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Letters to the Editor

Too blind to see it’s morning in America

After four months in Florida, I returned to Alpena and found the same rantings of Trump-hating individuals, writing letters to the editor. One person whom I will call D.N. wrote (Trump’s four years of insanity) about all of the so-called misdeeds of our president. Most of those are the same tired talking points of the left-wing media. You are lucky, D.N., that this is a small-town paper, because if it were a mainstream news outlet, you may be looking at liable charges, what a parrot! Next, we have D.T. (Will we exist only in flames after four years), who likened Trump to a conductor ...

Protect child care and Head Start at all costs

The U.S. Congress must reject President Donald Trump’s plans to make disastrous cuts to child care and eliminate Head Start! We have witnessed a barrage of attacks on child care and Head Start by President Trump and his administration since he took office. Most recently, leaked details of Trump’s Presidential Budget revealed his reckless plans to eliminate Head Start, threatening to rip child care from over 770,000 children across our country. This, along with the Trump administration’s closure of Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) offices serving child care ...

This is the 21st century, and youth are DEI

Historical May days: Nazi Germany surrenders WWII May 7, 1945; Brown vs. Board of Education May 17, 1954, International Day for Biological Diversity May 22, 1993, and of course a mirriad of everyday fun things that Americans love to celebrate: Mother’s Day! We celebrate these ways of life and make memorable those times of strife because we are free to do so. Recent turmoil in the government is showing continual overreach by the newly elected administration. We all know the Constitution of the United States of America, learned it in public schools, practice it in life, and have ...

Proposed bathroom policy isn’t about privacy

To the Editor, At a time when Alpena High School students are asking for real leadership — to raise test scores and improve their education — certain members of the APS Board are instead fixated on where students use the bathroom. Let’s be honest: the proposed bathroom policy isn’t about privacy. It’s about controlling, shaming, and targeting transgender students. It’s a manufactured crisis. The students themselves have told the board there are no issues. Yet board members like Monica Dziesinski continue to push solutions to problems that don’t exist, while ignoring the ...

APS lost control of their board meeting Monday

APS should be ashamed of the example they set for their own students attending the last board meeting. Anna Meinhart and David Rabbideau lost control of the meeting by allowing clapping, cheering, booing, and even allowing personal attacks regarding board members by calling out school board members by profession, as reported in this paper. It never should have been allowed in the first place, and now, with the paper verbatim repeating the attack, it has gone out to the entire community. Last year, when I began to speak at a board meeting about a specific board member, David ...

Bikers and drivers, be safe this biking season

Let’s all drive alertly and be on the lookout for bicycles and motorcycles. Remember, Michigan law (257.257 - 257.662) protects bicycles by granting them the same rights and responsibilities as cars and trucks on all Michigan roads except limited access highways (like I-75). Bicycles are considered slow-moving vehicles like tractors and buggies. Bicycles are required to ride with traffic (not against it) and to keep to the right of the lane. Most bicyclists try to stay to the right of the fog line if it’s big enough, or even a paved shoulder, but we have a legal right to the ...