Ted Nugent went off the deep end a long time ago | Letters to the Editor

At a recent concert, Ted Nugent suggested that Hillary Clinton should be "in front of a firing squad," and lauded the crowd for being composed of "only men and women." This begs two questions: First, why does anyone care what Ted Nugent thinks about anything? We all know that Nugent went off the deep end long ago.

More importantly, why don't Republican leaders ever speak out against this kind of hateful, violent rhetoric? You would think that some Republican elected official who wanted to be perceived as somewhat reasonable and levelheaded might want to say something. Perhaps make the radical suggestion that talking about killing people you disagree with or hating people whose gender you don't understand is not appropriate political discourse? Just a thought.

Larry Rosenstock

Farmington Hills

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Michigan GOP doesn't build, it just tears down

Historically, significant progress is always followed by some degree of pushback. Even if the ones pushing back are few and with ill intent. And that just about sums up the Michigan GOP's recent efforts to recall Democrats for supporting legislation to enact common sense gun safety laws or to protect vulnerable communities from targeted hate.

Imagine if the Michigan GOP channeled this energy into keeping our communities and law enforcement safe from gun violence or supporting our public-school teachers. Imagine if they were constructive as opposed to obstructive.

Instead of focusing on how they can keep Michiganders safe and improve our lives, Michigan Republicans are choosing to recall those who are. As long as the Michigan GOP prioritizes attacking legislators vying to protect our communities over championing those efforts themselves, they may see another 40 years until they return to power in the Michigan Legislature.

Russell M. Hartley

Commerce Twp.

Taking care of those who care for us

I was Health Policy Chair in the Michigan House of Representatives during the pandemic, so I saw firsthand our entire state health care system grapple with a once-in-a-lifetime crisis. An unfortunate consequence has been a historic shortage of health care workers.

Michigan nursing homes were hit hard, losing over 8,000 workers over the course of the pandemic. Today, while nursing homes are offering higher wages, flexible schedules, and many other benefits, they are still struggling to find qualified workers, forcing many to limit how many residents they accept as a result.

As a former lawmaker, I know legislators are well intentioned when they propose a policy. However, the one-size-fits-all minimum staffing requirement that the Biden Administration is expected to impose on nursing homes will do more harm than good. We can’t hire people who aren’t there — a staffing mandate will not help produce the staff needed.

Issuing a blanket federal regulation on an industry whose needs are constantly evolving is not sound policy. I hope Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters will help nursing homes rebuild their workforce with substantive policies, not mandated ratios that hurt access to care for our most vulnerable population.

Hank Vaupel is the former chair of the Michigan House Health Policy Committee.

Hank Vaupel

The writer is a state lawmaker representing Michigan's 47th House District

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Climate change deniers should look at Maui

If you are still one of the people who doesn't believe that our planet is rapidly changing, then you need to look at the tropical and stunningly beautiful island of Maui, because it has been burning out of control for days now. The main city of Lahaina is heavily damaged, with many of the historic buildings on Front Street reduced to ashes.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon on Maui, and it was a tropical, lush and green bit of paradise on earth. It was the type of place that you never could have imagined would be burning like it is now. Too green, too tropical and too perfect … it is painful for us to see it as it is today.

Our planet is rapidly changing. It is burning, it is flooding, it is drying out and it is warning us what the future is going to be like unless we do more to help it survive.

Gary Brown

Canton

Ohio's Issue 1 is straight from GOP playbook

The resounding defeat of Issue 1 in Ohio on Tuesday is widely reported as a clear referendum on the American people's support to the right to legal access to abortion and to make one's own choices on reproductive healthcare without government interference.

But there is another, equally important, takeaway from this special election that Ohio legislators held. It was just in January of this year that the Republican-led Legislature canceled August special elections, citing their high cost and low voter turnout. The same Legislature then reversed this decision just four months later, in May, when Ohioans began to gather signatures to put an abortion amendment on the ballot. This attempt to change the rules on the threshold needed to pass ballot initiatives — by holding a vote at a time that this legislative body had said didn't draw real representation — exemplifies the playbook of today's Republican Party.

The leadership of the Republican Party no longer recognizes the role of the elected to represent their constituents. The Party has become an insular clique, talking only among themselves, without listening to the people they were voted in to represent. Republican officeholders today have foregone their Constitutional responsibility, and now puts their working hours and the American dollar toward trying to impose their will on the people and to maintain power - even when that threatens democratic principles.

So trying gerrymandering to limit the voice of voters, trying to change the threshold needed to pass citizen-led ballot initiatives, drafting ballot proposals in a way that is meant to confuse voters, signing abortion bans behind closed doors at a late-night session, failing to confirm leaders in military posts if the majority will not yield to the minority, leaving our country vulnerable at such a volatile time, attacking fellow Americans who identify as trans, LGBTQ+, Jewish, Black, Asian, and so on, distracts from a failure to address the real issues facing our country have become the real work of today's Republican Party.

But we are not without recourse. As we have witnessed in Ohio this week, we, the people of the United States of America, still have a voice. 2024 is an election year. Use your voice. Start now.

Linda Levy

Farmington Hills

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ted Nugent, Michigan Republicans, wildfires in Maui | Letters