Opinion

Voter Fraud Claims Mostly a Fraud

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Dec. 8, 2018

Another election, another series of claims of fraud and other shenanigans.  This started in 2016 when we were told “millions” of fraudulent votes had been cast in California, mostly by non-citizens. To be fair, they did find half a dozen attempts by non-citizens to vote, two of whom were in the country illegally. A little weak as scandals go. But the cries of fraud were shrill, especially coming from Kansas Secretary of State ... Read More >>

How Civility Spreads

Guest Column

By Isiah Smith | Dec. 8, 2018

“So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is subject to proof.” — President John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961, inaugural address For the third year in a row, the incidence of reported hate crimes in America grew. Incredibly, in 2017 alone, hate crimes grew by 17 percent. Anti-Jewish crimes rose by more than 37 percent, indicating growing anti-Semitism. The ... Read More >>

Michigan: A Land of Opportunity in the Uncertain Times Ahead

Guest Column

By Gary Howe | Dec. 1, 2018

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, the White House released the National Climate Assessment, a quadrennial report mandated by Congress to be prepared by 13 government agencies on climate science. This report details the coming risks, costs, and interconnected impacts that will cascade through our natural, built and social systems. The 13-agency report is clear that those impacts will be destructive, expensive, and many of them are already here. Its apocalyptic effect is ... Read More >>

How Does it End?

Crossed

By Rev. Dr. William C. Myers and Scott Blair | Dec. 1, 2018

Scott’s StatementWhat a story we are, evolving as bipedal mammals with opposable thumbs, rising to extraordinary biological “success” on the benefits of brains capable of language and cooperation. We are often critical of ourselves as a species — focusing on our violence, selfishness, and reckless deployment of technologies. Grim views of humanity exist because we compare ourselves to visions of what we could be, but we are always resetting the scale. Every ... Read More >>

Plenty of Booze, No Pot

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Nov. 24, 2018

The Traverse City City Commission will be considering a new fee for establishments with liquor licenses. It is, they claim, an effort to offset nearly $300,000 in annual costs associated with alcohol-related incidents. In fact, according to City Manager Marty Colburn, fully half of police activities involve alcohol-related incidents.  How do you suppose such a thing happened? How was it our fair little city became awash in alcohol?   Maybe it's because the City ... Read More >>

Election Hangover

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Nov. 17, 2018

Well, that was sort of interesting. Let's try to make some sense of it.  Locally, there were no big surprises. Republicans we expected to win, did. Traverse City reiterated their opposition to tall buildings downtown; perhaps the City Commission will eventually take notice.   Democrat Betsy Coffia out-campaigned incumbent Republican Dan Lathrop in a Grand Traverse County Commission race. Incumbent Commissioner Tom Mair, who stayed true to his Green Party affiliation, garnered only ... Read More >>

A Family Reunion Gone Very Badly

Guest Column

By Mary Keyes Rogers | Nov. 17, 2018

When it came to my attention that my deadline for this column would coincide with the midterm elections, I figured my rage or joy would fuel my words. Hardly. Election day came, and then it went. Meh. Some wins, some losses. I am happy to see the U.S. House go blue, but I see more wave in Grand Traverse Bay than what went through Washington, D.C. this last week. I’m not feeling too inspired, ... Read More >>

“All persons ... ”

By Stephen Tuttle | Nov. 10, 2018

Well, that was unpleasant, wasn't it? Now that it's over we can go back to the airwaves full of prescription drug commercials.   We should, however, take a few minutes to consider one of the proposals made by President Donald Trump during the campaign. He promised plenty … but none of it could have been accomplished since Congress wasn't even in session. Most interesting was the notion proffered by Trump and other Republicans that ... Read More >>

Trump, Putin, and Xi Ponder Nuclear Strategy

By Jack Segal | Nov. 10, 2018

On October 20, the President announced our withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty after the required six-month warning period. That move could either spell the beginning of an arms race or a sea change in global security.  The INF Treaty banned for the first time an entire category of nuclear-armed weapons.  Such weapons destabilized the nuclear balance when they were installed in Europe in the mid-1970’s, but through negotiation, the ... Read More >>

Running Scared?

Guest Column

By Christie Minervini | Nov. 3, 2018

Earlier this month, six of seven Republican candidates for the Grand Traverse County Commission abruptly pulled out of a public forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Grand Traverse Area (LWVGTA). While they expressed no qualm with the local organizers or their long history of fairness and nonpartisanship, they took issue with League of Women Voters (LWV) National CEO Virginia Kase's civil disobedience surrounding the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Republican Gordie ... Read More >>