EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writers and not of Ottawa News Network.

Just one question

How does a parent justify making a decision to not vaccinate their child to prevent that child from getting the measles — only for that child to die from contracting the measles?

I can't think of a worse pain for a parent than burning your son or daughter.

Now to make that pain worse. If the child was vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, there is a 97% chance she would have never even gotten sick.

These parents sacrificed their daughter on the altar of medical disinformation. To prove that they are somehow smarter than the CDC, MMA, and decades of no measles outbreaks.

Bill Fey
Holland

Smothering speech and trampling Truth

Trump generously gifted our adversaries in Iran, China, Moscow and Minsk when he cut government funding to the "Voice of Democracy" broadcast abroad.

Gutting U.S. support for Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Network silenced our direct link to regions in political jeopardy. Our opportunity for democratic influence was erased.

The European Commission told the news source Politico: “These media outlets have been a beacon of truth, democracy and hope for millions of people around the world.”

Eradicating truth in order to propagate his lies and dogma is essential for the establishment of a Trump dictatorship. While an executive order by the Don may muffle the Voice of America, after 83 years of dedicated service, can Donald Trump stifle the voices of over 340 million Americans exercising their freedom of speech?

While Trump may dismiss 1,300 journalists, employees and the director from Voice of America and thousands from these other media outlets, all beacons of truth, can he dismiss all lovers of democracy in our 50 states?

Jo Bird
Holland

Yet problems persist …

Our country and the whole world face a long list of challenges: worsening climate, air and water pollution problems, diseases from AIDS to Zika, immigration challenges, a stressed social support system, clean energy needs and the list goes on and on. 

Not a single one of these problems is made better by a wrecking ball policy. Eliminating the verbiage of climate change (or any of the other terms now verboten) does not make these problems go away. Eliminating the staffing in the IRS will not make anyone’s experience there better. Each problem still persists and we now have a weaker system in shambles with which to deal with our problems. 

It may be therapeutic to some to use a wrecking ball approach, but in the end, it’s really just a toddler wrecking the siblings carefully constructed Lego creation. Putting the pieces back together will call for thoughtful well-crafted legislation if we want to improve our collective situation.

Trump was elected as president. Executive orders are not the King's fiat. Real change calls for legislation, something we’ve seen little of since the last election. Republicans control all the levers of government needed to remake public policies. I see no evidence of the construction of anything near a solution to any of these problems or issues. 

John Darling
Holland

St. Dismas Day?

I'm probably one of few Protestants who join with Catholics on March 25 when they celebrate the feast day of St. Dismas. “Who the heck is Dismas?” you ask?

Dismas is the name given to the man crucified to the right of the Lord … also known as The Penitent Thief, the Good Thief, Wise Thief, Grateful Thief, or Thief on the Cross … one of two unnamed thieves in Luke's account of the crucifixion.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him: “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus
answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Why is the story so meaningful to me? Well, at retirement, this old journalist made decided to be an advocate for incarcerated men and women … people living behind bars. Since then, I’ve learned that prisoners sometimes wonder whether Jesus could still love them. They wonder if they even have a crack at eternal life.

Today, I think Christians wonder about Jesus’ reply. They’ve spent much of their lives as devout believers. How come this guy who settles up with the Lord in his final moments, gets the same rank in heaven?

If I’m coming across as pompous, I apologize. I confess that I, too, struggle with similar thoughts. I see prominent leaders targeting and harming the hungry, the poor, the sick, the elderly, the veteran, the disabled, the different, and the strangers, the very types who received special attention from Jesus.

I suggest we take a moment to listen to the words of country singer Merle Haggard, who had a checkered past, but, before passing, recorded a gospel song with the Oak Ridge Boys. “As a boy, I was always afraid to go down at alter call and kneel down, and over the years I wondered was my soul saved or was it lost? Then I realized salvation was all the grace of Jesus, and we'd been saved just the way he saved that thief on the cross!"

Their song: "Sweet Jesus."

Doug Tjapkes
Spring Lake

Eventually, all will be judged

Dear Congressman Huizenga:

Do you imagine your Social Security people, scrambling to find papers that get misplaced as years pass, many of whom no longer have cars or drive, using walkers and canes, assisted by family if possible, lined up at Social Security offices to prove their benefits?  

God be the judge.

Norma Killilea
Holland

Community-wide Taizé prayer

Christians Uniting in Song and Prayer (CUSP) invites everyone to its fourth annual Holy Monday Taizé Prayer. This service will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 14, at St. Francis de Sales Church, 171 W. 13th St. (13th and Maple.)

Our Holy Week and Easter celebrations commemorate the climax of the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. We affirm that Jesus’ death and rising reconciles us to God and to each other and inaugurates the decisive victory over sin and death. What better time for Protestant and Catholic Christians to join with one another to sing, pray, and ponder these profound mysteries?  

Our Taizé Prayer will follow the pattern developed by the monastic community of Taizé, France, which attracts pilgrims from around the world. To accommodate the variety of languages spoken by its visitors, this ecumenical community offers short, simple hymns that are sung over and over. This allows each participant to enter into meditative prayer that is at once communal and personal. A choir and a small instrumental ensemble will support congregational singing.

Taizé music is sung across the globe and can be found in virtually all modern Christian hymnals. You will likely recognize some of the beautiful pieces included in our Holy Monday service.

CUSP’s mission is to foster Christian unity by offering interdenominational worship services. Let us remember and celebrate that — despite our differences — we are brothers and sisters baptized into one family. We are each on a pilgrimage, and each blessed by the huge variety of gifts offered to us by one another. 

Mary Johnson, chair
Holland

Huizenga makes me question his loyalties

Rep. Bill Huizenga has made several revealing public statements lately that lay out his attitude toward his position.

He told News Channel 3 that protests overwhelming his office were “funded and organized by outside partisans.” Concerned citizens like me have consistently tried to contact him without success. The only way to “speak” with him is to fill out a form on his website. We are not paid activists, but constituents with very real concerns, but he dismisses us as “outsiders” who do not deserve his attention.

In his telephone “townhall” on March 7, he vowed that “Social Security is not being touched,” and that DOGE has no authority over it. What has happened since? Huge cuts in staff, website crashes, and lack of access to information. These and the breach of our sensitive personal information are the direct result of DOGE’s meddling in Social Security by people with no security clearance.

Is Huizenga naïve? Blind? Or is he lying and complicit in this attack on the safety and security of his elderly constituents? Huizenga describes his position as congressional representative this way: “I get hired to use my experience, my judgment, and then to make tough decisions.”

Notice he says “hired” – not “elected.” When you are hired, money is involved. Someone pays you, and you perform tasks for them. So, who hired him? Where do his loyalties lie — only with people who pay him? At the conclusion of the townhall, he said: “My job as a representative is not to necessarily agree with everybody. … It’s also, frankly, not to just go out there and stick my finger in the wind.” 

I beg to differ. That’s exactly what his job is. Representatives must listen to the concerns of the people in their district and work to address them. They must be a mouthpiece for those people in Washington, not use their own ideology to “make tough decisions” that end up hurting their constituents.“And then I get a very public job review every two years,” Huizenga concludes.

I don’t think we can wait that long.

Judith Boogaart
Holland

There is an obvious way to make Social Security solvent

Dear Mr.  Huizenga,

Since you refuse to meet face-to-face in town hall meetings in your district, and since your responses to letters to your congressional address are boilerplate, I reach out to you here about an exceedingly important matter.    

Social Security is much on the minds of Americans. Almost all agree that it requires attention in order to survive to serve future generations. I am concerned for its solvency and for the benefit of my children, grandchildren and possible great-grandchildren. The answers to the problems with SS are not the evisceration of the Social Security Administration. Rather, there is a real and feasible option to solve the problem of its continued solvency. 

I ask that you do something with your time in Congress and propose a bill to save Social Security for the next generations of Americans. That bill would abolish the $176,100 Social Security Tax limit. The abolition of the limit would bring in untold amounts. During my years of contribution to SS, I paid on every dollar I earned. I never knew, until very recently, that people who made more than the limit paid no SS tax on that additional income. That meant that the less-affluent Americans carried the wealthiest on their backs. 

Just think: Someone who makes $1 million a year pays no SS tax on $823,900! If we calculate for an American billionaire, that untaxed income is $999,823,900! Of course, the wealthy will not wish to change anything, but a change as I propose to you will benefit the entire society. Of course, even you would have to pay additional SS tax on at least $53,000 (according to a Detroit Free Press story from 2024 citing your income as at least $230,000, although your net worth may be between $1 and $2 million). 

And, yes, employers would not want to pay more for employees earning over $176,100 per annum, but there are ways to make such a system reasonable for all involved. Just imagine: With such a bill, you could be remembered as a hero of American politics.

J.M. Van der Laan
Park Township

Working families don’t need another corporate giveaway

As someone who serves in local leadership and listens to the concerns of working families across Ottawa County, I’m alarmed by the so-called Credit Card Competition Act currently being debated in Congress.

This bill claims to promote competition, but in reality, it would strip away credit card rewards programs that many families rely on to stretch their budgets — whether it's saving on groceries, gas, or school supplies. It would also weaken fraud protections by forcing banks to use less secure payment networks, putting consumers at greater risk of identity theft and financial scams.

Let’s be clear: This bill doesn’t benefit the average Michigan family. It benefits the biggest national retailers who want to cut their costs without passing a dime in savings on to consumers. Meanwhile, families in Ottawa County and across Michigan would lose out on rewards and be exposed to greater financial risk.

A recent report from Oxford Economics estimates that this legislation could cost the U.S. economy $227 billion in lost activity and eliminate over 150,000 jobs. That’s the last thing our communities need.

I strongly urge Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin to oppose this misguided bill. Our economy should work for everyone — not just the wealthiest corporations.

Larry Jackson
Chair, Ottawa County Democratic Party

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