Letters

The legacy of 9/11

9/11/2001 was a crime, not an act of war. Four women from New Jersey, whose spouses had been killed in the Twin Towers, forced an investigation. Those in power fought the concept, and then stacked the Commission on 9/11 so that the toughest questions would not be asked...

Letters The smoky blues...
I hate the smoking ban. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. I love smoking. I
love smoking after I eat, and I love smoking while I drink. For most
smokers, smoking after meals and while drinking are 2 of the 3 best times
to have a cigarette (smoking after sex will always be #1, but it’s a close
race). The smoking ban in bars needs to go, soon, or we will suffer a fate
worse than cancer, emphysema, stained teeth and bad breath combined. A
fate that no amount of legislation, money, or self help books will ever
fix. What is this horrible fate?
American bars will be lame.
Yep, that’s right. Lame. A longtime bar-hopper myself, I took the smoking
ban personally and exiled myself from the scene. I know where my money’s
not wanted. Months went by before I ventured back, and when I did, I
didn’t like who and what I saw. Non-smokers. Whole families of ’em,
sitting there, not smoking, clearly visible. It was then that I realized
that there is a fundamental difference between smokers and non-smokers:
Non-smokers are lame. They’re good people, but just lame, and therefore
should be banned from bars. Why?
They won’t put a hot stick of flaming tobacco in their mouth.
Invariably, people who defy death are more interesting than others. Doing
something that is dangerous, that has a level of unpredictability, is
interesting. Dangerous=interesting. Smoking=dangerous.
Smokers=interesting. Smoking automatically makes you interesting.
Dangerous. And unpredictable. Add a little alcohol and bad judgment and
you now have a recipe for a good time. While I have witnessed many
non-smokers trying to recreate this level of good time, it always seems to
come out like cable porn. All soft jazz, scripted, and no money shot.
Bars used to be the last bastion of debauchery and depravity, where
society allowed and tolerated ‘getting loose’. When you walked into a
bar, you never knew where the night was going to take you. Anything
could, and did, happen. Bars were loud, smelly, and dangerous. Only
ne’er-do-wells would remain after happy hour, lighting another cigarette,
dreading the eventual last call.
Now, bars are filled with PG movie-loving, designated-driver-having, “I
wear a helmet Rollerblading” non-smoking lame-O’s that brought us such
joys as the Parental Advisory warning. And that’s not cool.
I lament the loss of our cultural coolness that accompanies the smoking
ban. No more meet-cutes that start with ‘I saw her across a smoky bar’.
No more lighting a lady‘s cigarette as an icebreaker. James Dean
wanna-bes’ will have to be content to lean against the bar, posing, with a
ringing cell phone rolled up in their sleeve. Smoking in the boy’s room
will now land you in jail. The Marlboro Man has left flavor country, his
miles no longer redeemable. There are no more places in America were
everybody is welcome anymore.
Please bring back smoking in bars, now, before I lose my cool.

Joe Ferraro • via email

Letters The Moon Over Arcadia
Did you see the moon over Arcadia last night?
Alone in the evening sky
Luminescent over the earth
Full and round, a perfect orb?

Did you see the moon last night?
Starting low, climbing high
More than a pearl, less than a planet,
Glazed with tangerine glow
First in the company of sunset,
Then blazing stars?

Did you see the moon last night?
Lighting the journey to dawn,
Slipping low, glistening golden
Saying goodnight to our good morning?

I hope you can see the moon on future nights-
That it won’t be lost in competition
With batteries of blinking Industrial turbine lights,
Constructed high in the sky
With random abandon.

I hope in the future,
The moon which
Mariner’s sail by,
Lovers swear by,
Poets write by,
And astrologers plan by
Is still eminently visible,
As the sole bearer of light in darkened skies.

I hope as the new moon rests, biding its time,
Making us appreciate its source and power,
That we look to the blank heavens
As testament to its glorious cyclical illumination.

I hope, both now and in the future,
That the moon is always rising,
Alone, bright, and beautiful, over the
Pleasant valley we call Arcadia.

