Letters 12-14-2015

Dec. 11, 2015

Help-Wanted Signs

We, a small group of local, small business owners, meet informally every few months to discuss the ups and downs of surviving on the endangered species list of "mom & pop" retailers in the day of the big box and the revered Internet.

A recent opinion column in your paper states, "Too many wealthy and not enough young people left in Traverse City"¦" The piece implies that the plethora of local "Help Wanted" signs are a result of an influx of the wealthy – and thus ruining it for the working class.

Please be clear on our collective opinion as local business owners:

"the wealthy" spend money.

"the wealthy" keep our small, upscale specialty businesses afloat.

"the wealthy" build wineries on acreage saved from development.

"the wealthy" donate millions of dollars for land preservation in our area.

"the wealthy" fund local charities and a myriad of treatment centers in our hospitals.

The many "Help Wanted" signs in Traverse City are, for the most part, the result of the young millennials’ poor or non-existent work ethic and/or their refusal to show up on time and do what is expected. This is a far more troubling issue than citing "too many wealthy" in our area.

A shortage of young workers due to Traverse City’s influx of "the wealthy?" We, a small group of downtown business owners, beg to differ.

Daniel Colbert, Leelanau

Evil Guns

Miracles do happen, because I just survived another safe hunting season here in northern Michigan by not getting killed by one of those evil guns. My gun unfortunately did not kill any deer but it probably would have if it had seen a buck. I was just there to carry that damn gun around and if need be to drag a dead deer home.

In reality guns cannot see, walk, or shoot unless someone is actually pulling the trigger. We have recently had a terrorist attack in California by crazy people pulling triggers on guns to kill innocent people. And what does your president want to do? I say "your" president because I already have a king and his name is not Obama; it’s Jesus Christ, the one and only messiah.

Since we’re being murdered by terrorists right here in our own country, why would anyone in their right mind want to do away with our guns? Our forefathers gave us a Second Ammendment, a God-given right to have guns to protect us from government gone wrong and/or terrorists. I say "God-given" right because Jesus himself told us to sell our coat if need be to buy a gun (sword) if you didn’t already have one in the 22nd chapter of Luke. It wasn’t for hunting or shooting targets for fun, but for protecting us from tyrants like we have right now. Obama wants this country to be just like the country that gives him his marching orders. That country is Israel, because it’s perfectly alright for Israeli soldiers to gun down innocent, unarmed Palestinians. If anyone tries to take your guns, please oblige, bullets first!

Gordon Lee Dean, Benzonia

Exaggerated Idea Statement

Regarding Stephen Tuttle’s column two weeks back, I agree with Mr. Tuttle that Republican candidates need policy questions....unlike what we saw with MSNBC.

Stephen Tuttle states however that neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Carson have ANY ideas that make sense.

We can all agree to disagree with some of what we hear. Saying that neither candidate has ANY ideas that make sense shows me why Mr. Tuttle is not a real journalist.

Ken Pierce, Marshall

Better Ideas Needed

NPR claimed "the shooting in San Bernardino, Cal., was the 355th mass shooting in the U.S. this year – or more than one per day on average so far in 2015."

We may not all have faith in the same news sources, but clearly we’ve become a society in which massacres are becoming a daily routine. NPR counted 462 people killed plus 1,314 injured in this year’s 355 mass shootings, and that 11,000 is "roughly the annual number of gun-related homicides in the U.S."

A Nov. 17 Washington Post headline stated "Number killed by U.S. police in 2015 reaches 1,000." Surely "shooters killed in action" aren’t included in the total homicides, but some police killings certainly should be.

This carnage may seem insignificant compared to auto-related carnage. But aren’t these deaths by firing squad avoidable? Is our society’s only solution the nightmare of our Second Amendment "advocates?" Is it time to disarm ourselves? Or, as firearms fans might put it, should our government confiscate our guns?

Eventually even the "bad guys" wouldn’t have them. Couldn’t those wanting to do some hunting or target shooting check out a gun from an armory? Couldn’t those living or traveling to where wildlife is a threat obtain a special license?

