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Letters to the Editor

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 ...

Eagle Harbor STR ordinance perspective

To the editor: My family and I have called Eagle Harbor our ancestral home since 1861 when the General Store was founded by our relatives fresh off the boat from Ireland. To this day, I can still walk the streets and name the owners of each cabin, detail its history, and recount stories from the multiple generations that have inhabited the town. Sure we can have our differences and conflicts - as all small communities do - but I know the hearts of the people of this town and I can say without reservation that they come from a place of neighborly love and respect. It is a ...