Letters to Editor
True Patriotism
Patriotism means different things to different people, but the dictionary definition is “devoted love, support and defense of one’s country.”
Generations of Americans have faced situations that forced them to defend the country they love, and today is no different. We are barraged by threats, both internationally and from within our own borders, and there are people who would like to destroy us littered throughout.
We as citizens don’t have much ability to prevent international threats; that target was placed on our backs long ago by those who are jealous or threatened by American Exceptionalism.
However, we do have control over the more nefarious threat that is within our borders as wolves in sheep’s clothing who seek to destroy our country are given the authority to do just that.
In my opinion, there are two primary players in the internal threat:
1. Elected officials at all levels who don’t agree with, understand and/or defend the Constitution.
Those who don’t agree with the Constitution are at the top of this list, as they actively seek to discredit and diminish it.
Those who don’t understand the Constitution allow the others to discredit it because they don’t know how to defend it.
Those who agree with the Constitu-tion and understand it, but aren’t willing to defend it, are cowards and might as well not even be there.
2. Above all these elected officials though, the absolute most influential players in this threat are ourselves. Americans. We are the ones who vote (or don’t); we are the ones who research candidates so we can make well thought out, educated decisions prior to voting (or don’t); we are the ones who actively defend the Constitution by electing people of integrity and moral character to represent us in all levels of office (or don’t).
So to me, the truest test of a person’s patriotism is not only whether they love and/or support their country, but if they’re also willing to defend their country. The dictionary definition says “devoted love, support, AND defense of one’s country,” not ‘or.’
True patriotism requires citizens to be actively involved in their governance. That is the only way we can defend our country from internal and external threats for the long term.
As President Reagan said, “Freedom is always only one generation away from extinction.” Let us not be the generation who ceases to be vigilant and allows America to cease to be free.
Kimberly Laurie
Willoughby
Can You Hear Us Now?
A year ago, the Shumway Board of the Geauga Park District passed radical changes to the bylaws of the park, emphasizing more active recreation and list of potentially destructive activities. Dozens of people organized to protest these changes. Over 2,500 individuals signed petitions asking the GPD Board to return to its primary mission of protection, conservation and preservation.
The bylaws to date remain essentially unchanged, since citizen opinions are falling on deaf ears. The petitions were summarily dismissed by Judge Grendell.
Citizen involvement has slowed down some of the planned projects and exposed GPD violations in development at Bass Lake, and mismanaged hunting and trapping programs.
Now nearly a year later, citizens have been prohibited from being placed on the board agenda and public comment has been thwarted. Mrs. Shumway does not “recognize” certain citizens groups.
Now the citizens of Geauga County have spoken in the park’s very own survey conducted by Triad Research Group this past spring. This survey was heavily slanted to support the park’s new direction and the park director approached at least one hunting group to be sure they responded strongly.
In documents obtained under an Ohio Public Records Request, the results of the survey can be summarized:
Key findings in the report were that people believe the parks are important to the well-being of Geauga County. They want wildlife habitat, nature’s beauty, water quality and open spaces protected — and they want more parkland purchased to continue to accomplish this.
While most wanted more activities in the parks, these activities are seen as passive and generally compatible with the protection of the parks and are not noisy, disruptive or destructive.
People want less politics and more land opportunities.
Quoting from the survey results:
“The top four things that respondents think are the most important for the Geauga Parks to focus on were also the top four with the highest level of interest. After rating their level of interest in those 24 activities, respondents were asked to choose the five things that they think are most important for Geauga Parks to focus on. Consistent with the park activities respondents are most interested, the four things ranked highest as what the parks should focus on in the next 10 years were hike and bike trails (58%), conservation programs (50%), nature programs (50%) and wildlife viewing (43%).
“Second to these were seven more items that between a fifth and two-fifths indicated should be most important focuses for the park district. They included: birdwatching (38%), picnic shelters (28%), canoeing or kayaking (24%), picnicking (22%), camping (21%), fishing (20%) and cross-country skiing (18%).”
A full text of this report can be found at Protectgeaugaparks.us. This is a rebuke of the Grendell/Shumway agenda and they should pay attention. They may try to spin this report and claim that organized groups engineered the report, but the Triad Group says the respondents reflected the age, sex and distribution of Geauga County’s population and is 95 percent accurate with a small (2.5 percent) margin of error.
So the question is asked: Judge Grendell and Mrs. Shumway, do you hear what the citizens of this county have said? Will you listen to us or continue with your own agenda for whatever political reasons you have?
Sandy and Ed Buckles
Troy Township
