Come and lend your voices or just listen to the guaranteed lively discussion regarding the Pere Marquette Monument and the intentions of some 'civil rights activists' to tear it down at the Ludington High School.  Kudos to the Pere Marquette Board for holding this special meeting to hear the public on this issue

I had previously faulted the PM Board of Trustees for going into closed session to discuss the issue solely with their Grand Rapids attorneys at their December 28, 2017 meeting.  Viewing the pattern of behavior of Ludington city officials weighing the advice of their Grand Rapids/Manistee attorneys over the concerns of their constituents, the fear is that one or two lawyers will trump the wishes of thousands of voices of the actual electorate.  

The PM officials' fear is that they will give away too much of their strategy to the opposition, so they must do so at the cost of shutting out the public from their deliberations.  They have revealed some relevant material through a probing FOIA request I made, they have chose to block out most of their attorney's legal opinions, but otherwise it seems to be a good faith move on their part for now.  I would advise anybody, on either side of the issue, to review it before you speak or listen tonight, or even if you have to miss it.

PM FOIA Cross Opinion.pdf

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Did anybody go to or catch the meeting tonight about the cross?

A lot of articulate speeches both reasoned and emotional.  I was particularly moved by a young self-confessed atheist girl from Custer who told of her positive experiences at the Father Marquette Memorial.  

I completely forgot about it but a relative called me this morning and said that the State syndicated radio show "Steve Gruber" talked about the meeting on his radio show this morning and a guest on the show said his organization will be paying for the legal fees to defend against any lawsuit which may be initiated calling for the PM cross removal. The guest said his group will take this all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. So the entire State now knows about this attempt to have the PM monument cross removed. 

Both MCP and LDN have videos on the mtg.. MCP's has the best audio. There were only about 100-150 people there from my viewpoint, instead of 300+ was my guess of attendance. Many filled with too much emotion, and not thinking about the legality angles. No Kahle or Huber there to comment either. Only a very few said sell the land, and don't get into the legal battle, the rest want it fought in court. Several others offered $1,000 for legal fees too. Didn't see much reactions from the PM Board members, sat there like robots for the entire mtg.. I think they will option to fight this in the end anyways, or they certainly should with pro bono legal fees being given by several agencies now. The FB groups of Concerned Locals Ludington and Save our Cross both have the video of this now.

Aquaman noticed the one thing I did; the elected officials must have got their own march orders from the Twp Attorney to keep their mouth shut because I don't remember them saying anything about the topic du jour all night, it was Supervisor Keson and the TA running the show.  To my knowledge, none of the elected Board of Trustees have made their own opinions official.  That may be a good strategy for a client worrying about getting sued by somebody (it often isn't), but it would be unacceptable to me if I was a PM Twp taxpayer.  These are the people who should be doing the talking, they have their back covered.  I hope these empty sweaters vote to give it to a responsible and accountable agency for safekeeping.

On the same angle, did you notice that among the dozens of speakers that night, a vast majority of them locals, there was no elected (or even a significant appointed) official of the county or any of the county's cities making any statement about the cross?   If this is still an issue come election time, and they actually have an opponent, you may see them then.

Regarding officials, yes, none made any statements. I did see Judge Peter Wadel up front seated on the left the whole affair though. I thought he might say something as he was close to the front podium, but he didn't leave his seat. One elected official from Gr. Haven did speak though I believe, and that was at least someone.

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