Ah, October.
The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and the Detroit Tigers can watch the World Series from the comfort of their La-Z-Boys on their big-screen TVs at home – again.
The temperatures may be cooling down, but political races are heating up as the calendar speeds toward Nov. 4.
The August primaries resulted in more than a couple surprises, and I’m guessing there may be a few more in the general election.
Like we did in the run-up to August, The Chelsea Standard will bring readers profiles of the different races.
As a general policy, this newspaper does not endorse candidates.
Having been the editor at small community papers in the past, I think that’s wise.
In a close-knit community, feelings can be too easily bruised, and the newspaper’s position as a neutral observer can suffer.
After all, we reporters have to work with these people and depend on them for information, and if they feel they have been slighted in any way, they can just clam up.
Not a good way to do business.
That’s why we do the candidate Q&As.
While they may not make for the most compelling reading, they at least give voters a little bit of information on which they can base their decision, and they are in the candidates' own words.
It’s better than going into the ballot box, staring at the list of names and marking a box, almost at random.
You may as well pick a name out of a hat, and how can the democratic process survive by doing that?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Farewell to Huehl Acres, but not to Adopt-A-Farm
The intent of the Chelsea Standard’s participation in the Adopt-A-Farm program is to make the public more aware of the challenges faced by family farms.
Looking back over the past 12 months of stories about Huehl Acres, I realize just how much I’ve learned about farm life, and hopefully readers have, too.
Jerry and Denny Huehl have been extraordinarily gracious hosts, inviting this city kid onto their farm or into their homes every month for some pretty close scrutiny and the occasional dumb question.
I’ve learned some valuable lessons, such as to always keep an eye on where I’m walking, and, related to that, always carry boots in my truck.
If not for these stories I never would have ridden in and taken photos from a 30-foot-wide John Deere combine, or watch a cow have its hooves trimmed, or get sneezed on by a calf with a respiratory ailment.
And I’m happy to report, due to a very positive response from farmers and non-farmers alike, I have agreed to continue this monthly series of stories.
I’ll be reporting on a different local farm, with a different kind of operation: Mike and Kathy Fusilier's greenhouse and produce farm near Manchester. There is always more to learn in this business.
I am sincerely thankful for the kind and patient assistance shown me by the Huehl brothers and their wives, Carol and Sue; to farm assistants Nelson Bollinger and Rachel Girbach; and to Kathy Siler, Communications Committee chair for the Washtenaw County Farm Bureau, who came to us with the idea a year ago.
We started in June, with the corn and soybeans already in the ground and the brothers bringing in the first cutting of alfalfa.
This month we’ve come full circle, by planting the beans and corn.
This has been a very eye-opening experience for me, an opportunity I’m truly grateful to have been offered.
I hope I’ve been able to convey to our readers at least some sense of the challenges facing local farmers.
Hopefully, now we all have a better appreciation of where our food comes from — not just from some corporate conglomerate out in Kansas or California or even China, but from our neighbors.
Looking back over the past 12 months of stories about Huehl Acres, I realize just how much I’ve learned about farm life, and hopefully readers have, too.
Jerry and Denny Huehl have been extraordinarily gracious hosts, inviting this city kid onto their farm or into their homes every month for some pretty close scrutiny and the occasional dumb question.
I’ve learned some valuable lessons, such as to always keep an eye on where I’m walking, and, related to that, always carry boots in my truck.
If not for these stories I never would have ridden in and taken photos from a 30-foot-wide John Deere combine, or watch a cow have its hooves trimmed, or get sneezed on by a calf with a respiratory ailment.
And I’m happy to report, due to a very positive response from farmers and non-farmers alike, I have agreed to continue this monthly series of stories.
I’ll be reporting on a different local farm, with a different kind of operation: Mike and Kathy Fusilier's greenhouse and produce farm near Manchester. There is always more to learn in this business.
