Death of middle class
The stench of death is hanging over our land. It is a "corporate sadness" that you can see in the eyes of people who once had a vision. The money king is dying and Americans are lost without it. God is dead to many people, or perhaps he was only real when times were good. Pantheism is the new religion of America. When individuals die inside, then churches and societies die along with them.
America was never designed to be a place for just the rich and the poor, and cannot survive without the passion of a middle class. It is time to talk about the future of a country that has been raped and pillaged by the elite class, but we have only to look at our own self-indulgence to see the cause.
"They" could not succeed if it weren't for our apathy. If the rest of the world is to ever have anything, then we as Americans must give up some of what we have. I understand that, but it is hard to accept. America will be the next third world country before it is over. Anyone who can't see that isn't paying attention.
William E. Scott
Traverse City
A slippery slope
Your recent report about the sentencing of a 24-year-old Suttons Bay man to 16 years' imprisonment for distributing child pornography via the Internet was disturbing on several counts. Naturally no one approves of this man's activity, but is society best served by keeping this man behind bars (at taxpayer expense) for that length of time? Do we really expect that a "rehabilitated" citizen will emerge from prison 16 years hence?
Most troubling was this admission by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement official: There was "no indication that (the accused man) had any contact with the children in the pictures."
And yet, here's the kicker: "Officials still were happy to make an arrest."
Why? Because "the next step is to physically prey on individuals. It's good to get them at any stage."
So now we're imprisoning people because they might do something? No evidence that this man engaged in any predatory activity, but Homeland Security is happy to lock him up because he might engage in criminal behavior one of these days!
History shows we begin heading down a slippery slope when we allow zealous government officials to "get (us) at any stage."
Tom Fenton
Cedar
Senator needs to act
Due to the personal attacks and controversy covertly generated in the Acme recall election by Meijer executives, several of the targeted elected Acme township officials are reporting stress-related health issues. To his enormous credit, local prosecutor Alan Schneider is doggedly trying to hold these same Meijer executives accountable for their alleged election tampering.
Unfortunately, the most powerful official in the Senate as it relates to election oversight, Sen. Michelle McManus, is showing the public no similar outrage. All she has offered to date is that the law governing the Meijer case is "about transparency not criminal action."
Please write or call Sen. McManus, www.michellemcmanus.org/contact.asp, (517) 373-1725, and demand action: If the current campaign law is inadequate and has no teeth, demand that the law be rewritten. Insist that she recommend that the secretary of state turn the case over to the attorney general and then to Prosecutor Schneider.
If Sen. McManus takes a neutral or hands-off position, then it will be obvious she fears a face-off with the mighty Meijer more than she is interested in getting the shell-shocked Acme township officials and battle-scarred Acme citizens their day in court.
Celeste Crouch
Glen Arbor
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