Page 14 — Thursday, October 13, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
It wasn’t that long
ago one could hear
Louis Armstrong or
another singer belt
out the famous ballad
What A Wonderful
World. It’s a beautiful
tune, a gentle two-step,
with lyrics full of hope
and wonder. A man
of color singing about his wonderful life in a wonderful
world, with nature, beauty, babies and love all around
him.
Today, in our own wonderful community, an 84-year-
old woman going door to door and sharing with neighbors
about the worst ballot proposal the world has ever seen,
gets shot in the shoulder. Why? Just because that neigh-
bor didn’t agree with her viewpoint on Proposal 3. What
could have been a wonderful discussion, became a near
death experience. So, what is behind Proposal 3 and why
is it causing all this violence? It’s just politics and rheto-
ric, right? What’s the wonderful big deal?
Let’s examine Proposal 3, deceptively termed “Right
to Reproductive Freedom Initiative”, which will forever
change our Michigan Constitution, with no hope of any
legislator altering it in the future. It overrides parental
rights, giving super-rights to anyone who would like to
exercise vague freedoms over any individual, minors
included, in relation to reproductive organs, process-
es, transgender surgeries, abortions, sterilizations, cas-
trations, etc. The list is long with what it includes, like
anytime abortion (after birth), by anyone (not a doctor),
in any clinic or room or whatever, without oversight or
question, with no parental consent or knowledge, deleting
all current state laws and protections that might challenge
any part of these new rights...this is evil!
Can you smell the aroma of people at the top of this
food chain controlling victims and making a whole lot
of money? What is the purpose of this proposal? Is it to
promote childhood sexual anarchy? Every not-wonderful
thing you can think of from pedophilia to sex-trafficking
to rape to abuse of minors...all these included, without
the benefit of current state laws that protect women, chil-
dren, and parents from these evils. Michigan Board of
Canvassers states plainly that if this proposal passes, it
will “invalidate all state laws that conflict with it” (whichBy Gina Johnsen
are the current legal protections against it).
Additionally, Planned Parenthood’s multi-billion-dol-
lar industry, the ACLU, and Jane’s Revenge (a militant
pro-abortion group) partner together to threaten any who
would question their flow of revenue. In light of the chal-
lenges to this Proposal 3, pregnancy centers in Michigan
found notes like this on their doors: “Warning: this is a
fake clinic. If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you. Next
time we will visit your homes, your churches, and your
sponsors. Expect us.” And how interesting it is that the
groups that claim they want abortion to be “safe and rare”,
are the ones now threatening everyone’s lives and attempt-
ing to bully us all into submission. Who could possibly
trust them?!
If you knew nothing at all about the topic of Proposal 3,
but were aware of all the threats, the violence, the gun
shots, and the hate, you might just be okay concluding that
you would certainly vote NO on it. Who wants all that
drama and violence?! Whether we are Christian or not, we
all know good from evil. It is evil to encourage children
to make decisions that will impact their lives irreversibly.
Enough said – it’s not wonderful!
Proposal 3 is actually simple. It turns parents into weak,
powerless bystanders while enabling the government/
school to change and mold their children into physical-
ly unfit and abnormal barren young people. And there’s a
whole lot of money in sex-trafficking, abortion, transgen-
der surgeries, and the sale of puberty-blocking drugs. The
only thing stopping this flow of MONEY is us and our
votes! Those of us who are committed to being informed
are going to vote our consciences and emphatically say
NO to this and the other two bad proposals on the Novem-
ber 8th ballot. Proposal 3 is actually the worst proposal the
entire world has ever seen.
Satan has planted his flag in Michigan and thinks he will
lead destruction of America right here in our home state.
You might say he is trying to connect New York to Cali-
fornia via mid-American Michigan. Are we going to stop
this movement? Are we going to admit this is wrong? Will
we win this battle against such tremendous evil and gross
assault on humanity? It’s up to us – VOTE NO and help us
defeat it. Contact http://www.protectlifemi.org or http://www.support-
miwomenandchildren.org.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious
people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any
other.” -- John AdamsPaid for by Regulated Funds from Michigan Pray, 106 W. Allegan St, #200, Lansing, MI 48933Delton girls sweep past Black River on senior night
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Delton Kellogg varsity vol-
leyball team celebrated senior night
with a 29-27, 25-18, 25-9 win over
visiting Holland Black River.