Connie Macek • Arcadia

Letters Mandatory vaccine?
I was at a presentation by Mary Tocco who has been researching and
lecturing on vaccines for about 30 years. As a chiropractor, my
interest was to gain perspective to be able to answer questions from
Munson Medical Center employees who are being mandated to receive the
flu shot this year or lose their jobs (I believe this also applies to
volunteers).
Many of the employees who were there that night feel their rights to
choose what they put into their bodies are being violated. Especially,
because some of the adjuvants in the vaccine have been shown to be at
toxic levels. Her presentation showed evidence-based research
questioning the safety of the flu vaccine.
In addition, before you get the flu shot, reflect on this. Research by
Hugh Fudenberg, MD, a leading immunogeneticist and an often quoted
biologist (nearly 850 papers in peer review journals): If an individual
has had 5 consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980 (the years
studied) his/her chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease is 10 times
higher than if he/she had one, 2 or no shots. Dr. Fudenberg said it was
due to mercury and aluminum that is in every flu shot. The gradual
mercury and aluminum buildup in the brain causes cognitive dysfunction.
What are they thinking mandating this?
My big question is, where will this all end? Will entering patients
also be required to get vaccinated before treatment in the hospital?
What other vaccines will be mandated? Will other companies follow? Are
civil rights being violated?


Dr. Greg Chappell • TC

Letters The real deficit
We have a “democracy deficit disorder” in our country. Here’s the evidence:

• Endless wars;
• Constant campaigning and lobbying;
• Debased public discussion;
• Corporate spin replacing investigative journalism;
• An economy built on debt and military spending;
• Fear mongering against anyone who doesn’t look or talk like us, or has a
different lifestyle;
• Protecting wealthy corporations at the expense of the public good;
• Subsidizing companies that don’t need it;
• Free market fantasy that sends our job overseas;
• Exporting jobs to countries that pay slave wages and degrade the
environment;
• Privatizing the commons (water and public lands);
• Attacking public education and unions;
• Allowing the powerful and wealthy to write our laws;
• Ignoring climate change that is affecting the lives of all peoples;

Being a citizen requires more than voting; it requires questioning and
being skeptical. It means digging deeper and thinking critically. Whatever
happened to informed, thoughtful, in-depth discussion without rancor and
insults?
There is much to be done to build resilience for changes already happening.
It is time to stop allowing pundits and politicians to steer our future.
We are all responsible. The destiny of the earth is in our hands.

Ann Rogers • TC

Music Interlochen looks ahead to Fall
With summer halfway over, Interlochen Center for the Arts has announced
its fall/winter schedule, a blend of music, dance and theater.
Here’s what to expect between September and May:

Guster • September 2 • Kresge Auditorium
Offering indie pop; now in its 15th year, the band is a perennial favorite
with the 20-something set.

Region Watch Group accuses CMU of keeping a lid on survey of controversial wind project
By Patrick Sullivan
A citizens group opposed to a wind farm in Benzie and Manistee counties
says Central Michigan University (CMU) is keeping documents related to the
project from public view.
An attorney for Arcadia Wind Study Group filed a lawsuit last week that
seeks to force CMU to release hundreds of pages of documents.
CMU and Duke Energy entered into an agreement on March 1 to undertake a
study called “Township Views of Alternative Energy and Wind Farms.”
Duke agreed to pay CMU $21,581 for the work.

Letters Scumbags of the North
Here’s to you, the filth of the north. You know who you are. The
unattended roadside fruit and vegetable stand thieves.
You pathetic cowards. How dare you vultures pillage from such trustworthy
people? What possesses you to snatch up an entire stand’s inventory
without leaving a single penny? I hope you do it to provide for your
family because you economically can’t afford to put food on the table.
How do you sleep at night? Do you toss and turn and wonder why? If some of
you are the unfortunate ones who have been stricken by this dismal economy
then I’ll spare you some regret. But, no matter how bad you think you have
it, I’m sure almost all of these farmers have it worse.
Do you have any idea what farmers have to go through, how much they have
to sacrifice, in order to produce any kind of profit? Maybe you should
visit one of the many local farmers’ markets held throughout the region
and inquire.
If you have any conscience at all I’m sure you’ll realize the mistake
you’ve made by depriving these farmers’ families an opportunity to earn
some kind of coin to support themselves. Hopefully, you’ll drive back to
the very stand (s) you stole from, beg for forgiveness and pay the hard
working, trusting people who unselfishly devout their whole entire lives
into producing food to nourish our communities, twice the amount of what
you so apathetically looted. And if you don’t, well I wish there will come
a day after you’ve spent weeks upon weeks suffering on your death bed and
at that very moment you’ll ponder your miserable existence and ask, “Why
me?”
And just then a montage of all the incomprehensible events that you’ve
per-formed in your spineless life will flash before you. Only to be
followed by you flatlining into the gates of hell allowing you all of
eternity to decipher if stealing from these farmers was an ethical
decision or not. After all, as bad as it seems at this point, it might
not be too late to redeem yourself.
...Or, you can just DO THE RIGHT THING!!!!
For whatever reason you have done this despicable act, just remember this.
The only thing we truly can control in life is our own conscience. There’s
no one else to blame but ourselves.

