Letters

BRIAN LARSEN Following up on their January 28 board meeting where it was decided to build a transfer station from concrete rather than steel, the commissioners voted Monday, February 3rd in special meeting, to pay for the bonding of the building through Ann Sullivan’s motion “to approve the classification structure to include vacant land with $50 charged to residential classifications and $100.00 to Multi-Family & Commercial classifications. David Mills seconded the motion and it was carried unanimously.

MILLIONS and MILLIONS have been added to our county debt.

A couple of weeks ago I read an op-ed by William Cooper titled ''Shut-Up' doesn't light the way.' He wrote a lot about free speech (protected by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution along with freedom of press, assembly, petition, and religion). Cooper wrote that 'America's founders specifically engineered them (the essential tools of American democracy) to be effective tools against the threat of politicians with autocratic impulses. ..Tyrants don't just concentrate power; they eliminate dissent...Violence within and between nations increases when governments stifle communication.... Silencing free speech is a slippery slope... President Truman put it plainly in 1950: 'Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.' ' Cooper ended his opinion piece emphasizing that freedom of speech is crucial to our representative democracy and it is essential to a functioning society. 'We must fight to preserve it by respecting it and promoting it ourselves...even when the speaker says things we don't want to hear....especially when Donald Trump is president.'

The overwhelming generosity of the people of Grand Marais helped provide joy to children in need through Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts this season. Across the U.S., the Samaritan's Purse project collected 10.5 million shoebox gifts in 2024. Combined with those collected from partnering countries in 2024, the ministry is now sending over 11.9 millionshoebox gifts to children worldwide.

ROSEANNE COOLEY, FINANCE & BUSINESS MANAGER FOR VISIT COOK COUNTY

It was Jimmy — not James, or even Jim. He was who he was; he didn’t put on airs. Jimmy Carter was not like the politicians of today.

Our local post office was extremely busy this holiday season with a record number of packages to be sorted along with all the regular mail and our last-minute packages we needed to get mailed out “right now “causing long lines and some ill-mannered customers.

Red Lake is Minnesota’s largest inland lake covering over 288,000 acres. It’s now infested with zebra mussel larvae. In 2019 the DNR announced they had found zebra mussels, the tiny larvae in Upper Red Lake. Many suspect that it was brought in by boaters traveling between lakes. If people in Minnesota start following the recommendation to check their boats for Zebra mussels when they pull them out of the water, then boat inspection should become mandatory.