Letters to the Editor: Are we going to let the minority endanger the ones we love?

Really, Laketown?

You’ve turned down solar panels for the township office because a few privileged homeowners across the street don’t like the aesthetics and think perhaps their property values will decline? Is it such a hardship that walkers and bikers using the bike path might have to view some solar panels that should instead instill pride in our township that we’re taking meaningful action on climate change?

As a Laketown resident, I am very disappointed at this shortsighted and selfish decision. I urge Laketown residents who favor the solar panel project to let their voices be heard.

Go back to the drawing board, please.

Laura Judge

Holland

A lifetime of optimism

Born in 1944, I've been blessed with a lifetime of ups and downs, experiences both happy and sad, yet always feeling optimistic. A lifetime enjoying the inner feeling that the human race was progressing, expanding love and acceptance, while reducing hate and prejudice.

Now, approaching the exit door of my wonderful life, there are painful signs we are regressing.

Who would have thought the need for "a well-regulated militia" would make owning weapons of death and destruction more important than any other constitutional protection?

"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

This simple Second Amendment sentence, now cut in half by modern extremists, denies over 100 people a day who die by bullet, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The leading cause of death for children in America is death by bullet. These children have been denied all their rights for one-half of a sentence.

We are the only country in the world that puts the right to death by bullet ahead of every other right to human existence.

The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and every other freedom inherent in our Constitution, the foundation of our nation of laws, is being canceled by only half of a sentence in the Second Amendment.

Can America regain its First Amendment, half of its Second Amendment and the entirety of the Constitution and all its amendments, or will we be forever victims of death by bullet?

Pete Turner

Zeeland

Are we going to let the minority endanger the ones we love?

As yet another concerned citizen of Ottawa County and Park Township, I am deeply concerned about what is happening within the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.

The first is the blatant "power grab” by the Ottawa Impact faction within the board to steer public health policies to OI’s preferences versus the common good, limiting open public debate on issues, as well as cronyism in hiring of legal counsel to “represent and advise" our county.

It is obvious that these people want what THEY want for our county, not what’s in the public’s interest and protection. We have a problem in society today: “Forget the common good, it is my right to …" When does society's well-being trump my personal rights?

What troubles me most, though, is the board considering approval of Ottawa County becoming a Second Amendment “sanctuary” county.

Chairman Joe Moss himself referenced this possibility, saying: “I think it’s great that the board also be able to use their voice on important issues, whether it’s (the) Second Amendment or parental rights or Constitution or whatever the board might take up.”

"Sanctuary" counties are municipalities with a resolution stating gun control laws seen as unconstitutional won't be enforced. The gun laws in Ottawa County are seen as “unconstitutional” by who? Mr. Moss and his Ottawa Impact majority faction?

All of us see the epidemic of gun violence. Mass shootings are commonplace in our society. It is an epidemic that sooner or later will reach every American. Gun violence is in homes, churches, malls, theaters, concerts, grocery stores, banks … no where is there a “sanctuary” protecting our parents, our children, our friends, our faith community, the public.

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 54% of Americans have experienced gun violence. You could be in the next 46%, if you’re not in the 54% already. It is estimated that 1 in 4 Americans have experienced gun violence (1 in 3 in Black Americans). If that’s not an epidemic, what is?

It just seems unconscionable and illogical for anyone to want to weaken gun law enforcement to become a “sanctuary (see the deceptive terminology?) county."

Are we going to let the minority endanger the ones we love? Or are we going to use our heads and hearts to keep public policies that are good for just that — the public.

Michael Mooney

Holland

Vote no so we CAN expand public access to Lake Macatawa

The postcard sent to all Holland homes on the May 2 ballot proposal makes the situation clear. This land sale gives a swath of Holland’s waterfront property to a LOT of condos, a hotel and a restaurant.

The extremely small spaces allotted to the public is a joke. As the mayor made it clear in his Sentinel column — you can go get an ice cream cone — but it is obvious that once your cone is gone, you are pretty much expected to leave, because the space is too small for you to stay. I do not imagine for a moment that all the people leaving in those condos (and there are a LOT of them and they will be filled with people) are going to want loads of Holland residents and visitors wandering around their property. This is NOT the “shared community space” claimed on the postcard.

Oh, and where is all the parking for all these ice cream eaters, restaurant goers and condo guests? (I’m assuming there is ground-floor parking for the residents under their building.) I see only a small lot near the sole bridge to get to the restaurant and ice cream parlor. There’s a parking lot for the hotel, but it hardly looks large enough for the hotel guests (and staff?).

The Holland Community Theatre worked with Jeffrey Parker, architect, along with the Holland Symphony Orchestra and Turning Point Dance Co., to develop a multi-pronged use for the James DeYoung plant site, 17 acres. It was a plan to bring a much-needed Performing Arts Center to Holland. The plan included a four-star hotel (working with Amway Grand), a convention center (big enough for boat shows, home & garden shows, etc.), an outdoor amphitheater, a marina and lots of parking! The PAC would have two auditoriums with state-of-the-art acoustics, lighting and sound equipment, and rehearsal and storage space for the three organizations, and it would have welcomed the many other arts organizations, all desperate for terrific performing space. This plan was one of three approved by the city to submit for council approval.

Alas, when the marketing company approached some of the deep pockets, there was insufficient interest in supporting a performing arts center. Very sad. As Brian Everitt pointed out in his letter in the Sentinel, there are so many arts groups in Holland with inadequate performing spaces, and hundreds of talented people who have gone/are going through our school systems who have to leave Holland to find communities that want their talents. Very sad city council does not envision that an investment is needed in our community.

We’ve been talking for years about having inadequate waterfront access. We’ve talked about connecting the downtown to the waterfront. This proposal does neither of these things. Vote "no" and tell city council to find new and better options for our waterfront.

Laurie Van Ark

Holland

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: Are we going to let the minority endanger us?