Feedback: This group helps women who need it the most — and so can you

Stereotypes about Grosse Pointe ladies are just that, but it’s fair to say that until a woman walked into an east side bar where a couple of them were having a summer drink, they hadn’t given much thought to how lucky they were.

The woman asked the bartender for spare plastic bags, which she was using, along with paper towels, as makeshift diapers for her child. There was no money for the real thing. Poverty grinds its victims down in a million ways, until one day you’re dressing your baby in a paper towel and plastic bag.

From that incident was born Phoemale, a small, nimble charity of a dozen Grosse Pointe women, of which I’m lucky to be included. The name is a portmanteau of “phoenix” and “female,” and we’re a 501(c)3 that seeks to help women get their lives back on track and rise from their ashes. We work with social-service agencies to find survivors of one of four specific traumas: domestic or sexual abuse, human trafficking or homelessness. (Many check more than one of those boxes.) They must have a plan for recovery, but face a gap. We fill the gap.

Sometimes they need a laptop, sometimes a car. We’ve paid traffic tickets to get a driver’s license out of suspension, put down security deposits on new apartments. We’ve cleaned up after raging partners more than once (one man wrecked a kitchen, another slashed all four of his ex's tires). We’ve financed repairs to three houses. We do it all, if we have the means to do it.

As one of our founding members said at one of our first meetings: If any of these calamities had happened to one of us, we’d have a network, a safety net. But poor women often don’t have that, either. The bill for the four tires was about $700, including towing. If you’re poor, $700 might as well be $700,000.

We’re having a fundraiser in May, in Grosse Pointe. It’s an adult prom, which is a little silly, but you can have fun while doing good. If you’d like to help us reach our $25,000 goal, or just want to know more about us, check us out at phoemale.org.

Nancy DerringerGrosse Pointe Woods

About that two-tiered system ...

Back in 2020, former President Donald Trump attempted to use the rule of law by using the judicial system by bringing over 60 lawsuits against various states to fight his election fraud claims. The former president was totally within his rights to that process.

Why is it now not totally within the rights of the district attorney in New York to pursue the state’s claim that the former president violated New York laws?

Is this the "two-tiered" legal system that the former president's loyalists are talking about?

Bill LerchShelby Twp.

He'd like a pleasant peninsula, not a trash heap

Why does nobody clean the trash on the side of our roads (whether city, county or state) anymore?

And why does the press not bring attention to this sorry state of affairs?

Our roads (and our state) are becoming extremely dirty, with trash littering the side of every road, freeway and interstate, and no local or state agency seems to take the time and effort to clean them. Even wetlands have all sorts of trash stuck among their reeds.

It never used to be this bad. The situation is so dire that there now seems to be more trash than grass along the side of freeways. It is unbearable and heartbreaking to look out the window while driving.

Our state motto is "Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice,” which means “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.” Yes — look about you — and see the trash. I say "Welcome to Pure Dirty Michigan."

Sam SatarWest Bloomfield

Hold gun manufacturers responsible

There have been over a hundred mass shootings in 2023. As of March 28, there have only been 87 days in 2023.

Just like cigarettes, guns when used as designed result in death.

The U.S. Congress does not need to pass gun control laws to stop mass shootings. They can end gun violence by repealing the law that indemnifies gun manufacturers from being sued for the use of the firearms they manufacture. Lawyers will sue them into bankruptcy in a short period of time.

Steven C. HuberSouthfield

Read what the Constitution actually says

The Second Amendment requires a “well regulated Militia” to be gathered out of a citizenry clearly empowered to own civilian guns. It does not require the nation to legalize individual ownership of military-style weaponry allowing unstable Americans to act like totally unregulated one-person militias in their private lives. Not in your wildest dreams is that what the Second Amendment is about.

Throughout most of the history of the Western world that the Founders were familiar with, militia members were supplied with military-style weapons only out of public armories and only after they were mustered into action.Do not let Republicans and the gun industries continue to pull the wool over your eyes. They are blinded by greed, ignorance, rage, power.

Kimball ShinkoskeyWoods Cross, Utah

We can protect our kids, if we have the will

When I was in grade school, we had atomic bomb drills. We had no choice, these were forced upon us by foreign aggressors. Now our children are subjected to shooter drills, unfortunately not always successful. Here we do have a choice, and we choose to protect our weapons, not our children.

Those who say "it is not the gun, it is mental illness" are partially correct. No sane person would do this to innocent children. Just as we protect our young from harmful objects because they do not have the mental capacity to understand the injury potential, mentally ill persons may not have the ability to determine that their actions are harming others. Why do we continue to provide them with access to these weapons of mass destruction?

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One in 20 persons in this country owns an AR15. We may not be able to get these out of circulation, but perhaps limiting the rounds as well as outlawing the large-capacity magazines is possible. If you must shoot, go to a federally managed gun range. You want more that 10 rounds, do it there; otherwise if you turn in 10 shell casings, you may have 10 more federally registered rounds. Make it a felony to have a large magazine, or more than 10 rounds in your possession.

The vast majority of Americans want climate change management and weapons control, but many in the Legislature refuse to do so. It is never too late to protect our most precious resource — our children.

Allen BabcockShelby Twp.

Study lawmakers' records before casting your vote

Since we as a nation are dealing with yet another school mass shooting — yesterday in Nashville — I think that now would be an important time to point out that many of our state senators and representatives continue to vote against any common sense guns laws that come before them. My state senator, Aric Nesbitt, has consistently voted against gun safety laws while voting yes on gun leniency laws in this state. No one who cares about the safety of our children is asking for anything more than keeping these weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of dangerous people. No one wants to remove every gun from every responsible owner.

Please take the time to do a little research into your lawmakers' voting record on bills that protect our children and our community.

Aric Nesbitt is not voting for our safety, our children or a safe community. HIs voting record for the past three years clearly reflects that. You can view it for yourself at the website VoteSmart.org. We need to vote him — and the others out.

Cathy JurichSouth Haven

We can make a difference on climate change

A recent report on a study projecting increases in “killer storms,” especially in southern states, shares information that is not unexpected (perhaps not even “news”). Those of us paying attention know that increases in extreme weather events are not only predicted, but are being experienced around the world, making it easy to agree with the study’s lead author, Northern Illinois University professor Walker Ashley, that we are already living the stormier future.

Rather than simply observing, let’s get active! Join me, a Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteer, in asking legislators at every level — local, state, and federal — to take action to build and maintain healthy forests, electrify and increase energy efficiency in buildings, reform the process for clean energy permitting and put in place a system that will shift energy decisions away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy: a carbon fee and dividend.

Mary Ann RenzKalamazoo

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: This group helps women who need it the most — and so can you