Population & immigration

An editorial from the Late June 2013 North Woods Call

    Here’s a conundrum—for us, at least.
    Why do so many of our staunch “environmentalist” friends seem to support decidedly liberal immigration policies?  These same people are quick to say that they’re concerned with the pressures that too many human beings put on our natural resources.  In fact, they often want to block the use of these resources when such population pressures demand more of the earth’s bounty.
    Yet they seem curiously unconcerned about porous borders and political maneuverings aimed at loosening immigration restrictions.  Why is that?
    Now, this is not an anti-immigration rant.  Indeed, hard-working immigrants have long been a major strength of our nation.  But don’t we need sensible policies that welcome those who believe in our founding principles, and want to support the laws and institutions that have made the nation what it is?  And shouldn’t we factor in the impact on natural resources when considering how many people to let into our country each year?
    Anything less than that seems foolhardy.
    Those of us who have been around a while have seen the dramatic changes brought to our communities and the natural world by increasing numbers of people—heavy traffic, urban sprawl and pressure on natural areas among them.
     Some of these changes are inevitable, of course, given the exponentially increasing population all over the world.  But does that mean we shouldn’t better manage these impacts?
     It’s getting harder to find places we can go to shut out the din of modern civilization.  Many of the places we remember from childhood have long since been swallowed by the ever-advancing tide of development.  We grieve the loss of these places, yet mostly seem powerless to prevent it—despite the good work being done by land conservancies, environmental groups and assorted conservation-minded citizens.
     Almost everywhere we look, the battle is being lost.  Yet the nation is poised to extend the welcome mat to millions more individuals who didn’t see fit—for whatever reason—to abide by existing immigration laws and help us better manage our nation’s resources.
     One can’t necessarily blame this problem on those who are seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families.  We would probably do the same.  But we still need to protect this nation’s resources through thoughtful policies and enforcement.
     Maybe if their own governments weren’t so corrupt, this flood of immigrants—both legal and illegal—could find greater opportunity at home and not feel the need to search for it here.

Fighting the good fight

An editorial from the Early July 2013 North Woods Call

     We got a slightly uncomfortable feeling in our gut a few weeks ago while driving from Mackinaw City to Glen Sheppard’s former home near Charlevoix.

     As we passed through Petoskey and saw all the relatively new development along U.S. 31 south of town, we recalled Shep’s many efforts to protect the Lake Michigan shoreline from such landscape-gulping activities.
     Yet, there it was, despite numerous angry news stories and pointed editorials.  As usual, the money interests and pressures of modern civilization seem to have won out.
     Shep had successes, of course, and we know we must keep fighting the good fight—as he did with his North Woods Call—but from time-to-time it can be a bit discouraging just the same.

Tilting at windmills

An editorial from the Early July 2013 North Woods Call

     Passing through Mackinaw City recently, we noticed a couple of new windmills that we hadn’t seen before towering above the trees on the outskirts of town.
     We’re all for clean energy, but we don’t think these rotating behemoths do anything to beautify the landscape—in the Straits area or elsewhere—and we’re beginning to wonder just who really benefits from these investments.
     We know a lot of the windmills we see sprouting up around the countryside are the result of crony capitalism, where tax dollars are used to subsidize the activities of politically chosen investors.  There’s probably good money in constructing them if you can get the state and federal grants.  But has anyone found that their electricity bills have gone down as a result of theoretically free wind energy?
      Ours haven’t—yet, at least.
       We’re just guessing here, but it seems like the billions of dollars spent on windmill farms and other “energy smart” alternatives to fossil fuels might better be spent retrofitting individual homes and businesses with wind and solar devices so that actual taxpaying citizens could directly benefit from cheap energy and not be billed monthly for it by some utility company.
     Call us impractical—and maybe we are—but an awful lot of money is being tossed into the wind under the guise of energy independence—even while many government-subsidized green energy companies go belly up due to poor management and lack of sustainable markets.
     Despite all this activity, few people that we know feel any more energy independent now than they did a few years ago.  In fact, it’s just the opposite.
     If only we did more careful thinking about such schemes before implementing them, we might all be better off.

Born to be ... loud?