“It was nice to get the W at
home, especially since we techni-
cally have nine seniors this year,”
Delton Kellogg head coach Erin
Thornton said.
That group of nine Delton Kel-
logg seniors includes a pair of
foreign exchange students, “so,
it’s a little extra special this year
with the majority of the varsity
team not coming back next year,”
Thornton said.
It has been a busy few days for
the Panthers, who will also have an
eventual Thursday night tonight
hosting Fennville and Allegan on aPink Out Breast Cancer Awareness
Night in Delton.
DK followed up its win Thurs-
day by testing itself at the Wayland
Invitational Saturday.
“We didn’t take home a W on
the day, but we did compete with
Wayland, Plainwell and Allen-
dale. We did see Plainwell earlier
in the season, and we definitely
improved from the last meeting,”
Thornton said.
The DK coach said middles
Lille Ferris and Abigail Coburn
didn’t need long to realize that
they had to get their blocks up fast
against the quick attacks from their
competitors Saturday.
The Panthers finished strong at
Galesburg-Augusta Tuesday in a
Southwestern Athletic Confer-
ence Quad which put them upagainst Kalamazoo Christian and
Parchment.
Parchment took a 25-20 in the
first set of the final match of the
evening, but the Delton Kellogg
girls rallied for 25-22, 17-15 wins
in the final two sets to secure the
victory.
Thornton was happy to see her
team keep pace with the Kalamazoo
Christian Comets for half of the
first set before they pulled away.
“They are a strong team, as they
have been in years past, so we
knew what was coming. It was just
a little out of reach,” Thornton said
of the two-set loss to the Comets.
The Delton Kellogg girls are at
the Constantine Invitational Satur-
day and then will head to Lawton
for a conference tri with the Blue
Devils and South Haven Tuesday.Lakewood ladies sweep
through their invitational
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Lakewood didn’t drop a set all day in
winning its own Lakewood Invitational
against a mix of foes from across the state
Saturday, but the Vikings had to work late
in a couple sets to stay perfect.
The Vikings closed out pool play unbeat-
en with a contentious match against Lowell
and then powered through a 25-23, 25-
win over Okemos in the tournament cham-
pionship game.
The Wolves from Okemos jumped out to
a 5-0 lead in their championship match with
the Vikings and had their advantage to as
many as eight points a couple times. The
Okemos lead was at 19-12 before the
Vikings really started shaving it down at the
end of that first set.
With the Wolves struggling to pass Paige
Wolverton’s serves, at least the ones they
could even get to, the Vikings won seven
consecutive points to get even at 19-19.
Tied 20-20 Lakewood setter Abby Pickard
put a second ball over for a kill and then
dug a ball to Wolverton, which she put up
and Skylar Bump put down for a kill, to
force an Okemos timeout with the Vikings
leading 22-20. Okemos got back to even at
22-22 before Lakewood finally pulled in
front for good, finishing off the Wolves
with Pickard hitting through a block on the
left side for a kill.
Pickard had a team-high 32 kills on the
day to go with 39 assists, six aces, 21 digs
and three blocks.
Bump, the Vikings’ other regular setter,
did a bit of everything Saturday too. She
had 14 kills as well as a team-high 43
assists, ten aces and 24 digs.
Alivia Everitt had 23 kills and two blocks
for Lakewood. Cadence Poll and Ellie Pos-
sehn had 16 kills each and Izzy Wheeler 13.
Possehn and Wheeler had two blocks each.
Carley Piercefield, the Vikings’ junior
libero, had 47 digs and 17 assists.
Lakewood’s serving was strong through-
out the tournament. Alli Pickard had seven
aces. Wolverton finished with six, including
two in the late run against Okemos. Pierce-
field had four aces and Bailey Fifelski came
on to hit three.
