Letters to the Editor: Ottawa Impact needs to grow up
In praise of Escape Ministries
I was privileged to join students, parents, staff and volunteers on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at Escape Ministries to see the learning and gains made by students. The FAM (experiences and personal growth) a band — guitar, keyboard, drums and vocalist with "Mary, did you know?" — program space used for the ASAP (Alternative Suspension Accountability Program) for staying in school, avoiding disenrollment and meeting goals, and the demand and discipline of powerful bodies doing jumping jacks and a boxing demonstration.
Escape Ministries offers these programs as well as Career Connections. It is one of the services in Holland that keeps our community strong. It operates in a building on East 32nd Street and may seem "under the radar." I encourage those not familiar with Escape Ministries to seek it out.
Norma Killilea
Holland
Ottawa Impact needs to grow up
We are approaching one year of dysfunction, misconduct, incompetence and neglect of duty by the OI Board of Commissioners and administrator. You have wasted our time, our money, and irreplaceable resources and personnel with your revenge politics and selfish and misdirected need for power and control. National and local award-winning media has provided continuous coverage of your ineptness and repeated attempts to dismantle our county government. What you did not count on was a community of intelligent citizens, well-versed in public policy and Robert's Rules of Order, who tirelessly hold you accountable for your neglect of duties to the residents of Ottawa County.
Any social worker, nurse, teacher or parent would not dispute the importance of pretend play for children to learn life skills. Unfortunately, this past year, we have witnessed adults who profess to hold these very credentials pretending to play government officials and acting like spoiled children with dismissive behaviors, public shaming, bullying, condescending attitudes, blatant lies, and gaslighting. And, of course, the most childish behavior, answering questions with "I don't remember or recall." But this is not pretend play, and you are using real money, undermining the professionalism of real and well-educated county employees, turning down real grants because of descriptors, compromising the health and welfare of residents, and making resolutions for anything that threatens your control.
OI has divided a thriving community with childish antics and made a mockery of good governance. Their need for public affirmation is nauseating and self-serving. Shall we provide stickers and participation trophies at the next board meeting? Commenting on the Ottawa Food program Commissioner Rhodea said, "We need reliable people making good decisions." Truer words were never spoken; they were just misdirected.
Be informed. Vote in 2024. Playtime is over.
Deb Cizek
Port Sheldon Township
How can there be peace between good and evil?
My letter in The Sentinel on July 25 quoted a verse in the Bible of God's enemies saying, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!" — Psalm 83:4 (ESV)
On Oct. 7, unbridled hate and evil was loosed on Israel by Hamas in the slaughter of innocent men and women and children. And the nations are proposing a ceasefire between good and evil, a two-state solution between good and evil?!
How is it possible that Israel as a people has survived for hundreds and thousands of years? Psalm 124 reads, "... let Israel now say — if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us." Only God is able to protect Israel, as the "smallest of nations."
Only God saves! Jude 5 reads, "Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe." Is this not also a warning for anyone who does not believe in God?
"Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." — Psalm 124:8
For Jew and non-Jew, the answer is Jesus. On Christmas we celebrate Jesus' first Advent ("Coming"), those who believe in Jesus are looking forward to his second Advent when he comes to rule the earth. "Surely I am Coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! — Revelation 23:20
Meredith Nienhuis
West Olive
What exactly is 'fake news'?
In America, we have this thing called the free press. I know it sounds a bit archaic, but it is one of the popular freedoms that our founding fathers and mothers decided was good for a growing democracy. However, recently, there was an administration of our government that decided on their own that they were going to disseminate the real news or what is called “alternative facts.” The rest of the news would, obviously, be “fake news.”
What is fake news anyway? I mean, I really don’t know, but I kind of get the idea by hanging around some of my Republican friends who have set me straight. You see, “fake news” is any news that runs counter to “alternative facts.” I mean, it can’t get simpler than that, right? Of course right!
If our great country, which is already great, can be turned into a puppet regime of one person, then we no longer have a democracy but instead have an authoritarian government. A government that is no longer a government “Of the People and By the People or certainly not For the People.” So help me God!
Peter Wehle
South Haven
COVID is still here and it needs to be taken seriously
I am concerned with the spread of COVID-19. Our family and extended family had a gathering on Thanksgiving Day. One of our nieces had COVID and affected all those who were present: grandparents, uncles and aunt, grandchildren as well as nieces.
I urge those who are infected with COVID to stay home or wear masks to stop the spread. We can do it if we all work together to at least get it under control.
Celestino Reyes
Holland
OI's actions have reached overseas
The turbulence at the Ottawa County Health Department has reached the ears of Europe, where hordes of people are aghast yet hopeful for the fate of Adeline Hambley amidst the warped political thinking of Joe Moss. Pray let the Christian extremists believe whatever they wish, but let them keep it private, out of the public forum where if it continues, it will soon make the United States incapable of functioning.
Jeffrey McCabe
Austria
Erased without smudging
Today the use of the computer has virtually eliminated the use of erasers. We know the use of the "delete" or "backspace" keys. I still prefer to use a pencil for drawings and writing. The pencil necessitates the use of an eraser to correct errors.
One of the problems with the pencil eraser is it sometimes tends to harden over a long period of non-use. Using the pencil eraser after it has hardened may actually tear the paper you are trying to correct. Another problem is the hardened eraser may smudge the written pencil work rather than eliminating the mistake.
Psalm 51:9 reads: “Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity.” The Living Bible paraphrases this verse, “don’t keep looking at my sins — erase them from your sight.” We use the pencil eraser to correct mistakes, change an answer or control errors. Sometimes our corrections smudge leaving a shadow of the past.
God’s eraser never smudges. God’s eraser does not cross out errors or leave a shadow of the past — his eraser eliminates them completely. The Psalmist writes as far as the east is from the west this is how far God has removed our sins. (Psalm 103:12) We are not speaking of a worldly realm where East and West eventually meet together on the other side of the earth. Our sins are removed — erased with no smudging.
The Psalmist then asks God, “Create in me a clean heart.” (Psalm 51:10) In other words, create a clean, fresh page. Allow me to paraphrase verse nine again, with computer language instead of the old-fashioned pencil, with Keith Jeffery’s Version (KJV?). Do not keep my sins on your screen God — delete them without the option of using the undo arrow. Allow them to never be retrieved.
Keith J. Welch
Holland
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: Ottawa Impact needs to grow up