Our recent and distant history shows that many of us won’t be safe until our police also are disarmed.

Does anybody have any better ideas?

Daniel Robbins, Mackinaw City

ISIS’ Real Genesis

In his recent column "What Do They Want", Jack Segal fails to connect easy dots that can readily explain much of ISIS’ behavior. The bombing of the Russian airliner is clearly linked to the bombing of Syrian targets by Russia a month prior. So too, the French attack is a direct response to the year-long bombing of ISIS targets ordered by President Hollande. While the attacks can only be described as heinous, they are easily understood as collateral.

The assertion that ISIS rose from the de-sunnification of the Maliki government after U.S. troops left shows a novice understanding. Any explanation without reference to the decades-long incubation of radical Islamic fundamentalism by Saudi Arabia and its acceleration further fertilized by the Arab Spring is perilously jejune.

The Syrian/ISIS situation has the U.S. in another checkmate situation. If only our best and brightest would realize that our country’s best move is to not even try playing the game, especially if we can no longer stomach supporting the secular strongmen that keep these countries from chaos.

Michael Ullman, Ph.D., Traverse City

The Real Muslim Facts

Contrary to the assertions made in a letter in the Dec. 7 issue, most Muslim immigrants assimilate to mainstream American culture just fine, and they are more law-abiding and productive than almost any other immigrant group. The most educated female religious group, only behind Jewish women? Muslim women. Most importantly, the vast majority of the world’s muslims are against religious violence and against ISIS. All of these facts come from Gallup and the Pew Research Center.

The idea that Islam is inherently violent/ authoritarian/etc. and that there is a "clash of civilizations" is shared by anti-Muslim people and Islamic extremists alike and rejected by everyone else (including most Muslims).

Anti-Muslim xenophobia not only goes against our country’s foundational idea of pluralism, it also plays into ISIS’s hands and helps them recruit. The irony of the fact that the people promoting it often identify as proud patriots is astounding.

The statement that "not all Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslims," originally made by Ann Coulter, is as untrue as it is inflammatory. Most domestic terrorism in the after 9/11 has been committed by white supremacists and other right-wing extremists, not Islamic extremists.

Coulter’s statement always reminds me of a similar one made by John Stuart Mill in 1866: "I did not mean that conservatives are generally stupid; I meant that stupid persons are generally conservative."

Finally, prominent Muslims do publicly denounce Islamic terror attacks; anytime one occurs, virtually every prominent American Muslim leader and group condemns it in unambiguous terms. If someone says otherwise, it’s because that person doesn’t want to hear it.

J.L. Emerson, Petoskey

The Trump Limbo

Donald Trump is confused. He has mistaken the presidential campaign for a Limbo dance competition. How low can you go? He insults Vets and POWs, insults Mexico and Hispanics, insults all women, and mocks the disabled. How low will he go?

Dianne Carlton, Traverse City

Vote On Height

I am opposed to the proposed nine-story building in Traverse CIty. I believe that the size of the project is going to forever alter the way we view our town. This development could possibly benefit approximately two hundred residences that will be a part of this project. Assuming for the moment that each of these will house two people, this means that potentially 400 residents will stand to benefit. Should we, for the sake of 400, permanently alter our skyline? Instead of five stories, we will be looking at a building that will overshadow the surrounding neighborhood and adjacent buildings.

We are a city of 14,500 residents. I would suggest that all residents vote on this proposed development. It’s a development that creatively sought various waivers in zoning to move forward. We had zoning guidelines that are supposed to reflect the vision of all the city residents. When a change of such magnitude is adopted, all city residents should vote on such a change.

If five stories works for the rest of the buildings in/around downtown, the same standard should be applied to this project. It should not be a decision of the city staff or an appointed/ not elected planning commission. The City Commission should reject this proposed development or at least let all residents vote on this proposed change.

Our skyline, like the Open Space, belongs to all residents of Traverse City. It will be a decision that impacts all of us and we should vote on it.

Seamus Shinners Traverse City