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Letters to the Editor

Help for federal employees

EDITOR: These are both uncertain and frightening times for those who are employed by the Federal government. We are reaching out to offer our Upper Peninsula Federal community another “tool in their toolbox” as we grapple with daily threats coming from the current administration. We are NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. Since our founding in 1921, the association’s mission has been to protect the integrity of the nonpartisan, merit-based civil service and to defend and advance the earned pay and benefits of America’s civil servants. We are ...

Bergman and DOGE

EDITOR: Congressman Bergman: Can you use your positions in congressional committees to recover money that may have been wasted by Elon Musk under the guise of DOGE? The president created DOGE, without Congressional authority, violating Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress that authority. James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” wrote, “Congress has plenary control over the salary, duties, and even the existence of executive offices.” Are not his actions unlawful? Shouldn’t taxpayers be compensated for any losses he caused? Initially, Musk ...

Insurance logic

EDITOR: So we are losing a local transportation company due to rising insurance costs. The logic escapes me. It’s far better to raise rates and let a business close? Who wins in this situation? Nobody. I use public transportation. Trust me when I say this was a stupid decision by the insurance company. Jodi Carlson Escanaba

Play with language

EDITOR: Regarding the recent letters about the power of loaded words, please, if I may be allowed to cut to the chase. I believe the horror associated with the term “nazi” has been diluted by overuse, directed mostly at Donald Trump and his supporters. Trump’s opponents paint him as a nazi so that any and all attacks against him will seem more justified. I believe more and more people are seeing through all the nonsense. Dana VanEffen believes the term “nazi”, short for national “socialist”, should be applied to capitalists, not socialists, because the nazi’s allowed ...

Delist the wolf

EDITOR: In response to Nancy Warren’s letter entitled “Wolf”. You state that “it is not the role of legislators to delist a species from the Endangered Species Act, but the responsibility of the USFWS”. The USFWS has attempted to delist the wolf in the lake states numerous times using sound scientific management based on population abundance, health, biological indicators and the delisting population recovery goal set at 200 for five consecutive years. Of course, you know this as you were a member of the Michigan Wolf Management Roundtable as a designated representative ...

Socialism

EDITOR: Dana VanEffen’s letter tries hard to separate socialism from Nazism, but her argument falls apart under even basic scrutiny. Yes, the term “Nazi” comes from National Socialist German Workers’ Party. And no, that wasn’t just empty branding. Hitler himself said, “I am a socialist.” The Nazis weren’t capitalists, they believed in strong government control over the economy, wealth redistribution (to their chosen groups), and crushing private enterprise that didn’t serve the state. That’s not capitalism. That’s socialism. mixed with nationalism and racial ...