“I liked our service pressure all day,”
Lakewood head coach Cameron Rowland
said. “We did exactly what we needed to do
to win against teams by making it tough on
their best players to score. That is some-
thing we have continued to work on in
order to help us have more scoring chances
of our own.”Lakewood started its day Saturday with
a 25-14, 25-18 win over Harper Creek and
then bested Essexville Garber 25-23,
25-14. In the final match of pool play, the
Vikings knocked off Lowell 25-17, 28-26.
The Vikings had to rally from behind in
consecutive sets, that first one with Oke-
mos after a second set with Lowell in
which they trailed by as much as 17-10. It
was a couple of aces by Alli Pickard that
really got things rolling for the Vikings in
set two against the Red Arrows. A couple
more aces by Abby later helped the
Vikings go from 22-17 down to 22-
down.
Lakewood pulled even with the Arrows
for the first time at 24-24 and eventually
finished off the victory that earned it the
chance to play for the championship. The
big serves by the Pickard sisters and a few
big swings by Everitt were key in the clos-
ing out Lowell.
It was the first action for the Vikings
since a Sept. 27 Greater Lansing Activities
Conference dual with Perry.
The Vikings head to the Beast of the
East Tournament in Pontiac Saturday
where they will start out the day with pool
play against Ann Arbor Skyline, Imlay
City and Grandville.HHS girls close golf season in tough field of D3 teams
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
OK Gold Conference rivals and
top five ranked teams in the state
South Christian and Grand Rapids
Catholic Central finished atop the
standings at the MHSAA Lower
Peninsula Division 3 Girls Golf
Regional at Willow Wood Golf
Course in Portland Wednesday.
The Sailors bested the Cougars
339-341 for the regional champion-
ship with Holland Christian a distant
third at 385. The top three teams and
top three girls not on those teams at
regionals across the state last week
earned spots in the Oct. 14-
MHSAA L.P. Division 3 Girls Golf
Finals that will be held at Forest
Akers East Golf Course on the cam-
pus of Michigan State University.
Grand Rapids Christian fresh-
man Lillian O’Grady was tops in
the field individually shooting a- She was joined by Unity Chris-
tian sophomore Evelyn Kwiatkow-
ski and Hamilton senior Autumn
VanderKooi in qualifying for the
state finals as an individual. Kwi-
atkowski and VanderKooi beat out
Kwiatowski’s junior teammate
Ellie Kerkstrat in a playoff for the
final two state qualifying spots. All
three girls shot a 97 during the
18-hole regional round.
The Hastings girls were 12th on
the day, led by senior Lauren
Arnold who shot a 121 in her final
varsity round. Junior Addey Nick-
els was right behind with a 123 and
the Saxon team also had freshman
Sophia Greenfield and junior Isa-
belle Roosien competing.
O’Grady’s Grand Rapids Chris-
tian team placed fourth with a
score of 393, ahead of Unity Chris-
tian 411, Hamilton 433, Portland
448, Hopkins 464, Wayland 469,
Ionia 501, Allendale 502 and Hast-
ings 528.South Christian won the region-
al title thanks to an 81 from junior
Ashley Thomasma, an 83 from
senior Lucy DeHaan, an 87 from
senior Claire Vanelderen and an
88 from senior Natalie Northouse.
Catholic Central brought a
much younger line-up to the
regional. Sophomore Ava Wisins-
ki and freshman Kelsey Preston
each shot an 81 to lead the Cou-
gars. Catholic Central added an 87
from senior Morgan Armock and
a 92 from freshman Margaret
Deimel.
Senior Ainsley VandenBrink
and junior Megan Frassmid led the
Holland Christian team in its state
qualifying performance – each
shooting a 93 which had them in a
tie for tenth individually overall.
The top five medalists on the
day were O’Grady and the top two
players from South Christian and
Catholic Central.Lakewood teammates Abby Pickard, (from left) Alli Pickard, Carley Piercefield, Cadence Poll and Skylar Bump celebrate
winning a big point in their championship match against Okemos Saturday at their own Lakewood Invitational. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Lakewood's Izzy Wheeler hits an attack during her team's win over Okemos in the
championship match of the Lakewood Invitational Saturday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Assistant coach Alex (Culbert) Williams and head coach Jamie Ianni look on as their
Okemos Wolves take on Lakewood in the championship match of Saturday's
Lakewood Invitational. (Photo by Brett Bremer)