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Letters to the Editor

Is this a prelude to Nazi-style book burning?

Arrogant extremists threatening to cut funding for the Alpena library (shutting it down) over a few books and planned efforts to cut Alpena County school funding for similar reasons will result in significant harm to the community. Is this just a prelude to Nazi-style book burning? It appears that we are going in that direction. I have reviewed two of the books noted in the newspaper article last weekend. These two are essentially sex education written around that age when they will be learning it in some way. Many topics pertinent to protecting them from exploitation, disease, etc. ...

Morrisons glad for years as your family grocer

Dear Community — In 1954, Bill and Marge Morrison took a chance and moved their young family to Hillman to open up a grocery store. With their then three children in tow, Susan, David, and Rhonda, they started an adventure that lasted nearly 70 years. Children Doug and Beth joined the family in the following years. Over the decades, in what started as a small market, Morrison’s IGA grew and added additional lines of business. One could say that Morrison’s became a community staple, welcoming Hillman families, summer cottage residents, hunters and more. It provided the first job ...

Vote no on library’s property tax proposal

Citizens of Alpena County, we need your input! Our library has voted unanimously to keep books with explicit sex in them in the youth section of our library. Are you aware that any age child, without the knowledge of their parent, can go without restriction into the adult section and read a book? The American Library Association (ALA) in 2022 elected a self-declared Marxist and in their diversity section is an article on how small libraries can groom young children for sex. We asked if our library would at least mark books with graphic sex to alert parents. They refused. ...

Vote yes on library’s property tax proposal

I am writing to the community in support of the Aug. 6 election at which the Alpena County Library is seeking a renewal of the current (not to exceed) 0.7462-mill library millage for 10 years. It is not an expansion; it will not increase your tax bill. It is the base operating money for the entire library system, which yields approximately $842,000 annually and, without it, the library cannot function. Not to be an alarmist, but, without the millage dollars, the library would likely close at the end of the current calendar year. Not opinion, just fact. I love the library, not only for ...

American inaction causing Ukraine to lose

Dear Sirs/Madams: Russia is winning. Five months lost, with no military aid for Ukraine. (May 16, 2024, 9:04 a.m. EDT) Secretary of State Antony Blinken says U.S. rushing ammunition, weapons to Ukraine amid fierce fighting. (May 16, 2024, 10:04 a.m. EDT) Russian President Vladimir Putin says advance of Russian forces in Ukraine is going to plan. Sorry, Ukraine. Just a little too little and a little too late from your most important international ally — the U.S. national GOP. There is no getting back if we lose in Ukraine and possibly losing even more in other parts of ...

Memorial Day has a dark message this year

“War, huh? Yeah … What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”, sung by Edwin Starr in 1968 during the Vietnam War! Revolutionary War, 1776, the War of 1812, the British (again) Indian Wars, Mexican-American War, 1846, Civil War, 1861, Spanish-American War, 1898, World War I, 1914, World War II, 1939, Korean War, 1950, Vietnam War, 1959, Gulf War, 1990, War on Terror (Afghanistan, 2001, Iraq War, 2003). Don’t forget the American interventions: Yemen 2002, Uganda 2011, Somali 2007, Pakistan 2004, Niger 2018. Or acts of unrest at home with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on our ...