I am sincerely thankful for the kind and patient assistance shown me by the Huehl brothers and their wives, Carol and Sue; to farm assistants Nelson Bollinger and Rachel Girbach; and to Kathy Siler, Communications Committee chair for the Washtenaw County Farm Bureau, who came to us with the idea a year ago.
We started in June, with the corn and soybeans already in the ground and the brothers bringing in the first cutting of alfalfa.
This month we’ve come full circle, by planting the beans and corn.
This has been a very eye-opening experience for me, an opportunity I’m truly grateful to have been offered.
I hope I’ve been able to convey to our readers at least some sense of the challenges facing local farmers.
Hopefully, now we all have a better appreciation of where our food comes from — not just from some corporate conglomerate out in Kansas or California or even China, but from our neighbors.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
This is why I became a reporter
It’s been a busy week around here, but it’s been ultimately satisfying.
If you are reading this, I’m sure you’ve already seen our exclusive Web coverage of “The Fire,” or possibly read about it in the May 8 print edition.
An incident like the Chelsea Shopping Center fire doesn’t happen very often – thank the gracious Lord – but it reminded me of why I got into this crazy business in the first place, and why I’ve been crazy enough to stick with it for so long.
I’ve covered a number of fires during my career, but none like the one I witnessed Monday.
Never in more than 16 years have I seen a place that, by all rights, should be a smoldering pile of charred rubble.
Journalists like to say that they’ve seen everything, that nothing bothers them.
I’m not one of those guys. I broke a few rules by getting too close to the smoke trying to get photos, and spent the rest of the day coughing my lungs out.
And I still haven’t told my wife about the hole burned in one of my best shirts from flying embers. Let’s just keep that between us,OK?
Watching the flames race across the roof of the strip mall from Pamida to the Chelsea Grille in a matter of minutes was stunning.
Seeing two Chelsea firefighters come within three seconds of being crushed by the collapse of the brick façade in front of Hicks Cleaners and Aleko’s Carryout was frightening.
Learning that no one was injured in the blaze was gratifying.
Being asked by fire officials to share our photos and video to assist in the investigation was rewarding.
I wish all the luck in the world to the merchants affected by the fire, and hope they can be back in business as quickly as possible.
As strange as it might sound, the fire was a big help to me.
Over the past several weeks I was getting more and more frustrated with things around here, much of which is out of my hands anyway.
I was losing my focus and committing a string of silly bush-league errors, and se-riously questioning my career choice.
I even scheduled some time off for later this week just so I could get the hell away from here.
But when that fire alarm came over the scanner at 12:46 p.m. May 5, all of that nonsense evaporated and I immediately reverted to the professional that I am ca-pable of being.
Now I can take a few days off and truly relax. Just don’t let the town burn down while I’m gone.
If you are reading this, I’m sure you’ve already seen our exclusive Web coverage of “The Fire,” or possibly read about it in the May 8 print edition.
An incident like the Chelsea Shopping Center fire doesn’t happen very often – thank the gracious Lord – but it reminded me of why I got into this crazy business in the first place, and why I’ve been crazy enough to stick with it for so long.
I’ve covered a number of fires during my career, but none like the one I witnessed Monday.
Never in more than 16 years have I seen a place that, by all rights, should be a smoldering pile of charred rubble.
Journalists like to say that they’ve seen everything, that nothing bothers them.
I’m not one of those guys. I broke a few rules by getting too close to the smoke trying to get photos, and spent the rest of the day coughing my lungs out.
And I still haven’t told my wife about the hole burned in one of my best shirts from flying embers. Let’s just keep that between us,OK?
Watching the flames race across the roof of the strip mall from Pamida to the Chelsea Grille in a matter of minutes was stunning.
Seeing two Chelsea firefighters come within three seconds of being crushed by the collapse of the brick façade in front of Hicks Cleaners and Aleko’s Carryout was frightening.
Learning that no one was injured in the blaze was gratifying.
Being asked by fire officials to share our photos and video to assist in the investigation was rewarding.
