Letters Those awful liberals...
They would actually spend money helping people instead of killing people.
A pundit was predicting what would happen if the Democrats gained control of Congress and the White House. He said they would cut defense spending and increase spending on social programs.
Now, isn’t that the worst thing that could happen? Helping the average citizen and cut defense when the Martians are coming, the Martians are coming?

Richard R Riker • Mackinaw City

Letter to Obama
Let me be candid. After all the campaigning, I still don’t know you very well. You are still coming off as advocating intrusive and paternalistic national government with little faith in free enterprise or belief in personal responsibility and accountability.
I worry that your view of self reliance evolved out of your long-time membership in a Chicago church that embraced Black Liberation Theology which perpetuates a victim mentality long ago abandoned by most black Americans and other minority groups who are doing well. I worry about your belief that the role of government is to redistribute income through personal and corporate taxes.
You have not expressed much faith in or respect for the private sector as the real source of the nation’s wealth. The only incentive you have promised to encourage national corporations to locate or expand here is a threat of punitive tax policies. Read Thomas Friedman’s book The World Is Flat to understand we cannot unilaterally establish the level of competitive wages or total cost in a world market.
No matter how much you despise corporate America, companies always have choices of where to locate. You will not be able to build a wall around the country with artificial constraints to keep jobs in the U.S. We will only keep what we earn and deserve in a world of vicious competition.
Much of what you have said and not said, as well as what you have done and not done, undermines confidence in your being the president we need.

Dick Selvala • Cross Village


End suffering: vote yes
As an 18-year-old first-time voter and a Crohn’s disease patient of six years I am urging all Michigan residents to vote yes on proposals 1 and 2.
Proposal 1 is for legalizing marijuana for medical purposes and Proposal 2 is for lifting a Michigan constitutional ban on the research of stem cells or the use of stem cells in Michigan. Both of these proposals would offer relief to patients who have been suffering through diseases such as leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, and those affected by Crohn’s disease. Legalizing these methods of treatments would offer patients hope by giving them a new treatment when all other common medicines and treatments have failed them.
The people who want these proposals legalized are not immoral or “pot heads” -- they just want something to make their bodies healthy again so they can aspire to the same health standards of a person not having these diseases.
Michigan has a chance to help end the suffering of these patients by voting yes on proposals 1 and 2. Let‘s end the suffering and give them hope on November 4th.

Matt Tomlinson • Grawn

Features Three area women just left Traverse City for a four-month sojourn in India to study ashtanga yoga in its most pure and ancient form.
Jessica Sharry, who teaches ashtanga yoga at Sared Space Yoga, will travel with students Tracy “T.J.” Andrews and Lillie Wolff. They have been planning the journey for months. All three will share an apartment in the city of Mysore—and, yes, they’ve heard the jokes.

Music Hey kids, if mom and dad want to borrow your costumes this year, it’s probably because they’re heading out to one of the many Halloween bashes being held at nightclubs and bars around the region.
As every nightcrawler knows, Halloween weekend is one of the biggest bar nights of the year, with adult Trick-or-Treaters decked out in their scariest, sexiest and most topical outfits.
Halloween falling on Friday this year is a bonus, with more energy in the mix and more incentive to get out and party in your alter ego as Sarah Palin or a Beverly Hills chihuahua. Here’s a look at who’s doing what around the region, with other info provided in the Express Nightlife pages:

Letters Teens & sex
I read the beautifully written short article by Jessica Schrader on Kids & the truth about sex ed. This particular subject is especially important to me. I am a child of a teen pregnancy and have a broad understanding of the struggles a teen can have raising a child. I also have witnessed many of my teen friends growing up dealing with STD and abortion issues. This is a personal and very public issue.
To provide some factual insight to Jessica’s point; the Advocates for youth website provides the following profound information:
“Each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs). By age 18, 70 percent of U.S. females and 62 percent of U.S. males have initiated vaginal sex.
Comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting young people to make healthy decisions about sex and to adopt healthy sexual behaviors.No abstinence-only-until-marriage program has been shown to help teens delay the initiation of sex or to protect themselves when they do initiate sex.Yet, the U.S. government has spent over one billion dollars supporting abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Although the U.S. government ignores it, adolescents have a fundamental human right to accurate and comprehensive sexual health information.”
I feel that this subject could use some dedicated coverage for the health of our society. I would encourage the Northern Express to do so.

