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Letters to the Editor

Consider donating stimulus funds to others in need

Food and medicine: necessities of life. Like many others, this week I received a one-time stimulus payment from my fellow taxpayers. It’s nice. I might put part of it toward some needed home repairs. But had I not received it, I could still eat. I could still fill my prescriptions, and if I needed any other health care, Medicare would be there for me. In this life, blessings are not always distributed evenly, nor rained down upon equal circumstances. Many are out of work, have lost health coverage and have no money for medicines. If you are one of these, consider calling the Medical ...

In defense of Trump’s actions to combat coronavirus

EDITOR: This is in response to Walt Brey’s letter Monday, “Stop politicizing virus response.” People who take cheap shots at President Trump over the coronavirus are displaying their own ignorance. If Trump had listened to Dr. Anthony Fauci early on, he would have thought the virus was no big deal; instead, he stopped traffic to and from China within days of the first person testing positive in the USA. The left said he was a xenophobe and a racist for doing it. Trump called the fake news media a hoax, not the virus. Trump does not sign the checks for the relief fund, his ...

Remembering the bucktail bait

As a young lad, I was happy to have been able to spend lots of hours fishing and learning from my father because he was an expert fisherman. Sometimes he would drop everything and say, “Let’s go fishing now; the sun is the correct color and the air smells just right.” He would get the Martin 100 10-horse motor and put it on the back of the big, flat-bottomed wooden boat. I still have that motor, as it saved our lives several times. In the shed where the motor was, I had an ancient, really big bucktail hanging on the wall that I had never used. A thick, stiff wire ran through ...

Important to get that US Census form filled out

It’s very important to respond to your U.S. Census form. The Upper Michigan response rate at this time is less than 50 percent. There are many things that are funded by the amount of responses that are turned in to the Census Bureau. The amount of funds distributed to counties, cities, townships, schools and all kinds of other organizations are determined by the Census. The Michigan Education Association-Retired Board of Directors at our last meeting voted to contribute $25,000 to help publicize the importance of responding to the Census forms. To complete the census, you can call ...

More data needed on UP virus cases

As of April 15, there were 56 reported cases of COVID-19 with nine deaths in the Upper Peninsula. (Editor’s note: That rose to 67 cases and 10 deaths as of Monday afternoon.) Those numbers should draw the grave attention of our representatives, health workers and every person concerned about COVID-19. Those numbers represent a case fatality rate of 16%, while the case fatality rate for the United States as a whole is 4%. This means that Yoopers are disproportionately dying from COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus.   In fact, this would be the highest Case Fatality Rate ...

Stop politicizing virus response

If our president would have listened to the scientists and acted to fight COVID-19 sooner, instead of calling it a hoax, maybe our governor would not have to be doing the things she is doing and our state representative could give his pen a rest and quit making this political. I side with the non-political scientists. Lastly, and sadly, those folks who so desperately need the government money will now have to wait extra days, if they do not have direct deposit, because our president needs to have his name on the checks. Keep your distance, stay healthy and God bless our nurses, ...