Letters 10/26/06

Oct. 25, 2006

The Gay Old Party
Maybe something good will come out of the Mark Foley scandal. Many gay Republicans in positions of power are “coming out,” and it’s about time. Tom Foley is a creep, and he would be a creep if he were after young girls, or young boys. It wasn’t the high ranking gays that protected Foley, it was old pigs like House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Shame on the gays and lesbians in Washington that let this administration, and people like Karl Rove (who was raised by his adopted father, who was openly gay) play the gay bashing card every election year, trying to please the far religious right. How can people like Israel Hernandez, a former Bush aide and current Commerce Department official, Steve Herbits, consultant to Don Rumsfield, and Dr. Mark Dybul who was sworn into office at the State Department last week, with his partner holding the Bible, stand by and let this administration demonize same sex marriage each election year so they can get votes from groups that oppose gay rights of any kind?
Hopefully, this will make life easier for gay people in Washington, and will show the people just how deceitful this administration is, and just how far they will go to win elections. Vote Democratic........

S. Kay Rose • Empire

Hunters take a stand
Contrary to Howard Parker’s (Sept. 28) and Dennis Palmer’s (Oct. 5) letters on the dove referendum, there are a large number of hunters who are opposed to shooting doves and DID sign the petition. I know for a fact since I am a volunteer who collected over 1,200 signatures in the area. I had so many hunters tell me that they thought this was ridiculous and were educated enough to know that this referendum is ONLY about the doves, not about ending all hunting throughout the state. I now wish I had kept a tally on all the people who had told me that they were hunters, because it was certainly overwhelming to me.
Doves are shot for target practice, not food. Many of the birds are crippled and never found. Most hunters don’t even attempt to retrieve them. This practice certainly isn’t hunting. The birds are lured to fields so that shooters can effortlessly pick them off.
Allowing dove shooting in the state would bring in no additional revenue. That claim is ridiculous. Taxpayers would actually be stuck with the burden of paying for this shoot – instead of giving their money to other worthy causes.
Thank you Northern Express for getting it right. Dove shooting proponents are spreading misleading information in order to spread their agenda from state to state. Please uphold Michigan’s tradition and values by voting NO on Proposal 3.
“...and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove.” Luke 3:22

Michele Lonoconus, volunteer, Keep Doves Protected
Thompsonville

Say no to shooting doves
Thank you for dispelling the myths about the proposed mourning dove shooting season that are perpetuated by the out-of-state extremists attempting to overturn Michigan’s long standing tradition of protecting mourning doves (“Doves in the Crosshairs,” September 21).
Shooting doves is not a Michigan value and has been rightfully banned for 100 years.
Mourning doves mate for life and raise their young together. Those babies could be orphaned in their nests, as doves are still nesting when the shooting season would begin. They live a surprisingly long time - that is, if they don’t end up as live targets first. After all, they’re the state’s symbol of peace.
A dove shooting season would bring no economic benefit to the state. For the taxpayers who will pay for the shooting season, it will mean diverting funds from our already tight state budget from other things like health care, education or job creation.
It’s about time the citizens of Michigan were allowed to voice their opinions. On November 7, along with the majority of Michigan hunters, humane organizations, faith based groups and Audubon societies, let’s stand up for our tradition of protecting our doves.
Vote NO on Proposal 3.

Carol K. Hobbs • Charlevoix

Stabbing justice
“Imprisoned... Forever” by Anne Stanton was one of the most important articles the Express has ever published (10/12). The article outlined the tragic case of a Guantanamo detainee, Abdul Al-Ghizzawi, captured in Afghanistan by opportunistic bounty hunters.
For regular viewers of Democracy Now, the case is hardly unique. The absurdities and injustices of Bush’s “War on Terror” have been repeatedly demonstrated on the show with cases such as those of Abu Omar or Khaled El-Masri. These cases, and Stanton’s article, all show how the Bush administration has abandoned both America’s values and Constitution.
Most importantly, however, Stanton’s article demonstrates why honest Michigan Democrats can’t vote to reelect Senator Stabenow. Democrats that believe that their party stands for civil justice, can’t support a candidate who doesn’t stand for habeas corpus. Senator Stabenow took an oath to uphold the Constitution. She has violated that oath. There is a term for those that betray the Constitution. Conservative pundits like O’Reilly and Coulter scream the term liberally: Treason.

Matt Malpass • East Jordan

Misguided GR Press
The Grand Rapids Press endorsed Dick DeVos for governor of Michigan.
I’m sure they felt pressure to do so since DeVos is one of their own. The Press would not be so misguided that they would want to go back to the climate of “the good ol boys” that we were subjected to during the Engler years.
Or maybe they meant to endorse him. I lived in Grand Rapids for 25 years. Let’s see--a community of Republican conservatives that also endorses Bush and all of his cronies, the stifling climate of the Christian Right that is obsessed with abortion and gay issues, evolution, and opposed to stem cell research. Then there are those wealthy Republicans who want to keep the status quo in spite of the fact that the gap between the rich and poor has become wider and wider. What’s that expression: “stay the course”?
Any intelligent person who knows the real reasons for the depressed economy of Michigan and Jennifer Granholm’s record would never vote for Dick DeVos. I love the state of Michigan, and anyone who cares about Michigan will re-elect Jennifer Granholm for governor of Michigan.