Jenn Craven • Lake Ann

Teens & responsibility
This is a response to Jessica Schrader’s article favoring teaching junior and senior high school students the how to’s of birth control. There are several reasons why this is a bad idea.
To understand these reasons, you may want to consider something else we tell teens to abstain from with less than ideal results: consuming alcohol. I’m guessing that in their health classes teens are not instructed in how to drink responsibly. If we did teach that, we would be sending the message that we expect them to break the law and drink alcohol before age 21. We would also be wasting our breath because research has shown that due to biological and developmental factors, teens are not generally capable of applying the self-restraint that would allow them to drink responsibly.
In the case of teen sex, the responsible and self-disciplined teens will wait. The less responsible and self-disciplined will have sex, but be the least likely to successfully use birth control even if educated in the greatest of detail.
Every variation on sex education has been tried in different parts of the country and different times, including handing out free condoms to students. There’s no clear evidence that unwed pregnancy or disease rates are lower where sex education has been most explicit.
The people of Michigan have decided through the political process that they want to send an unequivocal message to young people that they are not mature enough for sex. Those who decide otherwise have easy access to birth control information on the internet in the unlikely event they are inclined to be responsible.

Nancy Brimhall, RN • Alden

Letters Pollution affects us all
I read your article about the Alba well with great interest. My heart goes out to the people at CMS Energy who must incur an estimated $140,000,000 to clean up Bay Harbor. No company would knowingly cause such a problem.
Someone once asked Mother Theresa “who causes the problems in the world?” She replied “I do.” We are all polluters. Any woman who uses nail polish and especially nail polish remover is a polluter. If we multiplied our toenails with all the toenails in America it would cost more than $140,000,000 to clean up the waste if it was all dumped in one place.
I am disappointed to learn how many people think Alba, Bay Harbor and Petoskey are separate problems. We are all one community or one ohana as they say in Hawaii. Let’s think of the problem as a great big “PetAlba Bay” problem.
I am concerned about the effect Bay Harbor has on Petoskey water since two or three of the Petoskey wells are located at Bay Harbor. I checked into it and learned that no organic compounds are being tested for as recommended in the “EPA National Water Quality Standards 2006” report. I also learned Petoskey water samples are being taken downstream and not at the wellhead. That’s what a hydrologist and an environmental scientist who used to work for Dow Chemical told me.
Many people say Petoskey‘s water tastes bad. One person told me it aggravates Crohn‘s disease. Another said two nurses whispered to him: “Stop drinking Petoskey water,” when he was a patient. He did and got better.
There is a simple solution. Homes can install a reverse osmosis system which removes 99 percent of the contaminents or buy bottled water. Petoskey‘s Big Boy has installed a reverse osmosis system and Grain Train is installing a system so that water can be bought in reusable polycarbonate bottles. It would be wonderful if we could stop burying our head in the sand and just do what we can to improve our health.

Irene Parker • Petoskey

Dirty political trick
Hey, Macomb Republicans and their chair James Carabelli: kick ‘em while they’re down!
Yours was the first attempt to get rid of non-Republican votes in Michigan, disenfranchising your neighbors who lost their homes to foreclosure and no longer live at that address.
Most foreclosures happened because of Republican Congress’ dogged deregulation over the years, with considerable help from corporate greed. Now, Macomb County tried to disenfranchise those foreclosed with its “Lose your home; lose your vote” policy.
Great, dirty political ploy! Those foreclosed owners would be voting for Obama/Biden, because under their plans, 95 percent of American families would get a tax cut and a moratorium on further foreclosures, which would provide some breathing space for the little guy. The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee brought a lawsuit against Macomb Republicans and others like them country-wide. Now what?
Hey, we move it up a notch from a county party to a state official, Michigan Secretary of State: Republican Terry Lynn Land. She initiated her illegal voter purging program to disenfranchise thousands more. That brought out the ACLU to sue an elected official to make her do her job honestly.
Last week, Judge Stephen J. Murphy III found that Land had violated a federal law when she purged 1,500 newly registered voters this year because their mailed voter registration cards were returned undelivered. Those voters and any others since 2006 purged from the rolls for the same reason must be reinstated, because of the “motor voter” act. That federal law prevents such purging for two future general federal elections.
When the Washington Post contacted Land, neither she nor her spokesperson was available for comment.
Butt out, dirty tricksters. Let the votes fall where they may.

