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Letters to the Editor

Thoughts on the cultural divide

When a news organization starts name calling, ask yourself why they’re throwing around words like racist, misogynist, fascist and Nazi? Typically, when someone starts raising their voice, pounding their fist on the table and calls somebody a name, it’s because they don’t have a legitimate counterpoint to make in the debate. It’s the last resort. If they sense their point of view is not strong enough to stand alone, they react to their emotions by disregarding the facts and fall prey to their hatred of the person they disagree with. When Charlie Kirk’s 3-year-old daughter ...

Gladstone K-9 decision lets down residents

The Gladstone City Commission made an offensive decision on Sept. 22 when it allowed K-9 Officer Dylan Nadeau-Enright to bail on his contract 16 months early and threw out the previously agreed-upon stipulation that he would pay back the money for the dog that had been donated by citizens. Knowing full well that he had agreed to stay in Gladstone until four years after his training with the dog was completed, Enright went seeking employment elsewhere. He knew that doing so meant that he would have to pay back $20,000. Enright remarked that he had entered the agreement "in good faith." ...

Calling on Bergman to investigate judge

This letter was sent to U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet: Lawyers from the administration are accused of lying to judges in court. You must investigate and, if necessary, impeach a recently appointed circuit judge. A Department of Justice lawyer was fired after he told a judge the truth about a case he was handling. The April 15, 2025, Wall Street Journal reported that a deputy attorney general suspended Erez Reuveni for not following department orders. Mr. Reuveni said he had been directed to mislead judges in deportation cases. Despite a federal judge’s ruling years ago ...

Proof of citizenship isn’t voter suppression

I appreciate the concerns raised in the recent letter about petitions seeking proof of citizenship to register to vote. Protecting voting rights is absolutely essential, but it is equally important to ensure that elections are fair, secure, and limited to citizens, as our Constitution requires. The letter on Sept. 30 suggests that non-citizen voting is “vanishingly rare.” Even if that is the case, rarity does not mean insignificance. One unlawful vote cancels out the lawful vote of a citizen. Election safeguards are not meant to respond only after widespread problems occur, they ...

Beware of voter suppression petitions

There is a movement afoot to undermine the voter expansion amendments Michigan’s electorate passed in 2018 and 2022. Currently, circulators are trying to gather signatures on petitions which will require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. This is all to solve a problem which does not exist: non-citizens voting. The incident of non-citizens voting is vanishingly rare. About 15 incidents per election in Michigan. These proposed amendments, by contrast, will disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible voters. The circulators are saying, “This just requires that ...

Unions the solution, not the problem

A recent letter attacking unions painted them as relics of the past, extortion rackets that fuel inflation, protect mediocrity and distort our politics. It’s a familiar script, but it doesn’t hold up to reality. Let’s start with the claim that unions “once served a purpose” but are now obsolete. Tell that to the UPS drivers who just won air conditioning in their trucks after decades of sweltering heat, or the nurses fighting for safe staffing levels in hospitals. Unions are still doing exactly what they were created to do: giving workers a voice where they’d otherwise have ...