Child Care Tax Credits in Mail, Rocket Launch Opposition in Big Bay, Affording Basic Necessities in Michigan and the UP, National Service, and Drug Deaths in America
This Week on Rural Insights
You will find some interesting articles this week on our website. On Wednesday we are featuring an article by Michael Broadway on the UP’s farming revival, and on Friday we’ll be posting a new Rural Voices piece.
Make sure to subscribe to our email list and follow us on our Facebook page to get our latest updates.
Child Care Tax Credits in Mail to US Families This Past Week–Impacts UP Families
As we have written in Rural Insights, Upper Michigan families are confronting huge child care costs. It is one of the largest contributing factors to child poverty and family financial distress.
Our research (you can find it here) shows how expensive child care is in the Upper Peninsula–if you can even find availability. Often child care expenses in our communities are larger than home rental expenses or mortgage payments.
Nearly 90% of families will get checks of about $300 per child per month through this tax credit. It will be deposited in their bank accounts by the federal government.
Single parents with incomes up to $112,500 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 are eligible.
We are hearing from UP families that this new family program will make a huge difference in their economic lives and in the living conditions of their families. We heard the same all across the peninsula.
Experts estimate that this new tax credit could reduce child poverty in America by 50%. We will have to wait to see how this all goes in the coming months and years.
Rocket Launch Opposition in Big Bay and Along County Road 550
You see an increasing number of yard signs like the one above as you drive along Marquette County Road 550 and also spread around the beautiful city of Big Bay–an area that would be near the rumored launch sites.
No signs supporting it yet, but opposition seems to be growing–at least by counting yard signs. Obviously not the best estimator, but no voter poll is yet available. There is also said to be a launch site in Chippewa County.
What are your thoughts on this project?
Affording Basic Necessities in Michigan and in the UP
Michigan Futures Inc. produced a study that says in Michigan 38% of Michigan households could not afford basic necessities. You can find the study under our In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) page. The study has county-by-county data.
In the Upper Peninsula, the percentage ranged from a high of 54% to a low of 34%. Issues like child care, housing costs, health care costs, food etc. all impact these numbers.
Is National Service an Answer to Division in America?
I listened to a commentator this week lamenting the division in our country and how we need to start a conversation about what it means to be a citizen in this nation and what our common values are.
Another talked about the declining number of citizens who give national service to our country as part of their citizenship. This may include service in the military, Peace Corp, Teach America, etc., she said.
We do have a declining number of Americans volunteering for national service including military service.
The number of people volunteering for military service is the lowest in decades. Very few of these volunteers come from families of the 1%, 5% or even 20% of top incomes. Data shows that very few of the volunteers come from elite families or elite universities.
Someone observed to us last week that maybe that is why our national elected officials are so quick to get into wars–most of them never served and very, very few of their children have served. We now have in our history the lowest number of members of Congress who have served in the military.
For us in the Upper Peninsula we have a very large number of veterans living amongst us and the tradition of military service continues in our UP families. The same is true for service in other national service options–the UP still has a higher number of citizens serving.
Service to one’s nation is still crucial to a thriving democracy and to citizenship.
Drug Deaths in America
93,000 Americans died in 2019 from drug overdoses–mainly opioids. This staggering number was sort of lost in all the important reporting on COVID deaths.
Drug losses show a growth in fentanyl and opioid use. It is reported that deaths from methamphetamine and cocaine also grew in 2019. We are looking at impact on this awful problem in the Upper Peninsula.
Let us know if you have information and/or experiences in your community.
Books Recommended By Our Readers
Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe.
Quotes That Make You Go Hmmm
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Maya Angelou.
“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breath the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we all are mortal.” President John Kennedy, commencement speech at American University in Washington, D.C. June 10, 1963.
“It takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place.” Lewis Carroll, in Through the Looking Glass. 1872.
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David,
Just now reading your article regarding “Rocket Launch Opposition in Big Bay and Along County Road 550, prompted me to take this opportunity to introduce you to Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior, and to thank you for giving coverage to our Stop the Rocket Yard Sign efforts to publicize our cause.
Please let me initially provide you with some background information; and then I hope that you and I can arrange to personally discuss the matter in more detail.
As you may already know, Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior, is a local nonprofit formed to oppose the plan proposed by a Detroit lobbyist, the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA) to create a heavy industrial commercial rocket launch zone on the pristine coastline near Thoney Point at Granot Loma, just a few miles north of Marquette, Michigan.
A concise summary of how this issue evolved, and the scope of the potential adverse environmental impacts, can be found in articles entitled “The Bait & Switch Behind The Granot Loma Launch Plan” and “Environmental Issues Surrounding the Proposed Marquette Spaceport”, both of which can be found on our website, citizensforasafeandcleanlakesuperior.org, under this menu link, https://citizensforasafeandcleanlakesuperior.org/category/learn/.