M.B. McGee • TC

Letters Scumbags of the North
Here’s to you, the filth of the north. You know who you are. The
unattended roadside fruit and vegetable stand thieves.
You pathetic cowards. How dare you vultures pillage from such trustworthy
people? What possesses you to snatch up an entire stand’s inventory
without leaving a single penny? I hope you do it to provide for your
family because you economically can’t afford to put food on the table.
How do you sleep at night? Do you toss and turn and wonder why? If some of
you are the unfortunate ones who have been stricken by this dismal economy
then I’ll spare you some regret. But, no matter how bad you think you have
it, I’m sure almost all of these farmers have it worse.
Do you have any idea what farmers have to go through, how much they have
to sacrifice, in order to produce any kind of profit? Maybe you should
visit one of the many local farmers’ markets held throughout the region
and inquire.
If you have any conscience at all I’m sure you’ll realize the mistake
you’ve made by depriving these farmers’ families an opportunity to earn
some kind of coin to support themselves. Hopefully, you’ll drive back to
the very stand (s) you stole from, beg for forgiveness and pay the hard
working, trusting people who unselfishly devout their whole entire lives
into producing food to nourish our communities, twice the amount of what
you so apathetically looted. And if you don’t, well I wish there will come
a day after you’ve spent weeks upon weeks suffering on your death bed and
at that very moment you’ll ponder your miserable existence and ask, “Why
me?”
And just then a montage of all the incomprehensible events that you’ve
per-formed in your spineless life will flash before you. Only to be
followed by you flatlining into the gates of hell allowing you all of
eternity to decipher if stealing from these farmers was an ethical
decision or not. After all, as bad as it seems at this point, it might
not be too late to redeem yourself.
...Or, you can just DO THE RIGHT THING!!!!
For whatever reason you have done this despicable act, just remember this.
The only thing we truly can control in life is our own conscience. There’s
no one else to blame but ourselves.

M.B. McGee • TC

Letters Remembering Reuther
I retired from the UAW Legal Department in Detroit in November, 1999. I
was hired in May, 1970 and started work there the first day after Walter
Reuther’s death in the Pellston plane crash. I was on his office calendar
as the first appointment had he returned. Patrick Sullivan’s story, “A
Plane Mystery” about Sasha Reuther’s documentary “Brothers on the Line”
brings back many memories. How lucky for me to have spent my working life
fighting for our real American heroes—the working class.
The Reuthers made the UAW into the finest, most progressive labor union.
The UAW helped build the middle class in the ’50s, was instrumental in
helping the civil rights movement and was one of the first institutions to
oppose the Vietnam war. The basic principles of working life that we now
take for granted were championed by the UAW.
Walter Reuther was honored by George Romney with the title of “the most
dangerous man in America”. His successor, Leonard Woodcock (our first
ambassador to China) was #9 on Nixon’s famous enemies list with the words
“No comments necessary!” The next president, Doug Fraser, was perhaps the
greatest man I have ever had the pleasure to work with.
All of these great people were dedicated to a simple principle – that
working men and women were entitled to some say in their terms and
conditions of employment and the dignity and self-respect that came with
representation.
The working class and union membership is once again under attack by the
right-wing nuts. Every totalitarian movement has made labor unions their
first target. Fortunately, as long as we have freedom and democracy,
workers will naturally seek democratic rights at their workplace. May
there always be a UAW.