An editorial from the Early July 2013 North Woods Call

     As summer kicks into high gear and outdoor temperatures escalate—along with gasoline prices—garage doors roll open and increasing numbers of would-be wild ones emerge on their two-wheeled cruising machines.
     They clutch the chrome handlebars, twist the throttle and roar off down the open road in search of freedom and camaraderie.  There’s nothing quite like the joy of acceleration and the feel of a warm wind in your face.  We get that.
     What we don’t understand, is why so many motorcycles—particularly, it seems, Harley Davidsons—have to be so doggone noisy.  After all, aren’t there ordinances in most communities that prevent any person or group of people from disturbing the peace?
     Yet, we’ve often been walking along a quiet roadway contemplating pleasant thoughts when one or more of these vibrating vehicles come sailing by, breathing fire from their lungs and bellowing like medieval dragons on steroids.
     What’s that all about?  We’d likely get a ticket from some irritated neighborhood constable if we did something similar with our automobile.
     Don’t get us wrong.  We like the whole idea of motorcycles—their “stick it in the man’s eye” independence, fuel efficiency and most everything else they represent.  In the often spirit-crushing culture in which we live, we need something to help us get in touch with our rebel souls.
     So go to it easy riders.  Feel free to get your motors running, head out on the highway and look for adventure—whatever comes your way.  Some days we wish we could throw on a brightly colored bandanna, tight leather jacket and pair of stout boots, and climb aboard for the ride.
     But is it too much to ask that you add an effective muffler to your list of essential gear?

Powering up sans fossil fuels

An editorial from the Early August 2013 North Woods Call

    As the world debates climate change and contemplates ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels, President Obama says he wants to spend $7 billion to bring electrical power to rural Africa.
     The president, of course, is not talking about coal-fired power plants, but rather developing new sources of clean energy to benefit those who currently live off the power grid.
     This is a worthy goal, although one wonders if we yet have the technology—or money—to accomplish it without fossil fuels.
     Energy use has jumped exponentially around the world as people everywhere plug in, turn on, and demand even more of the electronic devices and 21st Century conveniences that eat energy like hungry wolves.  The world’s population has grown by leaps and bounds.  Air and automobile travel are at record levels. And consumer goods and agricultural projects are being shipped to even more distant markets.
     One idea that has been floated by the president’s team is a soccer ball that generates electricity when kids kick it around, storing up energy for later uses, such as powering home light bulbs, or charging phones.  Ideas like this may be a testament to mankind’s ingenuity, but are we really going to electrify the world and meet our growing energy needs with such inventions?
     Excuse our skepticism, but maybe this is just one more way to launder U.S. tax dollars for other purposes—such as special-interest payoffs and perpetual political campaigns.
     Whatever the motivation—noble or otherwise—we probably have a long way to go before we solve the fossil fuel problem.

Of people and climate change

An editorial from the Early August 2013 North Woods Call

     Here’s something sure to irritate those who swoon over carbon taxes and plead for ever more U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations.  But it has to be said.
     The President of the United States recently declared war on climate change—especially coal-fired power plants—and signaled that he would prosecute that war with executive orders and bureaucratic decrees.  To heck with Congress, or anyone else who belongs to the “Flat Earth Society” and isn’t smart enough to know that human activity is the primary cause of this “crisis.”
     The simple fact that many politicians, scientists and environmentalists know this “inconvenient truth” is apparently enough for them to force even the most draconian and costly actions on society to correct the problem.
     Never mind that some other scientists disagree with these conclusions, and that a large portion of the population isn’t yet “enlightened” enough to understand that fossil fuels and industrial activities will soon render the earth uninhabitable.
     And never mind that the nation is broke, or that many of its hard-working citizens are unemployed and financially stressed.
     More taxes, more spending and more government mandates are the remedies for all our woes, they seem to believe.
     We’ve said before that we don’t know how to sort through all the conflicting testimony in this matter.  If the climate is indeed changing—and there’s some short-term evidence, at least, that suggests it may be—what is the real cause?
     The president and Al Gore, among others, tell us unequivocally that it’s our fault.  We drive too much, manufacture too much and generally live beyond what a finite earth can sustain.  Maybe so.
      But why should we believe THEM?  After all, they’re politicians and they’ve demonstrated repeatedly that they routinely lie about almost everything.
     If this is such an urgent matter that requires the emergency subversion of our representative republic to correct, why does the president seem to be in the air more than he is on the ground—burning  hundreds of thousands of gallons of high-octane jet fuel during never-ending campaign and vacation trips?  Why doesn’t he and other advocates of global warming and climate change model the behavior they demand that we adopt?
     The same question might be posed to members of often left-leaning and self-righteous environmental groups, who seem to drive, fly and consume fossil fuels as much as anyone else.
     We don’t claim to be Nobel Prize-winning climatologists.  Nor do we claim—as so many others do—to know the absolute truth about this contentious issue.  But we think it deserves a more honest, serious and much less politically influenced conversation.
     The way forward, in our opinion, is for those who embrace the notion of man-made climate change to offer clear and easily understandable arguments—backed by verifiable science—that will convince the naysayers of the validity of their position.
      As it is today, there’s way too much mocking and demonizing of those who prefer a more careful examination of such evidence—pro and con—before agreeing to further line the pockets of politicians, crony capitalists and bureaucrats who seem to be much more interested in themselves than in saving the world.