Susan Wheadon • Cedar

Womens‘ rights issue
Proposal 2 would ban affirmative action and equal-opportunity programs for women and minorities. Both Republican and Democratic office holders and candidates, and more than 100 Michigan organizations, including religious groups, business and labor leaders, and chambers of commerce oppose Proposal 2.
Michigan women earn only 67 cents for every dollar men earn, are given lower-paying jobs, and often are passed over for managerial positions. They are severely underrepresented in “male” occupations, from engineering to carpentry. Proposal 2 would eliminate state programs that encourage girls and women to enter nontraditional occupations.
Join me in voting “NO” on Proposal 2.

Sue Miller • Empire
Bad manners
In regard to the October 11 article from food critic Rick Coates, I would like to add my kudos to the wait and kitchen staff of the Cedar Rustic Inn.
Having worked as a waitress and a manager in a number of establishments, I know first hand the sensation of being dead tired after an eight-hour shift. To have aching feet, a sore back, a mind full of preoccupations about family and pets left at home and then, minutes away from closing time, to have customers darken the doorway; that weary, sinking feeling is not one soon forgotten.
That the employees of Cedar Rustic Inn maintained professionalism by displaying courtesy and efficiency at the 11th hour is commendable. That Mr. Coates is a self-admitted perpetrator of closing-time patronage calls into question his good judgment, not to mention his manners. He states: “Too often I have been to a restaurant at closing time to find myself being rushed by staff sweeping and vacuuming.”
Why then I wonder, wouldn’t one choose to eat at a more regular hour? It is unfair and unkind to expect the best of the best after hours. That Mr. Coates and his party were the only ones in the Cedar Rustic Inn after 10 p.m. on Labor Day weekend should have been a clue. The rest of the world seemed to realize the staff deserved a break after a busy holiday. But no, the critic’s party lingered over after-dinner coffee, appreciating the fine service and savoring the remnants of pot roast “probably better than Grandma’s.”
Next time Mr. Coates should consider showing up at his grandmother’s for dinner at 10. I bet she’d set him straight.

Abby C. Mortensen • TC
The plot thickens...
I am writing in regards to Brendon Baillod’s “Evidence of a Hoax” piece (10/19).
I wonder what he considers “considerable time researching” as he doesn’t even know that his guess of a hoax by “an Air Force employee at Wurtsmith Air Force Base” can certainly be ruled out by the fact that Wurtsmith Air Force Base has been closed for some time now.
Tim Galligan • via email

Furthermore...
Republicans should control Congress after the elections because...
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Jones • TC

Can‘t force beliefs
I don’t want to fight for anything that can’t get here in the back of a pick up truck. We are not the moral police of the world. We cannot shove our beliefs down the throats of others with force. We could lead by example but we choose not to.
We have sick and starving people here but they go unnoticed and ignored. We have devastated cities and they are not rebuilt and that does not just mean New Orleans. We have people that would rather collect welfare and unemployment than have a job, and we as a nation let them.
Our jails are overcrowded with our young, and they receive no guidance. Once they have been there they can’t get a good job, because we are so unforgiving, so they go back. Teachers are given no respect or decent pay yet there are those that can’t read everywhere even in collage (sic).
We allow our government leaders to lead us down the garden path time and time again. We elect them to office as blindly as the sheep they take us for. I can only hope that the sleeping giant, the silent majority, the great people of this nation, will awaken and correct these problems before it’s too late.

Michael H. MacCready • Manton

Made the switch
I was a Republican, but no more! The GOP has been taken over by neocons, and they have made a mess! The lack of integrity and neocon agenda on the local, state and national levels is appalling:
• Preemptive war in Iraq.
• Largest deficits ever.
• Largest and most intrusive government
in history.
• Worsened homeland security.
• Corruption from Delay to Foley to
Jason Allen.
We need honest, transparent government. Replace “good old boys” Elsenheimer and Allen with Democrats Tom Hay Bauer and Sharon Unger. Jennifer Granholm is moving us forward; DeVos is Mr. Neocon. Debbie Stabenow fights for the people. Republicans, think! Vote Democratic!

Donna Klinefelter • Kewadin

Correction
Thanks to reader Tom Pixley for reminding us that The Grande Ballroom was located on Grand River and Beverly (hence the “Grande”), and not on Michigan Ave. as stated in the 10.12 article, “Detroit, Rock City.“