Briefly, some salient points from data we have gathered show that this ill-conceived plan will create an extremely intense industrial use zone:
which will be built on fragile wetlands within hundreds of feet of the lakeshore;
where risk of explosion at launch will require evacuation of at least six nearby family residences;
where, after even successful launches, rocket parts will fall to the lake and ground, causing both hazard and pollution below;
where lightning and water towers will pollute the view;
where extensive clear cutting will strip plant and animal habitat for threatened, imperiled and vulnerable species;
where the extreme shock waves accompanying each launch, will require a water deluge suppression system drawing tons of water from fragile groundwater tables and/or the already eroding lakeshore;
where each launch blast will be seen and heard for miles around.
We also know that the proposed launch would be located:
within easy conversational distance of kayakers on the Hiawatha Water Trail;
a mile from the mouth of the Little Garlic River, which, with its larger tributary, the Big Garlic, offers world class trout fishing, and notably in close proximity to the Thoney Point Lake Trout spawning area;
less than 2 miles from the Donnelly Trailhead and preserve, and the North Country Trail;
just 2 miles south of the Noquemanon Trails at Saux Head Lake;
only 3 miles north of the coastal wetlands and beautiful sandy shoreline of the Superior Watershed Eagles Nest Coastal Community Forest;
within 3 miles of the Echo Lake Nature Preserve;
and only 4 miles from the popular granite overlook at Harlow Lake.
You will see from our website that our fight to stop this destructive plan is supported by diverse local, regional, and national environmental groups, including the Superior Watershed Partnership, Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, Freshwater Future, and the National Parks Conservation Association.
We also are garnering increasing support from local artists and businesses, as well as religious and faith based community leaders like Bishop Rayford Ray of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan: https://citizensforasafeandcleanlakesuperior.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/The-Episcopal-Diocese-of-Northern-Michigan-Official-Statement-.pdf ; and Jon Magnuson of the Cedar Tree Institute: https://citizensforasafeandcleanlakesuperior.org/blessing-our-home-by-staying-in-our-home/.
And for a people-to-people viewpoint of “What Will Be Affected?” by this dangerous launch plan, please check out this video put together by two of our volunteers, https://fb.watch/6NibWqET9u/.
David, if you are interested in discussing this issue in more detail, I would be glad to meet with you by Zoom or phone.
I look forward to speaking with you.
Denny Ferraro
The mission of Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior is to protect and improve the precious environmental resource of the coastal habitat, shoreline and fresh water of Lake Superior and its watershed in Marquette County, to oppose individual, corporate or governmental action which may jeopardize that resource, and to encourage community action to preserve the quality of life provided by this Lake Superior Coastline environment for generations to come.
CSCLS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are tax-deductible, as permitted by law.
Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior (CSCLS)
Dennis A. Ferraro, President
P.O. Box 83
Marquette, MI 49855
dajferraro@gmail.com
H (906) 345-0018
You say: “Very few of these volunteers come from families of the 1%, 5% or even 20% of top incomes. Data shows that very few of the volunteers come from elite families or elite universities.” There is an implication here that only people from the lowest income groups are volunteering. Actually, data from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense shows that most members of the military come from middle-class families. The top and bottom economic quintiles were both underrepresented. In addition to mentioning the disparity of recruits from top incomes, it would be appropriate to also mention the same for the lowest incomes. You can find the data here: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military. Please be careful not to further incite division by failing to provide balanced information. It is important to look at issues from all angles.
Well said! While I have no current data my career experience mirrors your data……..
Hi David,
Really enjoyed your site and articles. This was forwarded to us on the board of Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior( opposing the rocket, generator of the signs) by our president Denny Ferraro, who sent you and email, I believe.
Denny will be a great source of info re all the reasons the rocket is a toxic idea for this area and for the Lake.
I am on the board but was interested also in your remarks about the Drug problem in the UP.
I am a physician working for Upper Great Lakes Family Health, which is a Community Health Center in the UP.
I am working in Addiction medicine( worked in Family Practice for 35 years in Wisconsin, recently moved up here) at the Marquette office. We are ramping up services as fast as we can to recruit docs and counselors to help with the need in the UP. We currently have 5 medical providers in the UP that offer Medication Assisted Treatment for opioid use disorders, and an accompanying group of counselors so that we can off the combo of medication and counseling.
Meth is hitting the area hard, and opiates continue to kill people up here. There is a lot of need for more MAT services( recruiting providers and counselors will always be hard up here), mental health services, housing, transportation: it is all linked.
My wife and I now live at Saux Head lake, so I guess we are neighbors.
I am glad to learn of your site.
Fred Groos MD