Letters to the Editor: Veterans Affairs director position unnecessary

Veterans Affairs director position unnecessary

As a taxpayer in Ottawa County, I object to funding this hire without a reduction in the 2024 budget. I am a veteran and have been taken care of well by the current Ottawa County and VA Muskegon.

Why not ask a question who is paying for this service? Money does not grow on trees. Look at the hire that may cost Ottawa County $4 million. Who has been held responsible?

W.J. Widdis

Spring Lake

Dangers in literalistic Bible interpretation 

Ren Broekhuizen’s essay, “Christians mature by studying the Bible together” (Sentinel, Dec. 28), explains his opposition to an article by humanist Chris Highland by quoting 12 Bible passages.

By his literalistic interpretation of some of these verses, he makes several very scary statements. A conservative literalist interpretation such as his usually leads to the law trumping God’s love. A more open progressive interpretation, on the other hand, leads to God’s love trumping the law.

Broekhuizen states, “Every page of the Old Testament is watermarked with the image of Jesus.” If so, did Jesus then take the time to cite the complete Old Testament as commented in Luke 24:27? Did Jesus teach about God’s approval of genocide as in Deuteronomy 20:16-17? Did Jesus teach people to kill gays as in Leviticus 20:13?

Another scary verse Broekhuizen quotes is, “We must obey God rather than human beings,” Acts 5:28. If you take this literally, scripture can and has been used to justify prejudice leading to the mistreatment of others, including murder. It can justify a student who in my Christian school classroom challenged me, “Who are you to tell me I cannot harass gays, when God says I can kill them?” That comment sent a chill down my back.

The Christian Right in America, which now makes up a majority in the Republican Party, see themselves as good fighting a spiritual battle with godless, evil Democrats. They support Donald Trump, viewing him as God’s agent for goodness.

The problem with biblical literalism is that it can and has been used to justify attacks on the left, support for slavery, death for gays, discrimination against women, even attacks on science. If you are waging a “war” on evil, you can justify threatening anyone who opposes you with death, as we are seeing with the attacks on those attempting to bring Trump to justice.

When I asked one such biblically literalistic Christian how they could support an immoral, narcissist, want-to-be-dictator Trump, they responded by saying God is using Trump to do good by opposing abortion and keeping evil criminals from crossing our southern border. This Christian also uses scripture to oppose the government’s helping the poor and providing good healthcare for all. They also support the private ownership of weapons designed for war and continued use of fossil fuels.

Another, a distant neighbor, had a “Jesus is Lord of Ottawa County” sign while flying multiple Trump flags along with a “Go Brandon” sign.

My Christianity taught me to love and respect my neighbor as a fellow human being made in God's image. Literalist interpretations are flawed because they too often ignore Jesus’ command to love your neighbor.

Don Bergman

Holland

When will the eight ball be dropped?

Talk about dirty pool! Moss and his buddies have done it again. Now they are after Bergman, Bonnema and Zylstra — only allowing them to serve on one committee each. What is Moss afraid of? Someone who is more logical than him and his little band of “helpers”? Afraid that they may have more common sense and take over? Talk about dictatorship — Moss is way beyond that. One year of training for the "newbies" is enough Doesn't seem like it.

What happened to transparency? What happened to having a board of commissioners that was willing to work together? What a hell of a mess the board of commissioners are in — and they are supposed to be “for the citizens?”

Sally Joldersma

Holland

Pay attention, Ottawa County voters

The OI-majority County Commission’s first meeting of 2024 may not have been as much of a shock as their first meeting of 2023, but it was impactful nonetheless.

Mr. Moss, as board chair, has sole discretion in making committee assignments, and as outlined in this publication, he used this authority to ensure that non-OI commissioners would have a muted voice in committee decision-making in 2024. While OI commissioners have multiple committee assignments on key committees, vocal opponents of OI (Commissioners Zylstra, Bonnema and Bergman) received only one committee assignment each.

Late last year, Mr. Moss proposed new HR policies that would allow the circumvention of standard HR hiring and firing policies whenever the board chair or the county administrator desired to do so. These proposed changes are still under legal review. Shutting down opposing voices and interfering with HR policies paint a picture of an authoritarian approach to governing. Combine this with the irresponsible decisions regarding hiring, firing, budgeting, transparency and a no-bid contract for legal services costing the county thousands of dollars, and we have poor governance from top to bottom.

Ottawa County voters: Pay attention to what Mr. Moss and the OI majority on the board are doing here! You have the power to make a change. Get engaged in the many grassroots efforts forming across the county to elect commissioners who take good governance seriously and are willing to represent everyone in this county, regardless of who they voted for. If you haven’t already done so, connect to the Organize Ottawa Facebook page to stay informed and to find out how you can get involved in making sure that responsible governance with integrity is restored in Ottawa County in 2025.

The power is in our hands.

Marsha Manning

Port Sheldon Township

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: Veterans Affairs director position unnecessary