Letters 04-20-2015

April 19, 2015

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Time For Hartman/Hammond

Long term planning would have coincided the timing of downing the Cass St/Keystone Bridge in TC and the construction of a Hartman/ Hammond Bridge. Such a planned roadway would have met everyone’s needs.

The Hartman/Hammond Bridge has been on the Grand Traverse County Road Commission and TC TALUS lists of serious projects for a long time.

If long expressed desires for development are present along Hammond, I say, what is the big deal?

If a lot of people do not want to pay for their part and use of the road, that is another discussion. Put it to a vote. But to cast a shadow on developers wanting to develop is bad. It is just hypocritical.

Jill Rahrig, Traverse City

No more Apologies

In view of the senseless, brutal murder of an unarmed black man in South Carolina last week by a police officer following a traffic stop for a broken taillight, we must revisit Thomas Kachadurian’s recent column.

"The Lie Told 1,000 Times" is dangerously seductive because it dresses up bigoted fallacies in fancy and harmless sounding words. These words seduce what isn’t real. They sugarcoat the real truth.

Mr. Kachadurian correctly states that there are serious doubts concerning the Michael Brown case in Ferguson. He opines, in rational tones, that people like Michael Brown and Tony Robinson are not typical African American males. Given that all human beings are different, what’s typical?

Mr. Kachadurian sounds almost like a bleeding heart liberal when he references the "soft bigotry of low expectations."

He appears to consistently accept the officials’ versions of the facts and give credence to all negative information regarding the shooting victims. Example: the facts he accepts about Trayvon Martin have been soundly discredited.

He would have you think that if only these murdered victims showed respect for authority they’d still be alive. Who knew that so many armed police are afraid of unarmed young men?

Kachadurian gives aid and comfort to those who harbor the worst prejudices about black men. The "good," law-abiding victims respectful of authority survive; only the "bad" guys are shot.

I invite Kachadurian to view the tape of the most recent police shooting in South Carolina; then I would ask him which of these men demonstrated respect for human life.

Excusing the killing of unarmed, innocent citizens leads inexorably to more innocent unarmed citizens being killed. This has got to end.

Isiah Smith, Jr., Traverse City

What Is Your Experience To Lead?

I listened to Marco Rubio’s announcement of his running for the presidency. Many have admired his speech. He said a lot of the right things. But just as many make me nervous. He speaks of the need to "reform our tax code, reduce regulations, modernize our immigration laws and repeal and replace Obamacare...." What is his record in the Senate to make an improvement on any of those issues? How does he expect to replace Obamacare in a way that would provide needed services for as many of our people as possible? He talks of providing education that leads to job. What has been his record on that? He talks of the family as the most important institution in society. What has he done to provide for the welfare of families? What experience does he have to deal with global chaos? What demonstration of leadership does he believe will make America a "city upon the hill?" In these terms, Senator Rubio is living in the past.

He is a young man. He is part of a generation that views politics as a game. What I see in much of our society is a lack of compassionate, intelligent and responsible leadership. Look at the attitude of the one percent who believe they are entitled to all they have. Look at the corporations complaining they have no one with the skills to work for them, but won’t make any effort to train a new generation. And they work to defeat unions, which in the past provided welcomed skills for people in the shops. As for campaigning up to 2016, words are cheap. What experience and intelligence do you bring to your office? That is the question.

Bob McQuilkin, Frankfort

Outsourcing NMC Faculty

"Outsourcing" the vast majority of NMC faculty? Do I hear the sound of NMC’s reputation sucked down the drain to save money? Really?

NMC adjunct ("contingent") faculty get maybe $2500 per course. NMC’s "savings" would come from sidestepping retirement funds. Nice. They teach for peanuts and don’t get a few pennies for retirement. The Grinch could not do better.

The U.S. higher education system competes for foreign (and regional) students who want our great programs and who lack enough teachers at home brave enough (and trained) to teach thinking, and analyzing. NMC is down the drain, unless we stand up and say no!

Whence those "savings" if not to poorly paid teachers’ retirement benefits? It will go to a corporation (EDUSTAFF?) and its well-paid administrators to oversee (fire?) contingents. Who should evaluate NMC’s academics?

