Letters 06-01-2015

May 29, 2015

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Truth About Inner City Violence

It’s quite amazing how far off the mark someone like Stephen Tuttle can travel simply by ignoring all the elephants in the room. One infers from his comments that the inner city troubles came about as a result of federal budget cuts in the 80’s and 90’s. I guess Detroit and Watts burning in the 60’s and the Chicago riots during the same time, uh, what, were on another planet?

So, to try to get back to reality, why is it that the demise of our cities actually coincides with the trillions of dollars spent on The Great Society dating back to the mid-60’s? Or that all of today’s riots take place in areas that have been completely dominated by Democratic politicians for decades and that their answer is always more money, a practice that Tuttle appears to endorse? Where do we start? Honestly assessing our failures would be one good place.

John Michael Casteel, Traverse City

Cold Not To Blame

Regarding the opinion letter that we are not diversified in northern Michigan because of cold weather, here are the average highs and lows of each city from December through February: Traverse City December 32 and 15, January 27 and 14, February 30 and 14 Detroit December 35 and 21, January 31 and 19, February 32 and 18 Doesn’t hold much weight with me as a reason that African Americans do not feel at home "up north."

Laura Kolberg, Muskegon

Brainless Response, Provocative Article

The May 25th editorial response by reader Jack Dancer couldn’t be more off the mark. He states that the reason there are not more African-Americans living in Traverse City is because it’s too cold? Maybe he forgot that Detroit is just as cold and some winters have surpassed ours.

He goes on to make an analogy regarding the color of people’s skin at music concerts suggesting that blacks don’t attend concerts of white bands. Wow, earth-shattering.

He then goes on to state that while he was working in Louisiana his co-workers (who were 70% black) expressed their surprise when he announced that he was moving to Northern Michigan with "you must like the cold."

I just moved back from four years in San Antonio and guess what? My friends and co-workers expressed the same thought; nothing to do with skin color. If you were raised in a hot climate, the thought of bundling up does not appeal to you.

The best reason there are fewer blacks up here has everything to do with the author’s interview with John Matthews. It’s pretty simple really; the cottage owners are white and summer camps cater to a wealthy white population, thus giving young people exposure to life in the north as they were growing up. So it’s easy to fall in love with Northern Michigan and want to live here. But making a living can be a challenge.

So I take umbrage with Jack Dancer calling the author’s article "needless and brainless," though I do agree that it was provocative.

Debra Watkins, Traverse City

Not So Black And White

The article "Why...so white?" in a recent issue is a very simplistic approach to considering the notion of diversity in our region. The central focus paints a picture that is entirely black and white, with absolutely no mention of any other ethnicity in the minority slot. Who makes up that last 4.9% in Traverse City? That 7.6% in Petoskey? If diversity were an essay question, this article answered as a true or false.

Christine Nelson, Traverse City