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Letters To The Editor

Imprinted, accompanied and entrusted

To the Journal eeditor: Every week, standard news cycles and social media algorithms urge us toward outrage, division and seeing those with whom we disagree as adversaries. In our deeply polarized culture, where everyone seems to be shouting and few are listening, we are constantly tempted to reduce our neighbors to political factions, demographics, or voting blocs. As a middle school literature teacher, I begin every lesson with an "I Can" statement—a clear, daily practice my students can carry out the door. Amid today’s political tension, our entire community could benefit from ...

America: Privately-owned or employee-owned?

To the Journal editor: I believe in a free-market capitalist democracy powered by the people, based on protecting everyone’s human rights, and not driven by profit/loss statements or winners/losers. Using a business metaphor, this November the American people will decide if our government becomes privately-owned or remains an employee-owned democracy. One person, one statement doesn’t threaten democracy but I took notice of Binance crypto founder Changpeng Zhao’s interview with David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times. Zhao stated: “Democracy has been hailed as, like, the ...

Politics clouds issue

To the Journal editor: A recent large political postcard reminded me of something I learned many years ago in a statistics course.  The statistic you get depends on the facts you use. The particular postcard was from the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee. It purports to list items where State Rep. Karl Bohnak, R-Deerton, has increased our costs of living. The item that stood out was increasing the Michigan gas tax by 64 percent, hard to believe. But apparently he did vote yes on a bill, in a package of bills, that raised the state gas tax from 31 cents a gallon to 51 ...

Acronyms are important

To the Journal editor: For as long as I can remember, we teachers have used the acronym, HOMES to help kids remember the names of the Great Lakes. If Donald Trump has his way, Lake Ontario will be renamed Lake America and we’ll have a problem because HOMES doesn’t get it. We’ll have to find a new acronym. In how many ways will we let this crass, ego maniacal despot bring shame down upon our country?

Questions posed

To the Journal editor: If U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, ever does answer questions from the people he represents, I hope someone asks him these two: One, do you pledge to honor the results of the November election? And two, does it ever bother your conscience to report the lies, cruelty and corruption of the Trump administration? And, if the questioner has not, by then, gotten ushered out of the building by his security people, we could add, “What is your reaction to learning about military casualties in the Iran war, taking place, as they do, under a commander-in-chief who ...

Which path taken?

To the Journal editor: The political path before us is clear, with two well-defined choices. On the right, we are told that climate change is a hoax. Billions of tax payer dollars are wasted buying our way out of wind contracts. Green energy subsidies are terminated and environmental regulations are viewed as intrusive, burdensome and costly. For the political right, record oil production and historical profits are not enough, our preserved lands are to be exploited and the sovereignty of lands elsewhere violated. If you choose to go left, however, climate change is taken seriously. ...