Patti Fox • Bellaire

Features If listening to the political pundits on TV and radio is getting to be all too much, consider checking out another side to the upcoming election with a “mini film fest” at the historic State Theatre in Traverse City, with 21 movies to be aired in the 18 days leading up to the November 4 presidential election.
“The 21 films represent a broad-ranging mix of movies that deal with the American experience,” said filmmaker Michael Moore. “There will be films that deal with the electoral process like the hilarious satires “Bulworth” (Warren Beatty) and “Head of State” (Chris Rock). There will also be films that will reflect the times in which we live and the candidates who are running.”

Features There’s a single question that rises above all others in the minds of most Michigan voters this year: “What would you do to improve Michigan’s economy and the job outlook in Northern Michigan?”
We posed that question to 13 candidates seeking the post of State Representative from five districts ranging from Manistee to the Mackinac Straits. Following are some of their responses.


Note: Responses from candidates which did not reach the Express by press time will be included in next week’s issue.

Letters Sign of the times
I recently installed a political campaign sign near my home and within 10 days it was uprooted and tossed aside six times. Then it was stolen.
I realize this is bound to happen here and there, now and then, as election day draws near; and I know that people generally tend to shrug it off as something they can’t do much about anyway. But I sincerely commiserate with the people who are subjected to these callous intrusions into their lives; and I would like to address a few pertinent remarks to the misguided individuals who perpetrate them.
Attention smug, skulking minions of fear, ignorance and greed who under cover of darkness and at strategically calculated hours of the day violate our constitutional right to free speech and thumb their noses at the judicious laws of the state by vandalizing and removing lawfully placed political campaign signs: You are committing a crime.
Do you think that you’re cleverly manipulating “the system” to your advantage? Do you flatter yourselves with the notion that you’re gallantly exercising your freedom and patriotism? If so, you are deluding yourselves. In reality, you do nothing to further your political ambitions and only succeed in generating resentment, suspicion and mistrust in the hearts and minds of your neighbors. Is this your idea of the American spirit? Your self-indulgent, heedless violation of our right to free speech isn’t “freedom” -- it’s nothing more than contemptible bullying.
And “patriotism”? Someone, please, open a window! Your actions blatantly demonstrate that you have no sense of fair play and no real understanding of or respect for the just and humane principles upon which a civilized society is founded. You dishonor the true patriots who dedicate themselves to safeguarding and promoting those principles. And you abuse the better part of your own selves. (Imagine the ludicrous, feeble-minded, puerile image you project by sneaking around and attacking campaign signs!)
Come on people. Stop what you’re doing. Think. Respect the rights and dignity of others. Restore your own dignity by mustering up the moral courage and decency it takes to return those signs in their original condition to the places they were rightfully intended to be.

