HERE’S HOPING THE following is just one sad, isolated incident in our hometown.
Khadijah Wilson has lived in Marquette for four years. She’s black. She’s worked as a nurse, she’s served on the Boards of the Marquette West Rotary and the Women’s Center, and she’s currently on the Toastmasters’ Board.
She’s the wife of Carter Wilson, the chairman of NMU’s Department of Political Science.
Anyway, at 10:30 Monday morning, she parked her car in the Walmart parking lot and, in a hurry, accidentally bumped into a man near the shopping carts outside.
She was trying to apologize but, as Ms. Wilson tells it, the man (identity unknown) turned and shoved her to the ground, and said, “I hope President Trump does what he says he’s gonna do! He should send all you niggers back to Africa!”
This, as she was lying on the ground.
Also while two women, who observed the incident, said and did nothing.
The man walked away.
Ms. Wilson didn’t file a police report. Didn’t see a reason for it and it probably didn’t rise to the level of a crime. And she wasn’t seriously injured.
However.
This isn’t about crime or politics. Not at all. It’s about common decency.
The election’s over. Some of us are cheering, others of us are depressed. Even scared.
Scared, because some Americans (a small minority) may interpret the election results as an invitation to openly spew hatred toward others who aren’t like them. In fact, we’re hearing that hate crimes have spiked across the U.S. since last Tuesday.
Marquette County, we’d all like to think, is a haven of tolerance and civility. Ms. Wilson says she’s not so sure.
UPDATE ON THE “dark stores” legislation.
Don’t get your hopes up. All indications now are that, with only three weeks left in the legislative session in Lansing, the Senate will likely not pass the bill.
The bill, which would require huge box stores to pay their fair share of taxes and help support the towns where they’re located, passed the House earlier this year but has been stalled in the Senate.
Politics as usual. Lobbying as usual.
Upper Peninsula legislators have been supporting it, because our communities have been hardest hit by the tax shortfall, but it looks like they’ll fail, unless there’s an eleventh hour surprise.
So they’ll start over next session. Seems like we’ve heard this before.
YA GOTTA FEEL for the folks at Marquette Mountain.
Not a flake of snow on the mountain yet, and the temperatures remain stubbornly balmy which means they can’t even use their snow guns to make artificial snow.
General manager Jesie Melchiori says she’s hopeful that a cold spell around Thanksgiving, with temperatures below 30, will provide an opportunity to fire up the guns.
She says if temperatures stay cold, they’ll need only 3-5 days to lay down enough snow to allow for skiing.
Fingers crossed. This is another story we’ve heard before–in fact, it was just last year.
AND WHAT SAYETH weather guru Karl Bohnak of WLUC?
Well, he tells us this has been the warmest first half of November at the National Weather Center in Negaunee since 1975.
And, yes, snow is very late in arriving this year. The latest arrival of snow in the last half century or so was November 21st, 1994.
But!!!
But we will likely get our first measurable snow at the NWS this weekend. A front will be crossing the Rockies and the northern plains in the next few days, and will likely hit us on the weekend.
Enough to ski on? Uh, no.
But maybe then, the cold temperatures will kick in and the snow guns will fire up.
Skiers, snowboarders, and wannabe employees at Marquette Mountain are certainly hoping so.
You got news? Email briancabell@gmail.com.