Trapping tourists

By Mike VanBuren

From the early July 2013 edition of The North Woods Call
    
   Summer has officially arrived in northern Michigan, along with the annual influx of tourists looking for recreation and quality outdoor experiences.

  The vacationers have been greeted, once again—as they have  for many decades—by legions of gargantuan figures that stand solemn guard over many state highways.  These figures are easy to spot, posing rigidly along the roadways while waiting to accept star billing in somebody’s photo album, home video, or slide show.

     Inevitably, a road-tripping family from Flint, Detroit, or Grand Rapids will come along, careen off the blacktop in their mini-van and slide to a dusty halt amidst flying gravel.  The kids will jump from the car and race to strike a giddy pose for  Dad, who will peer through the viewfinder of his camera and capture the special moment for posterity.

    Then they’ll all head for the gift shop—there’s usually one close by—in search of fake Indian-bead belts, tiny birch bark canoes, or some other cheap and inauthentic trinket from Asia to help them remember the occasion.

  As for me, I generally turn away in callous indifference and keep driving.  I’m too old to get excited about incredible hulks of hardened plaster spread over wood and chicken wire frames.   Besides, if I want, I can always visit them on the way back.  The elephantine forms will certainly be there for a while, waiting patiently for the next carload of money-toting tourists to come whizzing by.

     These herculean dust collectors range from bearded folk heroes to domestic and wild animals.  They are often brightly colored and magnified many times by dimensionally challenged craftsmen.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think an army of jumbo knickknacks had invaded the north country.

    Without a doubt, one of the most popular northern creations is Paul Bunyan—an overgrown, ax-wielding lumberjack who can sometimes be seen standing next to his beloved companion, Babe the Blue Ox.  A cute couple, to be sure, and one that I confess posing alongside a time or two when I was a child traveling between state parks with my parents and sister.

  Large inanimate bears and moose are also popular among the prodigious artisans who build these towering monuments to the north woods. Throw in some antique automobiles, and perhaps some stuffed deer hunter mannequins, and you have a recipe for upper Michigan intrigue.

     Back when I worked in Kalkaska during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the village seemed to be rich in candidates for the yet-to-be-established Monster Statue Hall of Fame.  Anyone who drove through the village in those days was greeted by a rich variety of cyclopean replicas.  There was a chicken, a jumping trout, a pink hippopotamus and a foraging bear—not to mention the obese toddler balancing a double-deck hamburger at the southern end of town.

     Further north, about halfway to Mancelona, an entire colony of mastodonic critters has resided for years in the forest along U.S. 131.  Last time I checked, there was an elephant, an eight-foot-tall rabbit, and a host of other stiff and hollow mammals.  Tucked away in the trees, as I recall, was even a small replica of Noah’s Ark, which I suspect the animals use whenever it rains.

     Mt. Mancelona may not be as majestic as Mt. Ararat, but nobody seems quite sure where Noah’s floating zoo actually came to rest.  I think I know.

   At one time, I thought that Kalkaska County—once known for lumber and more recently for crude oil—might attempt to become the nation’s leading producer of Goliath souvenirs, designed for and, of course, sold to money-oozing tourists from Brobdingnag and beyond.

     It would have been the natural next chapter to the local development story.  With badly twisted logic caused by attending too many Economic Development Corporation meetings, I figured the county could well emerge as the only community anywhere in the world to manufacture northern Michigan souvenirs for visiting giants—beings long associated with abnormal growth.

     And there I was in the middle of it all, never having taken a ceramics class.