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Letters to the Editor

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 ...

Read the Constitution regularly, respect rule of law

Dear Editor, The question posed as a headline for a letter to the editor reads, “What does the United States stand for?” The answer is in our Constitution. The Constitution does not provide for the separation of church and state as the writer claims. The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Accusing the president of dividing the country by expressing his Constitutional right to practice his faith is absurd. At no time has he suggested we all join one faith. It is important to ...

Get on board for alternatives to toxic fireworks

Dear Editor, It is that time when I see requests for donations toward funding Fourth of July fireworks. Recently, I learned something most disturbing, which would best be shared. The beautiful colors in our fireworks are created using forever toxic chemicals, which remain in the water and soil forever! These cannot be treated by our City Water Treatment Plant, which can only remove E. coli bacteria. Everything else that goes into our soil, street drains, or lands over and into Lake Huron and Thunder Bay River is ultimately ingested by all of us, now and into the future…our future ...