal court for falsifying business records. Other AI-generated images showed Trump resisting arrest, though their creator was quick to acknowledge their origin.
Legislation that would require candidates to label campaign advertisements created with AI has been introduced in the House by Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who has also sponsored legislation that would require anyone creating synthetic images to add a watermark indicating the fact.
Clarke said her greatest fear is that generative AI could be used before the 2024 election to create a video or audio that incites violence and turns Americans against each other.
