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Letters To The Editor

Two ballot proposals, two different choices

To the Journal editor: In November, Michigan voters will decide on two state ballot proposals. They may sound hard to understand, but both would affect everyday people. Proposal 2026-1 asks voters if Michigan should hold a meeting in 2027 to rewrite the state constitution. Proposal 2026-2 would change campaign finance rules. It would stop some utilities and large government contractors from giving campaign money to officials who make decisions that affect them. It would also make more political ads show who paid for them. Proposal 1 may sound like a fresh start, but it could cost ...

Roadside reassurance

To the Journal Editor: This young deer is now in deer Heaven. He is looking down to say thank you for being by my side when it was time for me to pass on. My husband and I were coming from Marquette when a young dear was hit by a car. My husband went over to the deer and knelt down to see if he was still alive. He was rubbing the deer’s neck and chest and said, “If it’s time to go, I’ll be here with you.” The deer then lifted its head, opened its eyes and looked at my husband. He then laid down his head and took his last breath and passed on.

Keeping kids safe online takes more than law enforcement

As sheriff of Marquette County, I've learned that some of the most devastating crimes don't begin with a knock at the door. They begin with a notification. A message from someone pretending to be another teenager. A social media request that seems harmless. A conversation on a gaming platform. Within days, that contact can turn into manipulation, extortion, exploitation or worse. Our own community has lived this reality. The sextortion scheme that claimed the life of a Marquette teenager was a heartbreaking reminder that online threats are not abstract. They are real, they are evolving ...

House Bill 5536 would deregulate Michigan’s wetlands

To the Journal editor: Michigan House Bill 5536 could deregulate over one million acres of Michigan’s wetlands. Yes, you read that right. Introduced by state Rep. David Martin, R-Grand Blanc earlier this year, HB 5536 has passed the Michigan House of Representatives and now awaits consideration in the Senate Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee. HB 5536 would impose the federal government’s narrow interpretation of the Clean Water Act on Michigan’s wetlands, requiring that wetlands have a direct surface connection to federally-regulated “Waters of the United States” ...

Never forget 9/11

To the Journal editor: Like many Americans, I was devastated by the loss of nearly three thousand lives at the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. I was 17 that day and it felt like the world was ending. In many ways, it did. Our culture, security measures, our opinions on Islam and our very notion of who we were as a nation changed forever. Twenty-five years and two wars later, New York has a proud Muslim mayor and Abdul El-Sayed is a strong front runner for Senate in Michgan. As 42 year old me pondered the meaning of this amid increasingly hateful rhetoric, I ...

Which one sounds like us?

To the Journal editor: Everybody up here knows the drill. You come over a rise in a whiteout and there’s a car nose-down in the ditch. You stop. You pull them out, or you sit with them until somebody with a chain shows up. Nobody asks where they’re from. Nobody sends a bill. Next time it’s your car. They do the same thing at the Soo, across an international border. Sault Ste. Marie has been one town with a line through it since 1817. The two cities keep a fire mutual-aid agreement, renegotiated in 2023. Between 1998 and 2022, firefighters from the Canadian side crossed the bridge ...