David Vincent • via email

Letters Who‘s to blame?
The consensus is that the crisis in financial markets relates to the sub-prime mortgage scandal. Until mortgages are under control, even the Fed cannot bail us out and return prosperity in America.
But no one is addressing the cause, or fixing the blame for the crisis. That is a bad mistake. People who get caught doing wrong always say, “Don’t look back; let’s just fix the problem.”
Blame is important because it acknowledges that a right way of doing things still exists, as opposed to what happened here. If there is no blame, then the public gets the mistaken impression that “the system” is flawed. Instead of focusing the problem where it belongs – on the crooks who created and then milked a disaster – the public sees the entire system as at fault, and takes money out of the system, further damaging it.
I‘m reminded of something I read earlier this year: a February 14 article, “Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime,” in the Washington Post by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Spitzer, who was later caught in a scandal, wrote that the sub-prime crisis, which caused the current banking crisis, was not caused by a mysterious, insoluble flaw in the American system. It was caused by predatory lending – bankers and mortgage companies enticed people to borrow money without the slightest ability to pay it back. Then they sold the mortgages to others, who invested in mortgage-backed securities.
As of 2003 – years ago – 50 state attorney generals filed suit or brought civil claims against subprime lenders to stop the gathering disaster. Fifty state attorney generals saw the risk of this crisis.
The Bush administration – the “partner in crime” – forced the 50 states to stop their civil actions. The Bush administration turned loose the speculators and manipulators, and sided with financial rogues against the American public.
The financial crisis that threatens the world did not come out of nowhere. Real, live bad people caused this to happen. They hurt real, live Americans trying to make a living and save for retirement. They hurt, for example, local hospitals that invest savings and provide medical help to the community. They hurt school teachers; they hurt yard workers; they hurt Republicans and Democrats alike.
And the Bush administration intentionally assisted in this crime. As of 2003 the states were trying to stop this disaster. The Bush administration actively prevented lawyers from saving American citizens from this financial disaster – a disaster my children will be paying for over the next 50 years.
My message may be a little strange, but here it is – The American system is a good system that has worked for many decades. It has not failed. What failed is a corrupt presidential administration.

Grant W. Parsons • TC

Music Rock out for a good cause Sunday, Oct. 5 at a benefit concert to help the drought-stricken farmers of the tiny African nation of Lesotho.
This fall, Leelanau County musician and landscaper Chris Skellenger is preparing to return to Lesotho to carry on with an irrigation project designed to help subsistence farmers. But, it’s an expensive undertaking and he needs roughly $20,000 to make it happen.
The second annual Gardens for Africa concert will be helf at the InsideOut Gallery to help raise these funds; The concert will feature Skellenger’s band, 3 Hr Tour, along with Chris Amidon’s String Quartet and The Dawn Patrol dance-rock band. A silent auction will be held from 4-7p.m.

Letters Supporting Sarah

Here we go – Wayne Erreca and Robert Downes prove Sarah Palin has something going for her and is vice presidential material. At first, reading their vicious attack, I was offended, then I had to chuckle as she really has the Democrats scrambling to cut her down. Way to go Sarah.

Donna Edgerton • Indian River

Republican Doubletalk

I am sick of one political party claiming the title “pro-life,” as if the rest of us are “anti-life.” What about “life” after birth?
What party lied to trick us into a war that has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of God’s children?
What party is so protective of big business and the insurance industry that millions are left with poor coverage or none at all?
What party tells people: “Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps?,” “We’ll give you a hand up, not a hand out?,” then they create business incentives for companies to outsource American jobs to other countries?
What party justifies tax breaks to the wealthy, telling us it’ll create jobs…the money will “trickle down” to us? In reality, they invest in jobs overseas where labor is cheap!
Which party promises tax cuts, never reminding us about our huge debt and enormously expensive war? They don’t tell us they’ll pay for those by cutting social programs such as Social Security and Medicare? What about our crumbling infrastructure?
Which party claims “family values” while members of their party prove repeatedly that their morals are no different than anyone else’s?
Which party has created a climate of greed allowing millions of Americans to lose their homes?
Which party has denied the need for clean, renewable energy (benefiting not only the health of the environment, but human health), because of their connection to the oil industry?
My point is that all life counts! Our future depends on this election. We need to recognize all this kissing up to average, working class Americans for what it is… Republican desperation to get votes! Study the issues. Forget the emotion, gender, race and personalities. Vote on the issues that will impact us and our children’s lives for years to come.