Leonard Page • Cheboygan

Region Watch Things are generally pretty quiet at the Old Mission House, which reflects
on 169 years of history, dating back to the earliest days of white
settlement in the Grand Traverse area.

Letters Invasive species & slime
The green slime found along the shoreline of the Great Lakes is indeed a
turnoff (re: Terry Hunley’s July 11 letter).
Communities, industries, and governments made impressive strides in
addressing the problems found in the lakes over 40 years ago. Cities, from
Manistee to Detroit, reduced phosphorus levels in their treated
wastewaters. Local watershed groups worked closely with Michigan’s
Department of Environmental Quality to establish long range watershed
protection plans for virtually every significant watershed in Michigan.
These plans set forth cooperative methods to directly deal with all
sources of nutrients which can foul the Great Lakes. State and Federal
agricultural agencies have worked diligently with farmers to promote soil
testing and to exclude livestock from our waterways.
The lack of controls over the introduction of invasive species remains the
significant unaddressed issue related to nutrients in the Great Lakes. The
first wave of polluters were the zebra mussels. They provided both food
and habitat for the green slimes (chladophora, a filamentous, attached
algae). Now quagga mussels appear to have supplanted the zebra mussels,
again providing the same conditions which promote the slime growth.
When the algae starts to die off it floats to the surface and collects
upon the shoreline.
The Great Lakes shipping industry successfully fought off appropriate
regulations as they continued to import nearly 200 invasive species.
There may not be as many concrete actions that can be taken to reverse
this unfortunate situation. A new, and not necessarily pleasant,
ecological balance will settle into the lakes.
In the meantime, the cities and industries will continue to remove
significant amounts of phosphorus from their treated waters. State and
federal agencies will continue their oversight. And the lakes will
continue to respond to the presence of nearly 200 invasive species brought
to them from around the world.

Mike Stifler • Cadillac

Features Remember this poem from your school days? “For the want of a nail, a shoe
was lost/ For the want of a shoe, a horse was lost/ For the want of a
horse, a rider was lost/ For the want of a rider, a message was lost/ For
the want of a message, a battle was lost/ For the want of a battle, a
country was lost/ For the want of a nail.”

Features Remember this poem from your school days? “For the want of a nail, a shoe
was lost/ For the want of a shoe, a horse was lost/ For the want of a
horse, a rider was lost/ For the want of a rider, a message was lost/ For
the want of a message, a battle was lost/ For the want of a battle, a
country was lost/ For the want of a nail.”

Letters Attack on the poor
Cutting funds to Medicaid per the GOP budget proposal is morally wrong. As
a former Eligibility Specialist with DHS I know firsthand how few
low-income persons even qualify for Medicaid. Since my case-load was
primarily adults-only, I found I was denying more Medicaid applications
than those I approved.
Back in 2004 Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox TV host Bill O’Reilly
that there is Medicaid for poor persons, thus no need for a national
health plan. I practically screamed at the T.V. “ONLY SOME POOR CAN GET
MEDICAID!”
To Medicaid recipients and those denied and those on ridiculously high
deductibles (formerly known as “spend-downs”), you need to call or write
Rep. Benishek and tell him your individual stories.
To Rep. Benishek, let me give you a brief summary of Michigan Medicaid
policy. Medicaid consists of over a dozen different programs. The first
thing we look at is: Citizenship...... then the really big hurdle: one
must be either under 22, 65 or older, pregnant, disabled, or parents of
minors. This excludes a huge proportion of persons. It doesn’t matter if
an applicant is penniless and without a job. He or she must first meet a
non-financial element, period.
Also worth noting, for adults who are disabled, have minor children or are
65 and older, there is a Medicaid program that entails deductibles. In far
too many cases, the figure is UNAFFORDABLE.
This attack on the poor and working class is a disgrace. It is time to end
the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest persons. The largest cause of our
current budget deficit is due to these tax cuts, and that is a fact! It is
immoral to reduce food benefits, Medicaid, Head-start, W.I.C. program,
Planned Parenthood and other programs that address the need of those
struggling in order to enrich the wealthiest.
It’s time to get our priorities straight! Do not reduce Medicaid funding.