Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Friday

March 12, 2010

Letters to the Editor: 03/12/2010

Ridiculously long lights

Living on a fixed income, I find it hard to wait at exceptionally long stop lights in Traverse City, especially when there is no visible traffic to yield to, wasting precious and expensive gasoline, with prices that always go up around Thursday for the weekend, it seems.

I feel as though Traverse City is the Stop Light Capitol of the United States as well. I'm half tempted to commit acts of anarchy by running these lights to save my fuel, and time, when no other traffic is visible to yield to. Is there anybody out there who feels the same as I do? If so, send me an e-mail at mgarno@live.com, and give me your input. I think it's time we, the people, let known our disdain for seemingly fixed gasoline prices, and ridiculously long waits at traffic signals.

Max R. Garno
Traverse City

A troubling message

In recent weeks I have been disappointed with the message that is being sent in our community. First, the ice sculpture of a slot machine with a man holding his pants up was an interesting message. Was the ATM machine nearby an encouragement to just keep playing even if you were losing your pants?

Second, my wife won tickets to the last comedy movie, "Pink Flamingos." Really unaware of the content, it was vulgar and rated X in my opinion. Does the community know that the State was showing such garbage? I guess we should have taken the clue when Michael Moore came in and was the judge for the best Drag Queen contest. This is comedy?

I have nothing against gambling or alternative lifestyle living. I just wonder if these displays depict where our family-oriented vacation community is headed? What happened to the emphasis on outdoor recreation to build local business?

Maybe I just missed the humor and encouragement to visit up north. If so I will stand corrected ...

Gary Vidor
Traverse City

We're all the enemy

On the topic of Mr. Charles Forsythe's March 4 letter, "Take Notice," I must say that I had a chill run through me when he mentioned an Arab American put into the administration and then used the words "never convert them." This rang of the Japanese camps and other genocides of the world. I am sorry Mr. Forsythe is such a hateful-hearted man. It makes me sad to hear such ignorance being spewed in this day and age where we are all mixed in race.

I wonder, would he reject a blood donation if he were in dire need if the person wasn't "American enough" for him? We all have the same blood flow. We cannot separate the human from the soul, we are all made of the same making. There is good and bad in everyone; to conclude that you must distrust a nationality for what their mother country is now doing in this day and age ... well, we all would be the enemy then, would we not?

Maura Boland Ennenga
Traverse City

What are we to do?

Perhaps we could consider ourselves lucky that this recession has forced us to reduce our use of gasoline (and therefore, of oil) because oil supplies are predicted to peak within the next five years.

This prediction comes from oil experts (reported on the internet: peakoiltaskforce.net), and is used by a group of United Kingdom industrialists to prepare for their energy security. A peak in oil, followed by a decline in supply. That decline will cause all prices to rise. Are we ready for that?

Substitutes for oil energy are being developed, but current fluctuations in oil prices have delayed their coming on line. If we were to revert to coal-fired power plants entirely ("clean coal" is a hoax) then we would be hastening up a different problem (due to the carbon-dioxide emissions from coal power plants, we'd get the climate change it aggravates).

So, what are we to do?

Marian Gyr
Empire

Locks must be closed

As a life-long resident of this beautiful, one-of-a-kind state of Michigan, and as a concerned outdoorsman, I have to insist that the Great Lakes need our active protection. Should Asian carp be allowed to enter Lake Michigan through the Chicago locks, the effect on the environment and the economies of the Great Lakes could be devastating.

The Chicago locks need to be closed immediately and a truly workable permanent solution to the Asian Carp problem produced.

Should the Asian Carp invade Lake Michigan, the damage could take decades to rectify, at a time when our fragile environments and economies are already stressed. We cannot afford to gamble with our treasured Great Lakes or with our economy. The locks must be closed now. With sincerest concern for our shared and priceless Great Lakes,

William Farmer
Manchester

The writer is a property owner in Elk Rapids.

Better than lip service

I am distressed at our Republican members of Congress and their 100 percent negative attitude. They seem bent upon shutting down every effort for improvement.

It is a shame that this party has declared that their sole objective is the destruction of the Obama administration. I believe that we citizens have to help our government reach the goals that we elected them to accomplish. We should take a close look at people running for office this November, decide which can function as a constructive and positive member of Congress and vote for them, regardless of party.

We do not need people who relate to special interest groups, racist organizations, or lackeys of one industry or another. We need people who can work hard as a team in the best interests of the vast majority of us citizens and carry out the programs that we have supported.

People who simply are blocking progress towards that goal should be voted out. I think that we should table all watered-down bills that cannot do better than lip service toward improvement. We should re-introduce real improvements and pass them when we have the votes after the next election.

Kenneth Hurlin
Glen Arbor

Trees still standing

Let's just call biomass what it is: trees. I live in Cadillac, where we have a biomass plant which burns 24 semi-truck loads of wood chips per day, sometimes peaking at two per hour.

We had a red pine tree border in our neighborhood which provided an excellent break along the road. It filled half of one semi when my neighbor had it chipped. Shortly after our plant went on line, the plant petitioned to burn tires (cheap hot fuel) and we fought that for six months.

Cadillac is now smarter. We have nine windmills harvesting enough wind to power 10,000 houses. All clean and the trees are still standing, cleaning our air of CO2.

Bruce Loper
Cadillac

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