March 28, 2024

Letters

Nov. 15, 2009
No guns on campus
I live in Leelanau county, the same beautiful county where State Senator Michelle McManus resides. It is very important that I voice my opposition to having her legislation introduced to allow concealed weapons on college campuses.
I spent 25 years working with students on a college campus. Our security did not even carry guns. A college campus consists of a community of students between the ages of (approximately) 17-23 years of age. These students reside in a wonderful environment, for a few years in their lives.
I am so appalled at the concept of carrying concealed weapons on campus that I find myself searching for words to express my dismay on this issue.
Students do not want to sit in classes, go to events, or walk to parking lots knowing that the person near them is carrying a concealed weapon. Faculty and staff do not want students to have weapons. When weapons, of any dangerous kind, are found on students or in residence halls, they are confiscated, to protect themselves and the other members on campus. I sincerely hope that
Sen. McManus examines the concept of students being allowed to carry concealed weapons. I shudder at the thought.

Dorothy Mudget • Leelanau County

Heartbroken
On October 26 the Express ran an article called the “High Price of Toking.” Imagine my heartbreak as I read the article about my son, Trevor Coddington. I was not consulted about this ‘story’ and had I been, I would have reminded the writer and participants that this child is no longer with us, and disgracing his memory for monetary gain, as is mentioned in the story, is unconscionable.
Whether the court system was 100 percent correct in its treatment of my son or not, the decisions were made, years ago. As a responsible parent, I will pay for what is required by the court.
Trevor was a good and loving son. Unfortunately he will not get a chance to prove that, or what a great adult he would have been.
Might I suggest a good story called “The High Price of Grief?” Perhaps the word compassion will come up in that particular story.

Sandy Zoulek • via email

(The Express attempted to contact Sandy Zoulek for the story, but was unable to obtain her address or phone number. - ed.)

Unnecessarily obnoxious
I get it! Mr. Downes was attempting a cultural reverse age game in his 11/9 column, “More Cultural Stuff? Not So Fast...”
Instead of adopting the position of an “old fogey” who decries the decline of various aspects of culture on the part of “wayward youth” (note the use of quotation marks which makes my points more pungent), he adopts the position of young, hip, and happening young adults in their 20s dumping on various aspects of fogey-oriented cultural elements (oops, I forgot to add quotation marks. Please assume their presence whenever I make pungent points).
Or not... perhaps Mr. Downes was simply being insulting to those whose range of cultural interests don’t coincide with the audience Mr. Downes hopes is reading this paper. I’m sure if Mr. Downes thought about it for a while, he might have figured out a way to express support for entertainments for younger guys and gals without being unnecessarily obnoxious to other members of his newspaper’s audience.
Keep thinking about it, Mr. Downes, and I think you will eventually find an engaging and positive way to make your points.
By the way I’m pretty sure that both young and old people are shaping Northern Michigan’s future, and keeping your newspaper in print.
Perhaps you should think about that as well.

Dick Thompson • Elk Rapids

Victim of turbulent times
On Friday she will arrive early to unlock the store at Grand Traverse Crossing for her last time. The store will remain, but Kathy moves on. Another victim of turbulent times, but more. And less.
It was Kathy who managed the store’s opening 15 years ago, and with caring co-workers looked after it’s every detail since. But after as many years of walking an ever sharpening razors edge between chasms of capricious corporate demands and fundamental concern for her employees, she will relinquish her position in hopes of finally caring for herself.
Freedom’s corollary is responsibility; likewise capitalism requires a strong tether to compassion lest it drift into territory not witnessed since Dickens conjured Scrooge. Corporations who deliberately sever this tie do so not only at their own peril, but that of those they purport to serve with lower prices and straining shelves. And I’m not referring to Wal-Mart.
The effect on local culture is that our marketplace has largely fallen into distant hands in whom sensitivity to guilt is trumped by creeping numbness to greed, our neighbors now valued only insofar as their allegiance to an increasingly absurd holiday ledger.
It will be a fortunate enterprise that rediscovers Kathy. Treat her well.

Mark Meyer • TC

Correction: Last week’s article about the arraignment of Archie Kiel should have said medical marijuana patients and their caregivers are allowed 12 plants per person, not six.

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