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Letters to the Editor

Kudos to our local firefighters

I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude to the volunteer fire departments in our community for their heroic efforts in saving my home from a devastating fire. Their selfless dedication and swift action undoubtedly prevented what could have been a catastrophic loss. On Friday, March 1, at 5 a.m., I awoke to the house/apartment complex next door on fire. The fire on U.S. 41 in Portage Township engulfed the structure. The flames were close enough to my home to melt the siding, but they put it out in time to save my house, and fortunately no one was injured. In a moment of ...

In protection of the Porkies, Lake Superior

On Feb. 27, over 30 individuals delivered spoken comments to the Michigan Strategic Fund, voicing opposition to a proposed $50 million grant to Copperwood, a foreign company’s plan to open a metallic sulfide mine at the juncture of Lake Superior, Porcupine Mountains State Park and the North Country Trail. Here’s why: The main thing our tax dollars would be paying for is not copper, but waste. With an ore grade of just 1.45%, for every ton of extracted material, 29 pounds would be copper and 1,971 pounds would be waste, requiring on-site storage, forever, in a 323-acre tailings ...

Facts and faith

Keith Raffel’s recent opinion column (“Did too many of them play hooky during history class?”) makes an important point - facts are essential to democracy. Knowledge of history can deepen our patriotism, especially when we learn from the mistakes we have made. We were given a Constitution that allows us to “bring about a more perfect union.” It seems that our love of money has corrupted our school curriculum by putting more emphasis on learning marketable skills than on creating responsible citizens. Some have argued, erroneously, that our country is a Christian nation. ...

Self-immolation is never the answer

It should go without saying – “Nobody should intentionally set themselves on fire”. The death of an active-duty airman who immolated himself on Sunday outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington to protest the civilian deaths in Gaza was a tragedy. One that was repeated many times during the Vietnam war. It started with a Buddhist monk in downtown Saigon (1963). More would follow. The first American was a Quaker, Norman Morrison, in Washington, DC at the Pentagon (1965). At least seven more occurred in the USA. Why? Morrison said that he “was shown” what to do while praying ...

Faith perspective: The deceitful heart

Anyone who advocates listening to his/her heart either has not read the Bible or doesn’t believe God’s Word. Both the Old and New Testaments have much to say regarding the heart. For example, Jeremiah 17:9 warns, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Our concern should not be about WHAT divides people but rather WHO causes the division between humans and God. Satan has been in enmity with God ever since the Garden of Eden. The Bible has given us the answers to all the important questions of life. Our heart is a leaky vessel ...

Aid for Ukraine

After hearing of Alexei Navalny’s death at the hands of Putin, I called Rep. Bergman’s office to ask about Bergman’s stance on aid to Ukraine, but I only got an evasive answer. All our elected officials should loudly and openly proclaim their stance in favor of aid to Ukraine without hiding behind excuses that they need more information, or they fear the money might be wasted, or they can’t do anything because their speaker hasn’t put the bill up for a vote yet, etc. We can’t let Putin continue to kill innocent lives and further destroy the beautiful country of Ukraine. ...