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Letters to the Editor

The trouble with sewage lagoons

Greenhouse. What is it? A building, lots of light, moisture (water), plants and soil (mixed with waste or manure). That manure is usually from the farmer’s cow. This gives off gases: hydrogen sulfide (odor), methane (hot burns by the sun), ammonia (burns and kills leaves), carbon dioxide (rock salt), sulfur dioxide (acid rain) and nitrogen oxide (atmospheric pollutant, suspected of greenhouse effect and warming). Held inside the greenhouse building, the plants need some gas, then give off other gas needed by life and the atmosphere. In nature, the rotting of leaves and branches, ...

Defective Resolution

4/11/23 the Houghton County Board of Commissioners passed resolution 23-10 “Affirming Support for All Constitutional Rights, Including, But not limited to, the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Firearms ...” Listing only the 2nd Amendment the resolution is implying that it is the most important component of the Constitution. There is no hierarchical rankings of the federal Constitution’s VII Articles and XXVII Amendments. With regard to the 2nd Amendment being in the public spotlight the resolution mentioned cultural heritage but conveniently did not include the ...

Kiitos from Kivajat

The Kivajat Finnish-American Folk Dancers wish to extend a hearty kiitos - thank you - for the community support of our recent Old Time Country Dance. Oren Tikkanen and the Backroom Boys donated their musical talents while preschoolers to octogenarians, with a vibrant energy from collegiate swing dancers, took to the dance floor at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock. Walmart graciously donated a gift card used for refreshments. The money raised at this event will help the dancers travel to the Portage County Cultural Festival in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, later this ...

Invest in our planet

Happy Earth Day! Should this be a celebration for the Earth or should this be a wake for all species of plants and animals lost due to harmful activities of man (“The Crazy Ape”) as Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel laureate for Medicine said in 1970? In 1969, the year before Earth Day’s first observation, a few tragic events occurred which outraged many to act and do something that was considered “profoundly radical.” In January 1969, a major oil spill happened off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, killing thousands of sea birds (including many loons, one symbol of ...

Letter to the editor: Houghton County resolution is wrong

I’m writing to complain about the Houghton County Board of Commissioners’ Resolution 23-10 “Affirming Support of All Constitutional Rights” that was recently passed by a 4 to 1 vote. The resolution states, as if fact, that gun control laws “conflict” with Second Amendment rights. This is not true. Countless court precedents have already confirmed that gun control laws do not conflict with the U. S. Constitution. Many gun owners themselves favor gun control laws and see no such conflict. For a local governing body to make that claim as if it is an uncontested fact demonstrates ...

Faith perspective: Babies baffle biologists

The Bible teaches that until several centuries after the flood all people on Earth spoke the same language. The fact that many supposedly unrelated languages have similar sounding words with the same or similar meanings supports this teaching. Some language researchers say this is simply due to chance. Now some language researchers say that they have developed another line of research that supports the belief that all humans once spoke the same language. The ability to speak should not be taken lightly. We’re told that 70 different muscles and body parts are required. At a couple ...