Barbara Bernier • Manistee

Letters Our world standing
As a long-time visitor to Northern Michigan from the United Kingdom, I find visits during election years fascinating. None more so than this one.
Candidates may be ranting on about jobs, the economy, education or security, but presidential elections are also about America’s standing in the world. The last eight years have been a disaster.
It is shocking to see how reviled and ridiculed this country is around the world. That’s not healthy for the U.S. or the planet as a whole.
In a recent BBC poll conducted in 22 countries, Barak Obama was favored by a margin of 4-to-1 to become president. Not only would a McCain presidency smack of business as usual, but in his choice of running mate, the derision has reached new heights.
One can smugly declare that this does not matter since these people have no vote in the elections anyway. But the major issues facing our planet will only be resolved if we all work together to resolve them. And that will not happen if the United States continues to be disliked and mistrusted, let alone a continuous laughing stock.

Alan Deverell • TC

Exxon outrage
I saw a news story about how Exxon had made a record profit, one of their highest yet. We have paid outrageous prices at the pump for them to make this profit.
We have paid higher prices in grocery stores, retail stores, and restaurants so Exxon could make a huge profit. We have paid so they could celebrate their good fortune while record numbers fill local food banks and thousands of people are losing their homes because they can’t make ends meet.
I think it is long past time we stand up and let Exxon know this kind of business practice is not acceptable in America. It is time we stop complaining about gas prices and do something about it
Plan your shopping and work to minimize what time you spend driving, start walking whenever possible, use the bus system, ride a bike, car pool to work... do whatever you can to reduce the amount of gas you buy. Shop stations not owned by Exxon. If enough people follow through with this, it will send a very loud message through reduced profits: that doing business at the expense of the American people doesn’t work!

Peggy Zinn
via email

Music From the South African township of Soweto to the uncharted Gilligan’s Island, there are plenty of surprises percolating at Interlochen Center for the Arts this coming season.
Tickets are currently on sale for the fall-winter lineup, which includes the following:
The season kicks off Friday, September 19 with Trio Globo. An original voice in contemporary acoustic music, this trio of virtuoso musicians – cellist Eugene Friesen (Paul Winter Consort), pianist and master harmonica player Howard Levy (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) and percussionist Glen Velez (Paul Winter Consort) – draw from global folk traditions, jazz, the classics and blues.
Interlochen will offer two performances of the perennial favorite Collage on Thursday and Friday, October 9 and 10. This rapid fire sampler of student performances encompasses music, dance, theatre, creative writing, visual arts and film.

Letters Palin: more of the same
Who is Sarah Palin? Her nomination came like a sniper shot from nowhere, and Republican assurances that their private “due diligence” constitutes investigation is laughable.
The vetting process is crucial when the primary candidate is 72 years old. Their cavalier attitude may be emblematic of another “bums‘ rush” for the White House as conceived by Karl Rove.
Aside from the age and gender differences, I see few moderating distinctions between the Bush administration and this Republican proposal. We know that McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time during the past eight years, an indication of his presidency, but what if Palin outlives him?
President Palin would oppose abortion even in the case of rape or incest; believes that creationism should be taught in schools; does not believe humans affect global warming; actually sued the Bush administration for calling Polar Bears an endangered species; supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000; believes in a “Big Oil First” energy policy; supports the war; and she even received praise from Rush Limbaugh. This is not change.
It’s odd when a candidate touts their religiosity on a platform of “change.” Frankly, I don’t think anything new has come from religion since the Bronze Age. Change is not accepted within the evangelical realm unless it is to “change” someone else back to a 3,000-year-old sense of morality. A world where scientific inquiry was met with torture, where most sexual sins were punished by death, and when children were sold into slavery. A horrific return to the superstitious world where human sacrifice is rationalized into an “expression of love” for the purpose of placating an angry God is recidivism. It is not change.
Will the Alaskan Governor‘s foreign policy simply be big oil‘s wish list? It was. And, this is change?

Tim Wiley • TC

Music Dennos Invites the World to its Stage
Worldbeat, acoustic, blues and jazz sounds are among the offerings at the 2008-09 Milliken Auditorium concert series, which brings back some audience favorites along with several newcomers.
The 14 performances showcase musicians from the Czech Republic, Quebec, Africa, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Louisiana, Los Angeles, Detroit and Traverse City. The Dennos Museum Center is also collaborating with Chamber Music North to bring a series of six chamber music concerts to Milliken Auditorium.

Here’s who’s playing. All concerts begin at 3 p.m.: