The Hastings Banner — Thursday, September 30, 2021 — Page 5Women’s Giving Circle
supports Green Gables Haven
The Aug. 4 meeting of the Women’s Giving
Circle of Barry County was at the Blue Wagyu
Restaurant at Yankee Springs Golf Course.
Speakers at the meeting were Jayne Flanagan,
who represented Manna’s Market, the recipient
of the May combined donations, and Janie
Bergeron, representing Green Gables Haven.
Members at the meeting voted to give
donations to Green Gables Haven. Those
combined donations totaled $8,150.
Members of the Women’s Giving Circle
commit to contributing $50 per quarter, or
$30 per quarter for those under age 30.
The next meeting of the Women’s Giving
Circle of Barry County is scheduled for
Wednesday, Nov. 3, at Bay Pointe Woods.
Information will be emailed to members prior
to the event.
Information about the Women’s Giving
Circle of Barry County is available from any
of the organizing members: Caroline
Dimmers, Stephanie Fekkes, Sue Kolanowski,
Debra McKeown, Kim Norris, Carla Wilson-
Neil or Nancy Goodin, or by emailing
[email protected]. Information, which
includes guidelines and a membership form,
will be emailed to interested women, who
may join the group at any time.Let’s talk
about what we’ve
been missing
To the editor:
The recent letter about Hastings being a
“sundown town” and the writer’s grand-
daughter being labeled with a racial slur,
saddened me greatly. My own wonderful
grandchildren are not being raised here
because my Asian-American daughter-in-law
saw no diversity here. We miss so much when
we exclude others who don’t look like us.
I applaud the many people who attended
the first of three, “courageous conversations”
sponsored by the Barry County Chamber and
Economic Development Alliance. There, we
learned that silence means compliance. So
speak up! Let’s have an even bigger response
at the next Zoom meeting starting at 6:
p.m. on Sept. 30 (tonight).Carole G. Smith,
DeltonValues have strayed to sad levels
To the editor:
I went to the Hastings Area Schools board
meeting recently and, by the time I left after
the public comments, I was so sad.
I wondered where my country and commu-
nity is headed when wearing a mask to pro-
tect our children, the people who are teaching
them and serving them in our schools
becomes so contentious.When did our values stray from working
together and doing things that are uncom-
fortable for the benefit of the greater good
and the protection of those who are vulner-
able?
We were able to do it during World War
II and, more recently, after the attacks of
9/11.
What has happened to us now that hascaused so much anger over the simple act of
wearing a mask? Is it really so hard to do if it
could save just one child from becoming seri-
ously ill and potentially dying?
Is giving up one small personal right not
worth that?Mary Beth Adyniec,
HastingsWhen government officials overstep
To the editor:
A government leader instructed midwives to
allow newborn girls to live, but to kill baby boys.
They did not heed what he said. Then the same
leader said that baby boys were to be thrown into
a river. The parents of a son did comply.
Another man made a tall image of gold and
commanded everyone to bow before it. Three
young men refused.
Still another leader said his word was ulti-
mate and anyone who did not follow it would
be thrown to lions. Yet one man continued to
pray as he had always done.
Leaders told a group of men they were
forbidden to speak in public. They replied
that they could only declare what they had
seen and heard, and that the leader’s words
were not the highest authority.
The first accounts are from the Bible,
Exodus chapters 1 and 2. The second and
third are from Daniel, chapters 3 and 6. The
fourth is from Acts, chapters 4 and 5.
God created government for the benefitand order of society. In the usual routines and
patterns of life, government is to be support-
ed and prayed for (Matthew 22:15-21;
Romans 13:1-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; Titus 3:1,l
2; 1 Peter 2:13-17).
Yet we also read that any person who says
his world is supreme has gone into an area in
which he has no business.
Increasingly, government officials are over-
stepping this boundary. They are not account-
able to the people. They say their word is final.
They push that people’s money will be used to
kill babies. They mandate that citizens cannot
gather and worship according to the dictates of
their own consciences. They direct that employ-
ees must be vaccinated or else they will be fired.
A storm is upon us. Our only hope and help
is from above. We must turn from our stub-
born ways. May the Lord of heaven and earth
have mercy on us.Dan Bowman,
PlainwellCounty in desperate
need of leaders
To the editor:
What happened at the Barry-Eaton
District Health Department meeting
last week rests squarely on the Barry
County Board of Commissioners’
shoulders.
As you probably know, the man
making a citizen’s arrest said he
had discussed it with Sheriff Dar
Leaf. Because of the board’s refus-
al to censure Leaf’s actions, he
continues to negatively affect this
county without fear of condemna-
tion.
And at Tuesday’s meeting, the
board allowed Drain Commissioner
Jim Dull to say that only one per-
son spoke negatively about their
Watson Drain District assessment
without even questioning him. Thatwas wrong, and it’s hard to imagine
that not one commissioner realized
that.
The county board is supposed to
provide the leadership for our coun-
ty, which sometimes means making
hard decisions – including holding
other county officials accountable.
When they were elected, that is what
was expected of them. Sadly, the
turmoil in our county is a result of
that not taking place.
These folks wanted the job of
commissioner – I’m assuming
because they wanted to lead. So they
need to start leading. Our county
needs it desperately.Larry Osborne,
DeltonSelf-restraint is essential
to freedom
To the editor:
In the United States, we are proud to assert
our ideals, especially liberty and freedom. It
is easy to treat freedom as an absolute ideal
but worth thinking about it a little bit. Like
most Americans, I think it is an ideal worth
striving for, but I know of no one who seri-
ously believes in absolute freedom.
Everyone who is in possession of their
faculties restrains themselves in some ways.
We don’t generally walk around naked in
public. We don’t utter every insulting thought
that comes to mind. We don’t take everything
we want without paying for it.
We all exercise some self-restraint on our
freedoms. And we expect others to exercise
some self-restraint as well.
All of us recognize that there is a need to
constrain the freedoms of others. Driving at
excessive speeds or under the influence puts
other people at risk. Firing a gun on a crowded
street or shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater
could be deadly. We do not allow people to
freely take whatever they want from others.
There is always give and take, a consider-
ation of what the cost of acting too freely might
be. We don’t always agree on what cost is too
high, and we commonly assume a right to act
freely in some way that we begrudge others.
But we recognize the need to live with the
responsibilities that come with our freedoms.
Or at least we should.
A classic metaphor for the limits of free-
dom is that “your right to swing your arms
ends at my nose.” For 14 years, I was a town-
ship planning commission chairman and for
the past 25 years, I have been an environmen-
talist active in water protection. My own
metaphor is that “one person’s right to take a
pee ends at another person’s right to clean
drinking water.”
During my tenure as a planning official, I
learned the practical side of another truth
about freedom. Freedom doesn’t exist as an
absolute except in slogans and song lyrics. It
can only have real meaning when considered
as the “freedom to do something” or “free-
dom from something.”
The First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution states we have the right to freely
exercise our religion, freely speak our minds
and freely assemble. The Fourth Amendment
states that people have the right to be secure
in their persons, houses, papers and effects
against unreasonable searches and seizures;
that is, we have a right to freedom from
unreasonable governmental intrusion.
In his State of the Union address Jan. 6,
1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt out-
lined four freedoms that were worth fighting
for to help explain to the Congress and the
American people why it might be necessary
to go to war with the Axis powers almost a
year before the attack on Pearl Harbor drew
the U.S. into World War II. Roosevelt listed
the freedom of speech, the freedom of wor-
ship, the freedom from want, and the freedom
from fear. Note that two of these are freedoms
to do something and two of these are free-
doms from something.
Sometimes it may seem that two different
freedoms can be in conflict. Since the
COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been
many recommendations and some mandates
for people to regulate their behavior. Many
people have resisted these strictures as limita-
tions on their freedom to do what they want.
And, of course, they are limitations. But they
are introduced to allow us to have other free-
doms. The purpose is to allow people to go
into public spaces, conduct their businesses,
go to work or school with the maximum free-
dom from exposure to a serious contagious
disease and the risks of illness and death.
The current debates are about vaccinations
and masks. I have discussed vaccinations in
another letter to the editor, and it is a compli-
cated issue. But the question of masks is not
complicated. It’s simple: Except for a very few
people with certain medical or psychological
issues, a requirement to wear a mask in public
imposes a minimal burden. Medical health
professionals have been wearing masks for
prolonged periods of time for more than 100
years to protect our patients from the possibil-
ity we will infect them with a contagious dis-
ease. I am a retired veterinarian, and for 40
years I always wore a mask during surgery.
I referred to debates about this issue. I wish
we were only dealing with debates. There
have been mobs of shouting people, threats to
school and public health officials, and even
physical violence. Recently, someone tried to
run the Kent County Public Health Officer
off the highway two days after his department
issued a mask mandate in the public schools.
It is a question of balance. Is the freedom
to go maskless more important than the free-
dom to conduct our lives in public without
being exposed to a serious contagious dis-
ease? If there was really a heavy cost to wear-
ing a mask, then the answer might be yes. But
there isn’t a heavy cost to wearing a mask. No
freedoms are absolute or just ideals in space.
We are talking about freedom from wearing
masks. And we are talking about freedom
from exposure to disease.
It’s always a matter of opinion. I get that.
But it is also a matter of facts. No serious
problems are caused by wearing a mask.
COVID is highly contagious, especially the
delta variant which is the most common one
now. COVID kills. Close to 700,
Americans have died from COVID in the past
year and a half. This is 10 to 20 times the
number of deaths caused by influenza.
And masks work. There have been studies
following infections from COVID in school
children done in many school systems, includ-
ing in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kansas,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North
Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Australia and the
United Kingdom involving about 5 million kids
in total. In every study, children in schools
where masks were worn had significantly fewer
cases of COVID-19. This is not just a matter of
opinion. My opinion may not be worth more
than Dr. Fauci’s or your neighbor’s or a televi-
sion commentator’s or a YouTube influencer’s.
Studies involving millions of students are
worth more.
Do your own research. Start with the CDC
report on those studies: cdc.gov/mmwr/vol-
umes/70/wr/mm7039e3.htm?s_cid=m-
m7039e3_x. Don’t trust the CDC? It’s not
about the CDC. Read about the studies and
then decide. You can also get summaries of
several studies by searching for Masking in
Schools – Children’s Hospital Colorado.
It’s not a matter of trust. The results of
comparing schools with and without mask
policies are clear. If masks are worn in
schools, there are fewer infections.Dr. Kenneth M. Kornheiser,
Prairieville TownshipMeijer introduces bill to
expand civic education
U.S. Reps. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., and Mary
Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., introduced the Teaching
Engaged Citizenship Act of 2021 to promote
and expand high quality, evidence-based civic
education and service-learning programming
in K-12 public schools.
“According to a 2020 report by the National
Commission on Military, National, and Public
Service, significantly greater federal invest-
ment in civic education, widespread adoption
of proven, state-based best practices, and
incorporation of service-learning within
school curricula are critical to preparing
young Americans to realize their obligations
as citizens and expose them to opportunities
to engage in military, national, and public
service,” a statement from Meijer said.
This legislation will create a “Civic
Education and Service-Learning Grant
Program” to support the implementation of
high quality, evidence-based civic education
and service-learning programming in K-
public schools. The bill would authorize the
appropriation of $400 million for the pro-
gram. It also will establish an Office of Civic
Education within the Department of Education
to promote civic education throughout the
United States.
“Studies today show students lack access
and exposure to high-quality civic education
in U.S. classrooms. A federal investment in
civic education and service-learning would
help prepare young Americans to realize their
duties as citizens and cultivate a culture of
service to country,” Meijer said. “Serving my
country has been one of the most meaningful
and rewarding experiences of my life. That
call to service may exist in students across
our country who don’t currently have the
resources to gain more meaningful knowl-
edge about the different ways to demonstrate
their civic responsibility.
“I’m proud to join Rep. Scanlon in intro-
ducing this legislation to improve civic edu-
cation and increase participation in military,
national, and public service with heightened
focus on experiential learning in congressio-
nal hearing, courtroom, and public hearing
simulations in schools throughout Michigan
and across the country. Our students and
teachers deserve these resources and learning
opportunities.”
“Our young people need to acquire the skills
to understand how our government works,
become effective citizens, advocate for them-
selves and their communities, and navigate the
masses of misinformation found on social
media,” Scanlon said. “I am proud to lead this
bipartisan effort alongside Rep. Meijer to
expand and revitalize civic education and pro-
mote public service in the United States.”The act is supported by the Michigan
Center for Civic Education, the Campaign for
the Civic Mission of Schools, CivXNow
Coalition, and the Center for Civic Education.
“The Michigan Center for Civic Education
(MCCE) applauds Representative Meijer for
his commitment to informed, active, and
vibrant civic communities,” Ellen
Zwarensteyn, executive director, Michigan
Center for Civic Education, said. “The
Teaching Engaged Citizenship Act of 2021
represents a significant milestone in raising
the awareness of and support for meaningful
civic education. “The Teaching Engaged
Citizenship Act of 2021 represents stu-
dent-centered, inquiry driven, and prob-
lem-based educational possibilities. We wel-
come the emphasis on developing civic
knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions.
“Opportunities to practice those skills in
K-12 settings are proven to inspire the confi-
dence and competence necessary for meaning-
ful civic engagement. The act would allow
more professional learning opportunities for
teachers to cultivate their own knowledge and
skills to inspire their students, schools, and
communities. MCCE enthusiastically endors-
es The Teaching Engaged Citizenship Act of
2021as it paves the way for the knowledge,
skills, and dispositions our students need to
fully participate in the practice of democracy.”
“Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon’s and Rep. Peter
Meijer’s Teaching Engaged Citizenship Act
of 2021 offers significant and much-needed
assistance to states and local school districts
in fulfilling their essential Civic Mission to
provide high-quality civic education to all
students,” Ted McConnell, executive director
of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of
Schools, said. “Their legislation, enacting the
recommendations of the nonpartisan National
Commission on Military, National, Public
Service, should be swiftly passed by Congress
to help ensure a well informed and engaged
citizenry.”
“We are grateful for the bipartisan agree-
ment and commitment to civic education and
service learning as critical investments for all
K-12 schools, as demonstrated by the cospon-
sors of the Teaching Engaged Citizenship
Act,” said Shawn Healy, senior director of
Policy and Advocacy, iCivics. “The CivXNow
Coalition, a project of iCivics, is deeply com-
mitted to greater federal prioritization of, and
investment in, K-12 civics as a means of
strengthening our constitutional democracy.
“We believe the Teaching Engaged
Citizenship Act significantly advances this
goal and are particularly thankful for the
leadership of Representatives Scanlon and
Meijer on this issue.”The Teaching Engaged Citizenship Act
would create a civic education and ser-
vice-learning grant program to:- Support the development and imple-
mentation of high-quality, evidence-based
civic education and service-learning pro-
gramming in K-12 public schools and pro-
mote hands-on civic learning activities like
simulated Congressional hearings, simulated
public hearings, and courtroom simulations. - Provide teacher development with
respect to civic education and service-learn-
ing programming in K-12 public schools. - Assist states, institutions of higher edu-
cation, and nonprofit organizations in sup-
porting civic education and service learning
in K-12 public schools. - Establish an Office of Civic Education
within the Department of Education to pro-
mote civic education throughout the United
States. - Require the administration of National
Assessments of Education Progress (NAEPs)
in civics and history at the same frequency
as reading and mathematics in grades 4, 8,
and 12; and require that civics and history
assessment data is published in the aggre-
gate for the United States and separately for
each state. - Establish an annual Excellence in Civics
Award to highlight excellence in the devel-
opment and teaching of civic education and
service learning. - Support the development and distribu-
tion of educational materials and teaching
resources related to civic education and
effective citizenship by the Library of
Congress, Institute of Museum and Library
Services, and the National Archives.
More than 50% of adults have a positive
perception of ads in print newspapers.*
Want to be next to trusted
content? Place your ad in this
newspaper and a network of
newspapers in the state!
Call this paper
or 800-227-
*Kantar Millward Brown, Feb. 2018THIS AD FOR SALE!
http://www.cnaads.comMICHAEL KINNEY
PLUMBING
Licensed Master Plumber
Licensed Journeyman Plumber
New construction, remodel, repair, drain cleaning.
BRADFORD WHITE WATER HEATERS
Same Day Installation
Office (269) 948-
Mobile (269) 838-License
#
& InsuredNancy Goodin (left), representing the Women’s Giving Circle of Barry County, pres-
ents a check for $8,150 to Janie Bergeron of Green Gables Haven. (Photo provided)
Peter Meijer