Letters to the Editor: Why yet another distraction from Ottawa County’s governance?
Why yet another distraction from Ottawa County’s governance?
Ottawa County Health Officer Adeline Hambley’s hearing is further delayed. This we learn from the Nov. 28 Sentinel. After days of public hearings and closed-door sessions, county board Chair Joe Moss ended the Nov. 6 board meeting after making the motion to “accept counsel’s recommendation regarding litigation and settlement activities in the case of Hambley v. Ottawa County as addressed during closed session.”Moss could have prevented chaotic misunderstandings by stating specifically in the motion what counsel’s recommendation was. Was it as corporate counsel David Kallman later claimed — that the board merely voted to continue negotiations? Or was it as Hambley’s attorney Sarah Riley-Howard later claimed — that it was to accept the terms of the agreement and for the paperwork to be drawn up?Because of Moss’s vague motion about “counsel’s recommendation” without stating specifically what that recommendation was, Ottawa County residents continue to see the attention of their board of commissioners diverted to prolonged litigation, increases in legal costs, and ongoing distractions that interfere with keeping Ottawa County running.Ottawa County residents deserve better results from its Ottawa Impact leadership.
Judy Parr
Holland
I like conservative viewpoints, just make sure they use facts.
I just read a letter to the editor regarding a lack of conservative views published in The Sentinel. It has long been the view of conservatives that the mainstream media is biased to favor the left.
Well, that may be true, but let me express my opinion as to why. The person whose letter I was referring to stated “why don’t we have a dialogue about appeasing Iran by giving them billions of dollars to fund terrorism, by not enforcing sanctions?”
The Biden administration freed up sanctions through medical aid and food and has strict controls regarding that aid through our government and is in control of the flow of such funds. Oh, and by the way, none of that aid has been released yet!
I believe this is why more conservative views are not printed in this newspaper — because the right/trump/GOP has chosen to scare people versus giving them facts. So, of course the mainstream media doesn’t report conspiracy theories and half-truths. They have ethical standards to tell the stories of the day with facts.
The leading GOP candidate has been proven to ignore facts and peddle fear, calling the left-leaning populace “thugs, communists, and criminals. You see, the right and their supporters don’t use facts. They use fear.
Michael Mooney
Holland
The irony of Ottawa Impact's decision-making
Interesting that life is full of irony. Food for growing families and pregnant women is needed to keep these people healthy.
Moss decided to cut the budget leading to loss of food for the needy community. Poor Third-World countries with nutritional deficiencies have been proven to lead to bodily growth anomalies including abnormal reproductive organs among other body areas.
So Moss is producing people with life health difficulties being ignorant to the very food he is refusing to be given out.
Judy Avery
Holland
There's more to the Israel-Palestine story
Ray Buursma’s column of Nov. 19 was correct in stating that the Israel/Palestine situation is highly complex. However, he only gives the commonly known history of the region, which leaves a false impression of Israel.
Most people do not realize that there was never a nation known as Palestine. The entire area was occupied territory — by Babylon, Rome, the Ottoman Empire, Britain — since the kingdom of Judah was conquered around 586 BC. Jews have been continually present since then, mentioned by Karl Baedeker (who wrote early travel guides) and Mark Twain ("Innocents Abroad").
In 1996, King Hussein of Jordan said: “Since 1948, the Arab leaders have approached the Palestinian problem in an irresponsible manner. They have used the Palestinian people for political purposes.” No country but Jordan ever was willing to take Palestinian refugees. Note, too, that all Arabs who remained in Israel have full citizenship and rights.
Israel is currently 1% of the Middle East. In 1922, the British ceded all the land east of the Jordan to Emir Abdullah. The Hashemite kingdom of Jordan was for Palestinians. Jews were barred from entering. In 1937, the British offered 85% of the land west of the Jordan to the Arab leaders but they chose to start the “Great Arab Revolt” and were crushed by the British. In 1947, the UN offered a two-state solution. The Arab response was to launch a war in which they planned to annihilate the Jews. They failed, and lost the land they had been granted because they were the aggressors. They had a third chance at a state in 1949 at the Rhodes Armistice Talks. They were not, and still are not, interested in sharing the land. The Palestine National Charter, Article 2, requires the absence of Israel.
Israel is fighting for survival.
Barbara Buhrer
Holland
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: Why yet another distraction from Ottawa County’s governance?
