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Thanks for the support
Editor:
The Mohawk Park would like to thank all musicians and all who donated: Slim’s Cafe, Mohawk Superette, Bimbo (Sarah Lee) Dollar General (Ahmeek) The Depot (Hubble) and all of the volunteers.
We had a great summer of Music in the Park. We put all proceeds into the park. Thanks for all your support and donations.
LaVerne Kytta, Mohawk Park
Mohawk
Make your voice heard
Editor:
Election season is here! Absentee ballots go out on September 24. Early voting is October 24 through November 1. Important positions are being determined statewide: governor, senator, attorney general, secretary of state, judges, and two ballot proposals. Make sure your voice is heard!
Here in congressional district 1, we will also be deciding on a representative. Do we want to continue with the same one we've had for the past 10 years, Jack Bergman? We have his track record to look at, how has that stood up for us?
There have been no town halls in which we voters can hear and talk to him directly.
He voted YES for the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act that cut $1 trillion from Medicaid--hurting working families, rural hospitals, and nursing homes--as well as cutting subsidies from ACA coverage and slashing funding for Medicare. This tax cut added $4.1 trillion to the deficit while benefiting mostly the wealthy. The cuts to Medicare kick in after this election. Watch out, seniors!
He voted YES for the SAVE Act (twice) that attempted to impose substantial new barriers to eligible voters, including married women who had changed their name (69 million women) and those without a passport (140 million).
He has repeatedly voted NO to limit the president's unauthorized war with Iran, allowing it to continue without congressional approval contrary to the Constitution and costing us $38 billion so far. This past week was the SIXTH time he voted NO. High gas prices and inflation can be directly tied to this war.
He's had a financial and ethical scandal in his own office involving his chief of staff (as reported in the Detroit News May 8, 2026).
Did you know he is 79 years old? It is time for Jack Bergman to retire. Since he won't do it on his own, and he's not doing the job we elected him to do to represent us, let's all help him retire this election.
Debra Carmichael
Oscoda
Does Bergman represent us, or the party
Editor:
The “carpetbagger” label has dogged Rep. Jack Bergman for years, and it sticks for a reason: his record reads less like the First District and more like a national playbook written far from here.
We Yoopers are our own kind of voter. We prize independence and practicality over party loyalty -- fiercely pro-Second Amendment in a place where deer season is a holiday, pro-union from the mines on up, protective of the public land we hunt, fish, and cut wood on, and clear-eyed about how much we rely on Washington for the Great Lakes, our rural hospitals, and the Soo Locks.
Bergman gets some of this right; he reliably backs the VA, which matters in a district with so many veterans. But time and again, when practical Yooper interests and party ideology pull in opposite directions, he chooses ideology. He voted against the 2021 infrastructure law -- legislation that funded broadband for the U.P., cleanup of our abandoned mines, and Great Lakes restoration. Real money for real needs here at home, and he said no.
More recently, he voted for the 2025 reconciliation law that independent hospital groups warn will strip billions in Medicaid from rural hospitals like ours. Strip enough, and the question stops being about coverage rates. It becomes whether there’s an emergency room with the lights on at 2 a.m. next year. In a district that leans on those hospitals as heavily as ours, that vote put party priorities ahead of the people who live here.
His fundraising proves the point: instead of Lake Superior or rural broadband, the appeals run on national culture-war grievance aimed at out-of-state donors.
So I’ll ask my neighbors: are we getting representation that matches who we actually are -- or just an automatic vote for priorities set far from here?
Brendhan Givens
Houghton