I wish all the luck in the world to the merchants affected by the fire, and hope they can be back in business as quickly as possible.
As strange as it might sound, the fire was a big help to me.
Over the past several weeks I was getting more and more frustrated with things around here, much of which is out of my hands anyway.
I was losing my focus and committing a string of silly bush-league errors, and se-riously questioning my career choice.
I even scheduled some time off for later this week just so I could get the hell away from here.
But when that fire alarm came over the scanner at 12:46 p.m. May 5, all of that nonsense evaporated and I immediately reverted to the professional that I am ca-pable of being.
Now I can take a few days off and truly relax. Just don’t let the town burn down while I’m gone.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Disintegrating Democrats in disarray
The people of the Chelsea and Dexter areas can be very proud of themselves.
With voter participation in Tuesday’s primary election running in the 25 to 30 percent range — and more in some precincts, we outdid the overall county turnout of 22.6 percent.
That’s pretty remarkable, when you consider the voter turnout in an ordinary primary struggles to reach double digits.
Perhaps it’s the extraordinary nature of this particular election.
I hope the head honchos of the state Democratic Party realize that, in their rush to change the rules in order to be among the first states to have a primary, they may have fallen victim to the Law of Unintended Consequences.
It sounded like a good idea at first: to have more of a say in determining a front-runner going into the summer convention, but the national party laid down such punitive restrictions that we ended up with a choice of Hillary, Dennis, Chris, Mike and Uncommitted, whoever that was.
Clinton was the only candidate of stature on the ballot, Barack Obama decided not to waste his time and money here, Kucinich is more of a perennial punchline than a viable candidate, and the other guys were just names taking up space.
Worse, Uncommitted got more votes than Clinton.
Not one of democracy’s shining moments.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have for years aligned myself more closely to Democrats than Republicans, but it became clear in this election what my GOP friends have been trying to tell me for years.
Democrats (or the party leaders, more specifically) don’t seem to have a clue.
Republicans may not agree with each other on a lot of things, but at least they’re all going in the same general direction while they debate those differences.
They come up with a plan, and they stick to it.
Apparently Democrats are so concerned these days with accommodating every possible viewpoint that they are incapable of developing a coherent, recognizable viewpoint at all.
They don’t have a plan, and they can’t agree on a plan on how to come up with one.
It makes me wonder: If this is the best way they can run an election, how in the world would they run the country?
With voter participation in Tuesday’s primary election running in the 25 to 30 percent range — and more in some precincts, we outdid the overall county turnout of 22.6 percent.
That’s pretty remarkable, when you consider the voter turnout in an ordinary primary struggles to reach double digits.
Perhaps it’s the extraordinary nature of this particular election.
I hope the head honchos of the state Democratic Party realize that, in their rush to change the rules in order to be among the first states to have a primary, they may have fallen victim to the Law of Unintended Consequences.
It sounded like a good idea at first: to have more of a say in determining a front-runner going into the summer convention, but the national party laid down such punitive restrictions that we ended up with a choice of Hillary, Dennis, Chris, Mike and Uncommitted, whoever that was.
Clinton was the only candidate of stature on the ballot, Barack Obama decided not to waste his time and money here, Kucinich is more of a perennial punchline than a viable candidate, and the other guys were just names taking up space.
Worse, Uncommitted got more votes than Clinton.
Not one of democracy’s shining moments.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have for years aligned myself more closely to Democrats than Republicans, but it became clear in this election what my GOP friends have been trying to tell me for years.
Democrats (or the party leaders, more specifically) don’t seem to have a clue.
Republicans may not agree with each other on a lot of things, but at least they’re all going in the same general direction while they debate those differences.
They come up with a plan, and they stick to it.
Apparently Democrats are so concerned these days with accommodating every possible viewpoint that they are incapable of developing a coherent, recognizable viewpoint at all.
They don’t have a plan, and they can’t agree on a plan on how to come up with one.
It makes me wonder: If this is the best way they can run an election, how in the world would they run the country?
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