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Letters to the Editor

A good demonstration of election integrity

At the Jan. 24 meeting, the Alpena County Board of Commissioners had an opportunity to demonstrate their support for “election integrity”. Unusual employment circumstances restricted sitting commissioner John Kozlowski from campaigning to retain his position. In addition, his employment required him to submit a letter of resignation. Rules have strange anomalies and even with the employment rules restricting his campaign they did allow him to be “appointed”. Mr. Kozlowski was unopposed in the November election and was elected to the office. In parallel with the employment ...

ACC women’s teams need a new nickname

We learn from scanning headlines in a recent edition of The Alpena News that the nickname for the women’s sports teams at the local community college is the Lady Lumberjacks. The Lady Lumberjacks, still in 2023. A woman has been the presidential nominee of one of the two major parties, another woman is Vice President of the United States. Locally, the federal government has forced a name change for The Bay Formerly Known As Sq —, and Michigan has a woman governor and a woman as U.S. Senator, and so on and so on, but the women’s basketball team at Alpena Community College is ...

Julie Riddle did her job quietly and with grace

Having just read what appears to be Julie Riddle’s last column for The Alpena News, I realized our area is losing a graceful and gentle soul. I never really got to know Julie except through her writing in the news. She did her job quietly and with grace. It was seen in her writing and how she did her job. I saw her often at meetings I attended or was part of, in courtrooms, and public events. She usually sat in the back, was never pushy like some expect from the media, and wrote beautifully. She obviously is a person of great faith. I wish I had made the effort to get to know ...

Transparency, correction needed for ACCOA

I have been attending township, city, county and recently Alcona County Commission on Aging meetings for over 10 years. Never in all this time have I experienced the degrading level of combatant behavior of a subgroup as I have with ACCOA in the last five months. This subgroup has always been around submitting their versions of Resolutions to local boards in order to subvert democracy and forward thinking. Thankfully, common sense and a call to duty for all citizens has prevailed until now, especially as witnessed with the overtake, yes I said it, of the ACCOA Board of Directors. I ...

Surprised by reaction to Duck Park cartoon

I am always delighted to see Eric Roorda’s drawings in The Alpena News since anything created locally deserves my attention and appreciation. I was surprised to see the recent Duck Park cartoon was not so well received. It appears that the writer took too deep a dive into what message the cartoon conveyed. The artist was acknowledging the new River Center while simultaneously showing a humorous reaction from the feathered residents near the park. The conversational fowl in the cartoon seemed to be nonchalant about the whole thing and did not appear upset, but rather going with the ...

The Supreme Court got Roe right 50 years ago

Fifty years ago, on Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its landmark 7–2 decision in Roe v. Wade, protecting a person’s constitutional right to choose. This case reaffirmed basic principles of equality, reinforced the fundamental right to privacy, and resolved that people in this country could control their own destinies — making deeply personal decisions free from political interference. For those who celebrate the loss of Americans’ freedom to control their own bodies, I expect them to make sure both parents and children will get everything they need to survive. What I ...