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Letters to the Editor

STRs in Eagle Harbor

To the editor: For the past 52 years, I have spent a portion of my summer in Eagle Harbor. My family roots run deep. You can’t walk by a house where I don’t know who lives there or a headstone at Pine Grove that I am most likely related to. I am far from wealthy, and my parents were far from wealthy but knew that they wanted to keep the family tradition of summers in Eagle Harbor alive and saved to buy a cottage there. Eight years ago, when my mom died, my brother and I inherited it. So, it is not hard to follow that I am for the SRT ordinance in the village of Eagle Harbor. ...

A step in the wrong direction

To the editor: If the Keweenaw is to thrive and if we’re going to protect its natural areas, we need a healthy tourist industry. The last thing we need is for townships to tell tourists to go home. That’s exactly what Eagle Harbor is doing with their proposed STR ordinance.  With its tight restrictions, it reflects the attitudes of its wealthy retirees, many of whom summer there for four months of the year and then flee back to warmer locales.  It’s a town frozen in the 1960’s, with almost no economy, other than collecting property taxes.  “We don’t want tourists and ...

Beware fascism

To the editor: Tony Gerstberger’s letter (MG, March 18) is just another right wing Trump-like rant. He warns us of the left’s socialist trends, the usual scare tactic. Political systems are on a continuum from Communism on the far left to Fascism on the far right; we are somewhere in between and we fluctuate back and forth depending who holds political power. We already have many aspects of socialism: Social Security, The Affordable Care Act, Medicare, public schools and colleges, public parks and national parks, police and fire departments, etc.. Gerstberger attacks government ...

Response to several STR letters

To the editor: On March 9, the Gazette published three Letters to the Editor dealing with a proposal to regulate Short-term rentals in Eagle Harbor Township. Challenging as it is to address three letters within the Gazette’s 400-word limit, that the letters have much in common, including writing style, may make it possible. Joe Loehnis, Madison, surprised several retired friends (nurse, teacher, clerk) with his term “wealthy retirees.” He said his family loves visiting the Keweenaw and their visits as tourists drive a sustainable economy. Short-term rentals, he states, are the ...

Robyn Johnson for Houghton City Council

To the editor: I am a wife, mother, engineer, skier, gardener, community volunteer, and lover of the Keweenaw Peninsula. I’m also a candidate for Houghton City Council. I believe in serving my community. I have held volunteer leadership positions at a number of organizations, including the Keweenaw Co-op and the Copper Country Ski Tigers. My love of Houghton has kept my family here for almost two decades, so serving our city directly as a council member was a clear choice. My work at Michigan Tech as an academic advisor, program coordinator, instructor, and currently a business ...

We must fight for freedom

To the editor: During Obama’s presidency I submitted several editorials warning of the Left’s socialist trending policies and the potential impact on our democracy if not curtailed. I provided insights into some of my family’s experiences under Nazi and Soviet occupation in the former Czechoslovakia in the 30s and 40s. Now we are witnessing history repeat itself on our soil with Biden’s policies. Recent government mandates, inflation, attacks on free speech, indoctrination of our youth, complicity with big tech and corporations all designed to undermine the values that made ...