March 19, 2024

Letters 09-15-2014

Sept. 14, 2014

Stop The Games On Campus

Four head coaches – two at U of M and two at MSU – get a total of $13 million of your taxpayer dollars each year. Their staffs get another $11 million. The average salary of the four coaches is ten times that of the highest paid public employee in Michigan. Sports receipts are claimed to cover costs of all athletics. But many costs get hidden elsewhere in budgets like buildings and grounds. The "Big House" stadium in Ann Arbor is valuable taxpayer property. Yet the public is banned from its use 354 days a year. Also hidden are administrative and legal costs to keep the precious athletes and their coaches out of the media and jail.

Prima donna athletes are recruited at great expense and come with a full summer of tutoring, which continues with them for four years. Your neighbors’ children may have great scholastic promise but need help to catch up before starting college. No public funds for them; only for athletes. And only 55 percent of these star athletes will ever see a diploma.

It is time U of M and MSU downplay athletics. Let’s spend our taxpayer money on what these universities are chartered to do: To educate those who come to learn, not to play.

John Barker, Glen Arbor

The Truth About Fatbikes

While we appreciate the fatbike trail coverage, the quote from the article below is exactly what we demonstrated not to be true in most cases last season:

"Untouched groomed trails look like wide ribbons of corduroy. When fatbikes – or mountain bikes with "˜fat’ tires meant for soft conditions – roll on the trails, ruts form that catch a ski’s edge, potentially causing skiers to fall."

This only happens when fatbikers go out in warm, soft snow conditions or run tire pressures that are too high. If the trail is firm and the temperatures are below freezing and tire pressures are below 4 PSI, a fatbike will leave an impression that’s barely detectable, sometimes less than a skier.

Our greatest challenge is educating on the best practices for riding on snow. Conditions that are unfavorable for riding the Vasa pathway will also be poor and potentially damaging to the fatbike trail. Most problems can be avoided by following a few simple guidelines:

- Follow tire size and pressure guidelines

- Ride only when it’s firm and has been below 30 and keep ruts less than one-inch deep

- Look at what the weather will be like at the end of your ride, not the beginning

- Stay off the track or off to the side when walking a hill

- Do not ride in classic tracks

- Bikes yield to skiers; be courteous

- Support grooming programs

That being said, we are looking forward to the new fatbikeable Vasa Singletrack as we believe it will reduce pressure on the Vasa and create a much more enjoyable experience with a narrower, twistier and fun trail for cyclists and classic skiers that wish to venture out on them.

Glen Ruczynski, Acme

Man Has Environmental Responsibility

I tend to agree with Thomas Kachadurian ("Playing God," Sept. 8) that we should not interfere with the power of nature by deciding what is "native" and what is not. Man usually does what is better for man (or so we believe), hence the survival and population growth of our species.

In the past century or so, man -- in his selfish interest -- has overdrawn the earth’s resources, which may ultimately lead to his downfall. The wolf "harvest" is part of this. Government decisions have made this mistake before, by killing off predators, while the herbivores, their prey, naturally overgrazed the plants that support them. The herbivores (deer, mostly), died off in the following years for lack of a reliable food source. Predators are beneficial, helping to keep nature in balance. I wonder why Mr. Kachadurian promotes messing with the wolf, "playing God," as he says? Farmers have for some time been able to legally kill predators that threaten livestock. Humans are very adaptable, which is why our huge population has the responsibility of protecting species, like the grey wolf, that do benefit the vitality and balance of our environment.

BJ Ingwersen, Traverse City

The Bush & Obama Facts

Don Turner’s letter to the editor on 8/25/14 stated that there has never been a more corrupt, dishonest, etc. set of politicians in the White House. He states no facts, but here are a few:

Bush entered office in 2000 with a small budget surplus (courtesy of Clinton), and left a budget deficit of $900 billion in fiscal year 2009, the biggest deficit in history. He left the economy near total collapse, and the housing market in chaos. He also managed to double the national debt.

During the Obama terms (thus far) the deficit has dropped 60%+, and unemployment continues to drop (now at 6.2%). Republicans shut down the government, wasting $24 billion.

Bush (or perhaps Cheney) started two wars in the Middle East, didn’t pay for either, didn’t finish either (by a long shot), yet claimed "mission accomplished" on a battleship. They grossly abused the National Guard with repeated deployments. They added to the misery of war by introducing torture and calling it "enhanced interrogation." I call it immoral disgrace.

For the Iraq war alone, Bush is responsible for 4500+/- U.S. military deaths and the 100,000-1,000,000 Iraqi deaths of men women and children, not to mention 1.6 million refugees the war created.

I sometimes disagree with the Obama White House, but a thoughtful, deliberate White House is far superior to the arrogance, war, disgrace, and deaths of the Bush/Cheney years.

Are we any better now than when Bush started the Iraq war? For the hundreds of thousands who died, the two trillion we spent, is the U.S. better off? No. It was a war of sheer arrogance, based on the fraud of "weapons of mass destruction."

Dump the Democrats? No, dump the Republicans.

David Stewart, Manistee

Ban Pesticides

I grew up downstate in a neighborhood without pesticides. I was always very healthy. Living here, I have become ill. So I did my research and found out a lot about these poison agents called pesticides (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers, etc) that are being spread throughout this community, accumulating in our air, water and soil.

Most people don’t think twice about what they’re putting on their lawns and weeds, exposing the public to all kinds of toxic chemicals. Roundup is used a lot, along with products containing 2,4-d, ( 50% of agent orange used in Vietnam). It is unbelievable that people are so obsessed with their lawns that they will put poisonous chemicals on them; crime committed against nature. Very low levels are toxic and it is against the law to advertise or market lawn chemicals as "safe."

This city needs to step up and take responsibility, because it’s obvious many living here aren’t willing or able to make the right decisions. There’s this fear that some beautiful dandelions may pop out of their lawns! We should not be putting chemicals where wildlife live and children play. Our water is toxic and so is our grass.

More than 170 cities in Canada have passed full or partial bans on pesticides. Just last July 22, Takoma Park, Maryland outlawed cosmetic pesticides. This July, Ogunquit, Maine banned pesticides on public and private property. Traverse City, could do this!?

Julie Collins, Traverse City

Respect for Presidents?

Recently we read the Letter to the Editor that encouraged us to stop characterizing President Obama as anything other than an upstanding, moral, inspiring "first Black President". The author would have us think that the rancor in the press, media and public is misguided. And, believe it or not, this rancor is a "glaring exception to "¦ unwritten patriotic rule" of historically supporting all previous presidents.

Well, I remember that JFK was not appreciated by many on the right who believed the election was stolen with mafia money and poll rigging in Chicago. I remember that Johnson was almost tarred and feathered by his own Democratic supporters. I remember how Nixon was run out of town for openly lying about a cover-up of an amateur political campaign break-in.

I remember Ronald Reagan was ridiculed as an actor who had no business being the U.S. President even though he won "fair and square." His trickle down economics and folksy style just did not endear him to the left. I remember the ridicule George Bush, the elder, received for being forced to accept new taxes by the Democratic controlled Congress.

I remember the lack of respect for President Bill Clinton, the constant harangue of criticism and even the move to impeach him when everyone knew Washington elites would not vote to remove him from office. I remember the lack of respect for George W. Bush who had to deal with 9-11 and its collateral damage to our economy and freedom. Eight years of media pounding.

In truth, "respect for the office of the President" has been lacking for a long time. It seems constant criticism by one side or the other is now year-around sport.

William Deneau, Traverse City

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