Opinion

Get Outta Town!

Every summer, tourists from afar flock Up North to enjoy our abundant Pure Michigan lakes, forests, and towns

By Tom Rockne | July 21, 2018

  Minneapolis/St. Paul   Prince fans might want to make their first stop in downtown Minneapolis at the corner of First Avenue and Seventh Street. Yes, this old Greyhound bus depot-turned-danceteria, the famed First Avenue, has been rockin’ since 1970. The Revolution, led by Prince Rogers Nelson, headlined here long before he went solo — or changed his name to a symbol and back again. The Replacements, Soul Asylum, and Husker Du also ... Read More >>

A Little Humanity

By Stephen Tuttle | July 14, 2018

The truth is, we've never much liked immigrants. This “nation of immigrants” was skeptical almost from the beginning. And, so far, we've never had a president or Congress able to craft an immigration system that works. George Washington wasn't sure we needed any more immigrants at all. Benjamin Franklin was concerned too many Germans were arriving in the New World. (There was already a different kind of immigration occurring in parts of ... Read More >>

The View from Moscow

By Jack Segal | July 14, 2018

The first Putin-Trump Summit on July 16, coming on the heels of a NATO Summit, has a deep historical foundation dating long before President Trump’s tenure. For Vladimir Putin, the build-up to this summit began in East Germany, where he served as a KGB operative during the collapse of the Soviet empire. On June 12, 1987, President Reagan gave his historic — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall …” — speech. By ... Read More >>

Bizarre and Unnecessary

By Stephen Tuttle | July 7, 2018

Why does he keep doing it?  Why does a president who seems to be winning keep exaggerating and lying? It is bizarre and completely unnecessary. One theory suggests it's all part of some diabolical strategy to benumb the public to the horrors yet to come. Another claims he actually believes the nonsensical things he says. Yet a third says he's trying to appeal to his base. It's not as if there isn't ... Read More >>

“We Really Ought to do Something About This.”

By Christie Minervini | July 7, 2018

2011 was a tough year for me, both professionally and personally. I had purchased a gallery in downtown Traverse City two years prior and was struggling to save it while my marriage was deteriorating. As a result, I was pretty self-absorbed and unpleasant to be around. One morning, as I was unlocking the front door of my gallery, I woke a couple of men who were sleeping on the patio benches behind ... Read More >>

Is Intolerance Crushing Academic Openness?

By Rev. Dr. William C. Myers and Scott Blair | July 7, 2018

Scott’s Statement There have always been people concerned that teaching institutions, cauldrons where minds are brewed, might be spiked with unwholesome ingredients. (In 399 BC, the teacher Socrates was convicted of impiety and corruption of youth.) Nowadays, there are college activists coached in finding, provoking, or fabricating situations that can be held up in partisan media as evidence that their enemies are poisoning academia. In my college days, I had Christian friends ... Read More >>

Drawing the Line on Corruption

By Amy Kerr Hardin | June 30, 2018

  A dedicated group of Michigan activists working to restore the democratic process is under attack through a well-heeled GOP campaign designed to thwart citizen-driven governance. Sketchy maneuvers intended to quash statewide ballot questions in the November election predictably rear their head every two years, with 2018 being no exception. This time around, their scheme is to scuttle a popular vote to end gerrymandering. After the 2010 census, the party in power ... Read More >>

Red and Blue Restaurants

By Stephen Tuttle | June 30, 2018

The Traverse City Film Festival recently announced they would be presenting a lifetime achievement award to Jane Fonda, who will appear at this year's event. The reaction was predictable from all sides; she's been both a movie star and divisive political activist for more than four decades. Calls to rescind the award or even ban her from coming here and speaking popped up online immediately.  We'll get back to Fonda in a ... Read More >>

Coming to a Michigan High School Classroom Near You?

By Mark Pontoni | June 23, 2018

  “Identify the individuals whose principles of laws and government institutions informed the American founding documents, including those of Moses, William Blackstone, John Locke, and Charles de Montesquieu.”  (Texas Social Studies Standard 113.44.c.1.C) “Examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America and guaranteed its free exercise by saying that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," and compare and contrast ... Read More >>

Declare Victory

By Stephen Tuttle | June 16, 2018

Now that we've decided to cozy up to North Korea while alienating our allies, maybe we should be mindful we're still fighting real wars.   You might recall the War that Never Ends in Afghanistan. It started as an effort to remove the Taliban from control of the country because they were murderous thugs who had given aid, comfort, and safe-haven to al Qaida, the perpetrators of 9/11. A relative handful of American ... Read More >>