Letters

May 23, 2010

What next?
I just heard that Traverse City Light & Power will have to find another
location for the bio-mass plant because the currently proposed site will
interfere with the sight-lines for a new control tower at the Cherry
Capital Airport.
Since it’s apparent that the board of directors of TCL&P have pretty much
decided that a biomass plant is in our future, one has to wonder what
other important facts they’ve failed to properly consider?

Dennis Bean-Larson • Kingsley

The flames of division
Mr. Tuttle, in response to your editorial of May 3.
Firstly, don’t call me friend. My friends don’t talk to me in
condescending words.
Secondly, you tell us not to call Obama a Marxist or a socialist, yet you
call us “sobbing, lamenting, vile spewing, fringe elements, birthers,
truthers, denialist, anti-immigration haters, white supremacists, deluded,
angry, unfocused extremist,” and of course... “nuts.”
Okay, I can live with that. It isn’t true, but I can live with a Kool-aid
drinking, elitist thinking that is what I am.
Now it’s my turn to talk. I am not any of the above. Nor am I a domestic
terrorist or any other names that liberals fan the flames of division
with.
I simply want my elected representatives to follow the U.S. Constitution.
It is what our country is founded on, or was founded on, until Obama and
the Congress started shredding it.
I am a realist, and know that the Republicans aren’t the answer. However,
if I am to get the country back to it’s roots, I need to work to get one
of the parties to represent Americans with conservative values. The
Democratic leaders are too far to the left, so I decided that the best way
to affect change was to become a precinct delegate.
Bush the younger’s term in office increased our deficit, but Obama and his
socialist ilk have increased (in one year) what Bush did (in four years)
by 10 times. He also rammed an unpopular health care bill down our throats
that we can’t afford. Does Greece ring a bell?
Oops, I called Obama a socialist in my last paragraph. Even though there
is ample evidence to show his socialist tendencies, and surrounds himself
with a cabinet riddled with avowed communists, I shouldn’t call names. Not
like the left does. I’ll take the high road. My bad.
Until you really study the U.S. Constitution, or talk to me directly,
don’t tell me what I am or with whom I should associate. My message is
“don’t tax more... spend less,” but why is it such a mystery to see
Obama’s birth certificate and college transcripts? My guess? A lot.
Marxism doesn’t happen overnight. It comes in stages, so if you think “we
the people” aren’t being denied our rights or that the Marxist elements of
the administration wouldn’t like to have control of the media, you’re
mistaken. Have you ever heard of the abuse of something called The
Fairness Doctrine?
Look up “Swat team, Quincey, Illinois” on YouTube. A swat team marched on
protesters that... egad... were singing The National Anthem! We can’t have
patriotism like that! The next thing they are going to do is recite The
Pledge of Allegiance. What is this world coming to?

Karen LaCross • Vice-President of Tax and Spend Has to End

Socialist worries
Stephen Tuttle’s May 3 article, “An Open Letter to My Tea Party Friends”
is so full of disingenuous-ness, mis-information, and straw-man arguments
that it is beyond the scope of a short response.
Let me simply say this: To claim that President Obama is not a socialist -
because the things that he says he wants to do are not presently in place
- is like saying that a plane plummeting from the sky is not in trouble
because it has not hit the ground yet.
Mr. Tuttle’s tea party friends are trying to prevent Obama’s socialist
world view from being implemented.

Michael LeButt • Cheboygan

Marijuana saga
Last July, the Northern Express featured the story of a vocal medical
marijuana patient/caregiver. A few weeks later, the Traverse Narcotics
Team’s helicopter was hovering over Archie Kiel’s property near Kalkaska.
Kiel was ultimately arrested and charged with growing more plants than
Michigan’s medical marijuana law allows. TNT only confiscated around half
of Kiel’s marijuana plants, which left him with about 30.
Within the confines of this letter, it would be impossible to adequately
summarize all of the complex allegations and disputes that are at issue in
the Kiel case. It’s obviously been difficult even for legal scholars to
make sense of the newly enacted medical marijuana law.
During a recent hearing in the Kiel case, Circuit Judge Janet Allen
acknowledged that the act’s ambiguity was troublesome. It “may have
misled people to think that they could do certain things and take their
chance in front of a judge later,” said Allen.
Anyone who is interested in becoming more familiar with this case can
watch the interviews that I recently conducted with Kiel and the director
of TNT - Michigan State Police Lieutenant Kip Belcher.
The two hour special will be aired on Up North TV (Charter Cable channel
97) on Wednesday, May 26, at 8:30 a.m. and Friday, May 28, at 3:00 p.m.
You can view the streaming video online at:
http://www.upnorthmedia.org/upnorthtvshows.asp
This production includes a discussion with Kiel as we tour what remains of
his marijuana growing operation. It also contains an in-depth discourse
with Lt. Belcher as we examine some of the difficulties law enforcement
officers and the courts are confronting while they attempt to interpret
and apply Michigan’s medical marijuana law. The piece concludes with
footage of a May 17 court hearing in the Kiel case and an interview with
his attorney.

Eric L. VanDussen • Beulah

Wings of Wonder support
As a long-time employee of an association dedicated to the preservation of
private property rights, I am appalled by the recent actions of the
Leelanau County Road Commission.
The commission, it seems, would like to declare a trail which meanders
between a house and a garage and past a recognized wildlife sanctuary, as
a seasonal road—opening dirt and gravel single lane to cars, logging
trucks, snowmobiles and other motorized vehicles.
In truth, Leelanau County has not improved this road in the memory of
anyone living on it or close to it, and can produce no documentation of
legal ownership. Don and Rebecca Lessard, property owners and operators of
the Wings of Wonder Raptor Center, have received building and business
permits and long ago signed an agreement to maintain the .7 of a mile-long
driveway, which they have done. The Lessards have operated in good faith,
as compliant citizens of our community.
If the road commission is successful in its efforts to commandeer Greenway
Drive, the Raptor Center may have to close—it will be in violation of
federal laws, and relocation will be too expensive for the non-profit
organization.
To my mind, the actions of the Leelanau County Road Commission is
unconscionable, a flagrant violation of a homeowner’s private property
rights and the implicit agreement of our government to protect and
preserve those rights.

Judith Lindenau •TC

Corrections
NMEAC‘s “Peoples‘ Energy Session“ to explore alternative energy for
Traverse City has been pushed back to September from June, as reported in
last week‘s Express.
Also, Knot Just a Bar in Omena was omitted from last week‘s list of al
fresco dining spots in Northern Michigan.