Letters 1-23-2012

Jan. 22, 2012

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Move to Amend

If you weren’t at the Milliken Auditorium on January 11, you won’t believe it. If you were there, you probably still can’t believe it! More than 500 people - to include folks from the UP to the north and Manistee and beyond to the south - crammed into Milliken to hear a riveting presentation by David Cobb, founder and spokesman for the national Move to Amend movement (www. movetoamend.org).

One thing making this evening so incredible was that 500 Northern Michiganders came out, not so much for a speaker most had never heard of, but because we know that corporations are not people. We know that legislators too often are accountable to the huge moneyed interests that get and keep them elected, not to us. We know that WE the people are what make democracy work. And we also know that our democracy isn’t working for 99% of the people in this country – and we aren't going to take it anymore!

Kudos to LIWDA for hosting this event, to the political parties and organizations that have signed on to the movement, and to the Northern Michiganders joining the fight to restore democracy to we the people.

Betsy Johnson - Empire

Why I Occupy

The American dream is back out in the street. I’m a retired American who works full-time to make ends meet. I have to, now that democracy has succumbed to an epidemic of foreclosures, financial bailouts, Supreme Court decisions, and savage relentless termination in the workplace.

I’m also a retired, naturalized Canadian who during all those years up north never felt obliged to protest anything. These days

I spend every Saturday out on Front Street and every Sunday in front of the library on Woodmere exercising my first amendment rights of freedom of speech and assembly.

Hey stupid, it ain’t the economy. It’s the one percenters barely lifting a finger and making out like bandits. Seems the only folks who care about the American dream are out in the street, the ninety-nine percenters, the teachers, students, retirees, and workers.

When you drive by and give me the finger you’re just showing your ignorance. When you drive by and yell "Get a job," you’re missing the point.

When you drive by me and my friends standing in the street in front of Horizon Books, waving, smiling, holding up signs, and you don’t honk or give us a thumbs up or even look up as you continue on down the street you should know something is happening. But you don’t know what it is.

David Zaiss - Interlochen

Fracking beneficial

To learn more about fracking and other oil/gas items of interest may I suggest visiting pagaslease.com. It’s a site about Pennsylvania, but also has a Michigan board. Lots of info from everyday people. Free to join, or just be a guest visitor.

I suport the safe development of our oil and gas industry and reducing foreign oil and gas imports. Many jobs have been created for our local people because of the recent activity, which we really needed. Seems for every gallon of import oil we pay for it with a gallon of American solider’s blood. To those anti-fracking people, I hope you never run out of money to heat or cool your homes.

Cheap natural gas would go a long way to helping out those with limited resources. Vehicles that run on natural gas are a nice alterntive to $3.60 gallon gas. One of the topics of interest on the pagaslease site was about a "Green" fracking solution.

I don’t want to go back to those good "ole" days when my parents sat huddled around a wood stove for warmth and I am tired of having to work an hour of each of my work shifts, just to pay for the gas needed to get to work. Lets work together to help put the USA back to the strong, proud country it was once and I believe shale gas/

oil development will contribute to that.

Jane Marie Rowell - Kalkaska

Sewage Mist Info

You may have seen a recent article in the Express about The Homestead Resort’s sewage disposal system, which sprays partially-treated sewage on land surrounded by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Some of the spray turns to mist and illegally and unsafely blows across the surrounding public park lands.

Of course, The Homestead’s owner, Robert Kuras, was given a chance to present his view of things–as he should have been. Unfortunately, some of the information and ideas presented might have confused you if you’re not quite familiar with the situation. The "Drifters United" citizens group has posted the text of the article, along with clarifying information and comments, at HomesteadSewage.org.

There you’ll also find other information about the matter, videos, etc. The site includes information provided by The Homestead, the National Park Service, and the DEQ, as well as material prepared by the Drifters.

You, too, can submit any additional information, comments, or opinions that you may care to contribute. It’s a forum open to all, in the hope that through complete, free discussion, the correct facts will become clear and a solution may be found to this problem within our community.

Tom Van Zoeren - Maple City

Conservatives offbase I have been wondering for some time now as to why it seems that the "Conservative View and Opinions" is the only thing that seems to count in politics, the media and this country? To me this arrangement is anti American.

Not only is it one-sided, but a repeat of history as in Russia in the 1920s and Germany in the 1930s when Communism and Nazism where the only way to go, goose step with me or else. As an independent and moderate, I feel that we are treading on the wrong path for this country which was built on Christian values and the freedom of choice.

I see no choice with the conservatives and the Republican Party as they have eroded our freedoms in the name of terrorism, and the Democrats have done little to rectify our losses. With many in Congress devoting a large part of their time to raising campaign funds and have mega back-up organization spending millions on negative ads in the media, I feel we have lost our sensibilities and what we are really standing for as a country.

There are some issues I can side with the conservative view and some I cannot. Their claim to be the only real Americans because they are God-fearing, gun-toting, flag-waving patriots is biased. Many of us who are not conservatives also hold these values and a lot more.

If asked, most will not know the meaning of the word patriot, which also gives a person the right to disagree with the direction this country is going in and stating so. No one group is perfect or has all of the answers but until we come together as a people united once more nothing good will be accomplished.

James C. Williams - Kalkaska

No pot prescription Mr. Tuttle’s article of Jan 2nd was well written and mostly correct. However one small error should be corrected: He stated that "it would require a prescription from a licensed doctor." In truth, doctors do not prescribe marijuana. They "recommend" to the state that paitents might benefit from marijuana use.

Ron Ippolito - Cheboygan