Letters 11-23-2015
Nov. 20, 2015
Cheering From Petoskey
While red-eyed rats boil fanatically up from the ancient sewers of Paris to feast on pools of French blood, at the G20 meeting the farcical pied piper of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue thrusts a bony finger at the president of the Russian Federation and yells: "liberté, égalité, fraternité, Clinton, Kerry--Obamaism!"
President Putin stiffens and smiles his best Siberian smile at the man from Kenya, then winks an ice blue eye at the G20 host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the meantime, mass graves are being discovered in Sinjar, Iraq and Yazidi girls are being sold into sex slavery in exchange for a bottle of Pepsi by the ISIS JV team. Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Barack: "Defense it’s up to you, De-fense break through! S S-C S-C- O-R-E S S-C S-C-O-R-E S S-C S-C-O-R-E!"
Steve Redder, Petoskey
The Other Mothers And Fathers
Regarding the very nice recent article on "The First Lady of Yoga," I have taken many classes with Sandy Carden, and I consider her to be a great teacher. However, I feel the article is remiss to not even give acknowledgement to other very important yoga influences in northern Michigan.
Mary Reilly of North Woods Yoga Studio in Petoskey has been a very active teacher since the 1980s. Libby (and husband Mike) Robold, have been teaching in the Traverse area since then and founded Yoga for Health in Building 50 in 2003. Libby started the first (and perhaps only) in school yoga curriculum for TBAISD back in the 1980s. Both Mary and Libby have taught quite a line of yoga teachers.
Sally Van Vleck of the Neahtawanta Center has been teaching for decades. Perhaps more than classes, she is extremely busy practicing her Karma (service) yoga by being a tireless champion for the environment and many social justice causes.
No doubt, Sandy has been a major contributor to the area’s flourishing yoga culture, but you make it sound as if she accomplished this single-handedly. These other teachers came to us within a year or two of Sandy’s arrival, enriching the diverse yoga education we have all enjoyed. It takes a village to raise a child... and consciousness. Furthermore, all these folks are "Johnny come latelies" if you consider that yogacharya ("yoga teacher") J. Oliver Black, who studied under Paramahansa Yogananda, founded Song of the Morning Yoga Retreat in Vanderbilt in the early 1970s. This yearround community is still going strong today!
Karen Comella, Traverse City
Drop The Blue Angels
The last time I went to the National Cherry Festival, I picked the wrong day. The Blue Angels were forcing everyone to duck and cover from the earsplitting cacophony overhead.
Pets don’t like it, taxpayers don’t like it, combat veterans surely don’t like it. But the number one reason I dislike the Blue Angels is they are a shameless, loud, very expensive recruiting tool preying on the young in the audience.
Ask your city commission to drop the Blue Angels from the Cherry Festival. TC is not a war zone.
Steve Little, Charlevoix
Real Advice For The Sick
In the Nov. 16 article "Flu Fighters," author Kristi Kates fails to mention the most basic tool in our arsenal during Influenza season... the flu vaccine! I understand you might be afraid of being the victim of Jenny McCarthyism, but the science is there.
As a physician and Traverse City resident, I am not shocked that this small and negligent article appears in our Northern Express. It is obviously pandering to a certain sub-segment of our population. I daresay that it also functions as an advertisement for an unproven and potentially dangerous herbal "remedy."
I have a little bit of advice. If you have a cold, stay home, stay hydrated, wash your hands, and take some Ibuprofen (Ms. Kates mentioned a few basics in her article. Hooray!). Don’t worry, you’ll get better. If you need an "antibacterial" and "respiratory support," you should probably see a doctor.
Andres M. Seidner, M.D., Traverse City
Keeping Traverse City in the Dark
Our environment is our greatest asset. It sustains our lives; it drives our economy. We ignore it at our peril.
Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC) has submitted letters of concern to both the city commission and planning commission regarding the proposed 9-story buildings on Pine Street. We have requested an independent environmental assessment with clear answers before a land use permit is granted:
1. How will public health be protected from the toxic soil during construction and afterward? 2. Part of the building would be on a flood plain. What is the protection plan? 3. How will the river be stabilized when vegetation is removed? 4. Can stormwater solutions be physically demonstrated? 5. The Boardman River study has identified this as a migratory and nesting route for waterfowl. What is the plan to protect against bird deaths when tall buildings with lots of windows are among the greatest killers of birds? 6. We all have a right to sunlight. How will the solar potential of neighboring buildings be protected?
An environmental assessment has not been done by the city. Why not?
Ann Rogers, Traverse City NMEAC Co-chair
All About Them
Another cartoon by Jen Sorensen that brings out the truth! Most of her cartoons are too slanted in a Socialist manner, but when she gets it correct, she hits the nail on the target! "Arizona is the first state to put a 12-month lifetime limit on welfare benefits."
That quote is in the opening panel. I can understand why a state would put limits on those benefits; for example, welfare fraud and many states on the verge of bankruptcy. But the politician in the cartoon, Democrat or Republican, refuses to help the welfare recipient, but is in a hurry to do his begging for campaign donations! Both political parties are in politics for themselves; forget about our country or the voters (until it is election time, then it is all about making promises they cannot or never intend to keep )!
There are few exceptions to the above. Someone prove me wrong!
Greg Haske, Gaylord
Unfair To County Employees
It appears that the commissioners of Grand Traverse County will seek to remedy a shortfall in the 2016 budget by instituting cuts in expenditures, the most notable the reduction of contributions to various insurance benefits in place for county employees. As one example, the county’s contributions to health insurance premiums will decrease from ten to six percent in 2016. What this means, of course, is that if a county employee wishes to maintain coverage at the current level next year, the employee will have to come up with the difference.
In purely fiscal terms, the effect of this cut in benefits is no different had a tax equivalent to that four percent cut in benefits been levied by the county on its employees. In each case, in 2016 the employees would be out that four percent and the county would need spend four percent less on benefits than this year.
Think about it. Instead of cutting employee benefits, let’s say the county decided to balance the budget in 2016, not by cutting their compensation package but by levying a tax on all county employees–not on any other group, just county employees. Would that be fair?
Let’s change the scenario a bit. Instead of taxing county employees, the county decided to pass a special tax on, say, all the retailers on Front Street, or all the lawyers or doctors, or everyone living in the area bounded by Division, Eighth, Front, and Barlow Streets in Traverse City. Would that be fair? Would any of those discriminatory hypotheticals result in the same silence following the county’s decision to balance the books on the backs of its employees?
Steve Morse, Suttons Bay
Up, Not Out
I would like to congratulate the Traverse City Planning Commission on their decision to approve the River West development. Traverse City will either grow up or grow out. For countless reasons, up is better than out. Or do we enjoy such things as traffic congestion and replacing wooded hillsides with hideous spectacles like the one behind Tom’s West Bay. At least that one is on the edge of town as opposed to in the formerly beautiful rolling meadows of Acme Township.
Most importantly, River West will allow more people to live near where they work. Hopefully other local leaders will embrace this message and work to promote affordable housing within their communities.
Fred Cepela, Traverse City
Lessons In Winning War
I am saddened to hear the response of so many of legislators tasked with keeping our country safe. I listen and wonder if they know what "winning" this kind of conflict requires or even means? Did we win in Korea? Did we win in Vietnam? Are we winning in Afghanistan? How is Israel winning against the Palestinians? Will they "take out" Hezbollah?
The one thing they seem certain of is that Obama is not doing enough. I say God bless Obama for not getting us bogged down in another winless conflict. To hear the media sound bites you would think Obama is being judged for an Academy Award performance when he goes before the cameras. He is not angry enough!
Our president is not ignorant nor insensitive. If he seems thoughtful in the face of all the changing chaos around him, we should give him and his advisors credit. Those who wish to go to war need to accept the consequences. ISIS would love to have us in their territory. If we put many "boots on the ground," make sure we are heavily taxed for it, so important homeland services don’t suffer.
Robert McQuilkin, Frankfort