March 19, 2024

Letters 09-01-2014

Sept. 1, 2014

Our simple rules: Keep your letter to 300 words or less, send no more than one per month, include your name/address/phone number, and agree to allow us to edit. That’s it. Email info@northernexpress.com and hit send!

Hamas Shares Some Blame

Even when I disagree with Mr. Tuttle, I always credit him with a degree of fairness. Unfortunately, in his piece regarding the Palestinian/Israeli conflict he falls well short of offering any insights that might advance his readers’ understanding of the conflict.

It’s not uncommon for anyone to get stuck on popular media views, family lore or ideologically influenced interpretations of history. What’s fascinated me is how these perceptions get so ingrained that we become resistant to information that might challenge our opinions. Some of us narrow our perspectives and spend our lives searching for information that reinforces our misperceptions. In fact, many years ago I would have agreed entirely with Mr. Tuttle despite my lack of knowledge of the subject.

While I’m no scholar of the region, I have been fortunate to travel and work there, sharing experiences with Israelis and Palestinians. Like every conflict zone I’ve visited, I always find the truth somewhere in the middle of popular perceptions.

With regard to Mr. Tuttle’s portrayal of blame, it would be too easy to cite the countless human rights violations of the Israeli military or the violations of UN resolutions, the Palestinian home and village demolitions, or the expropriation of Palestinian land for illegal "Jewish only" settlements.

Both sides have their radical, hate mongering extremists that often trickle up to positions of power. However, both sides are also made up of a majority of decent people who can see both sides and are working to bridge the divide of misunderstanding.

The only opinion I feel confident sharing is that anyone who paints either side as a blameless innocent victim is contributing nothing to the discourse and is likely contributing to the narrow minded statement that has been a barrier to peace for decades.

Timothy Fitzgerald Young, Honor

The True Northport

I was disappointed by your piece on Northport. While I agree that the sewer system had a big impact on the village, I don’t agree with your "power of retirees" position. I see that I am thrown in with the group of new businesses started by "well-off retirees" and I feel that I have been thoroughly misrepresented, as has the village.

There has been a core of businesses that have been here all along. And, over half of the new businesses were started by people that are not "well-off retirees." Here Shops the Bride, Northport Brewing Company, Deep’s gas station, The Soggy Dollar, The Tribune, Uniquities, Motovino, Lelu Cafe and Big Boat Sailing were all started by individuals risking their own money or small investors’ or family money.

My husband and I moved here three years ago and we are neither well-off nor retirees. We bought the building that became Motovino’s first location. We had friends who invested in this town who are also not "well-off retirees." The businesses we have built, Motovino, Big Boat Sailing, Lelu Cafe, Uniquities and the soon to be Northport Hotel were built not by "deep pockets" but by perseverance and creativity.

The negative tone that ends the article leaves one feeling like this revitalization is all based on a few wealthy individuals’ whims.

In this era of working at home, there is no reason why anyone can’t live in an ideal place such as this. Northport already has a great children’s center, very good public schools, and now a vital downtown. The only thing we need now is non-seasonal housing. Your article does nothing but perpetuate negativity and the idea that Northport is nothing but a retirement village. There’s no reason other than short-sightedness (and bad press) that it shouldn’t thrive.

Deirdre Owen, Northport

Conservatives and Obamacare

What is it about Obamacare that sends conservatives over the edge?

There are some obvious answers: 1) It’s a big government program, and conservatives don’t like big government programs; they’d prefer that the interstate highway system, Social Security, the space program, public education, Medicare, etc. be turned over to the free market. 2) Obamacare became the law despite the use of every weapon in the GOP obstructionist playbook, and that’s got to sting. 3) The possibility that it will succeed --deliver affordable health care to a large number of American VOTERS -- also unnerves the Republican Party.

But think for a minute about the other side of this equation, the ways that Obamacare actually reflects well on conservatives, benefits them, or makes their outrage look inappropriate: 1) The basics of it – including mandatory elements – originated in a conservative think tank.

2) It shovels money at a health insurance industry with close ties to the GOP. 3) Everyone knows that as Mitt Romney installed a nearly identical (and successful) statewide program in Massachusetts. 4) Even many Democrats see Obamacare as at best a step forward, an approach that only begins to deal with the deeply systemic problems of health care.

Shouldn’t these factors kind of balance out, and maybe leave conservatives miffed but not ballistic?

Do conservatives for whatever reason regard President Obama as not entitled to be President? He’s won TWO elections, fair and square. Time to move on?

Folks who are perpetually apoplectic about Obamacare need to answer two simple questions: 1) Is quality health care a privilege or a right? And if it’s a right, 2) what’s their plan?

Ron Tschudy, East Jordan

Republican Times

I read the letter from Don Turner of Beulah and it seems he lives in that magical part of the Fox News Universe where no matter how many offices the Republican Party controls they are not responsible for anything bad that happens.

Since 2011 they have controlled the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, both houses of the legislature, and the state supreme court -- complete control of the state. Out of this total Republican control, the people of Michigan have gotten higher taxes, job killing (the movie industry), neglected public education, useless lawsuits with total failure to enforce legal changes the people of Michigan voted on, and failure to pass new taxes for road repairs. The Republican Party has shown an inability to govern our state. The only jobs created here came from President Obama’s bailout of the auto industry, and not from the tax breaks Governor Snyder pushed through for his out-of-state billion friends. So Mr. Turner of Beulah, I agree we should throw the bums out of office and vote straight Democratic this year.

Don Seman, Bellaire

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