Outsourcing NMC’s contingent faculty is a terrible idea:

1) Each school’s reputation rests on its academics, training in knowledge that is applied and not; analyzing sources; THINKING, and more. Lose one’s academic reputation–just like integrity--and it is gone, ruining all NMC alums. NMC loses, past, present, and future.

2) Academic freedom is on the line. Why care? Reputation and quality, plus keeping the best teachers at NMC, not the most docile or cheap ones.

3) Students’ minds left unprodded to learn to analyze, find evidence, think for themselves and express their reasoning. Faculty scared of rocking the boat. Loss of academic freedom, undermined these 20 years+ by shifting from tenured full-timers to unprotected part-timers, the latter now 2/3 of U.S. higher ed faculty. Outsourcing. Follow the money. You know where outsourcing has taken manufacturing, etc. Let’s save NMC –call President Nelson. Do something before it is too late.

Bonnie Spanier, Traverse City Where’s Plan B? Gov. Snyder commented regarding the upcoming vote on the Prop. 1 that there is no "Plan B" in the wings to fall back on. This is good to know, just to round out the picture, because many of us find it hard to detect a "Plan A" in Prop. 1.

Prop. 1 purports to offer a plan to fix our roads and repair the damage to the Earned Income Tax Credit. And, by the way, it would also raise the sales tax from 6% to 7%, thus enshrining a regressive tax in perpetuity in the Michigan Constitution (try getting rid of that sucker or change to a graduated and fair income tax any time soon).

It would also uncork ten undescribed laws barely mentioned in Prop. 1, and inject them like a financial virus into the Constitution as a perpetual memorial of the actions of this legislature. It does, in fact, ask the voters to do the work of the legislature by writing laws.

Fellow voters, I for one find the election to do the job of our legislature a step too far.

Let’s offer them the chance to redeem themselves and develop a Plan B. Start by voting a big "NO" in the coming election.

We do need a Plan B. Where is it?

Robert E. Marshall, Lake Leelanau

Tea Partiers Oppose

The Cheboygan, Onaway, Petoskey, and Gaylord Tea Parties are united in opposition to the May 5 Proposal 1 to constitutionally change our tax structure, supposedly to fund road repair:

1. The previous Michigan legislature, whom we paid to produce a budget that included adequate road spending, failed to do so. Instead, they required citizens to fund this expensive special election.

2. A ballot initiative is required to include just one proposal. This one doesn’t. Rather than prioritizing their budget to fix roads, the legislature spent their time creating a scheme where our one vote causes ten additional bills to become law if citizens vote yes!

3. In order to fund road repairs without tax increases, last year’s legislature could have passed the "Bolger Plan." Other cost saving suggestions were also suggested - ending corporate welfare, film subsidies, and repealing the prevailing wage law. Each suggestion was not only ignored, but spending has increased $4.7 billion since Governor Snyder took office.

4. Rather than producing a clean proposal to fix our roads, Proposal 1 attempts to buy votes by apportioning a large percentage of the funds gained to local governments, schools, and mass transit. Considering this and Lansing’s long history of diverting road money to other causes, it is not surprising that much funding collected as a result of proposal 1 will not go to road repair.

Consequently, we urge all elected officials to oppose proposal 1 and fix the roads without raising taxes. This package of bills violates the principles of fiscal responsibility and open government. It deserves a resounding NO.

Stephenie Jacobson, Cheboygan Tea Party Patriots

Correction:

The profile of artist Sarah Abend contained a paragraph in error. The "How I Got Started" section should have read: "I believe I started at an early age but lost my connection to art through my primary and secondary public school education. Fortunately, I was re-acquainted to art while I was in college. Like most young people who go straight to college after high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Feeling lost in college, I began to realize that an ordinary life wasn’t for me. Most of my friends were creative types"¦ doing interesting things, making art, having gallery shows"¦I felt the pull"¦ I felt left out. Through the encouragement of an artist old friend, Matt Perkins, who saw my potential as an artist, I began taking art classes and the rest is history."