Foreign assistance is as American as apple pie

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As young international development workers in Africa in the 1980s-1990s, we wondered why people often displayed a photo of President John F. Kennedy in their homes. Here’s why. In 1961, President Kennedy proposed the establishment of USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) the same year he called for the creation of the Peace Corps. USAID is not partisan, write Phyllis & Dan Craun-Selka, residents of Lake Ann, Michigan, who worked with USAID for some 35 years in 30 countries. Our foreign policy depends on the 3 Ds- Defense, Diplomacy, and Development working together to keep America safe. Department of Defense leaders will tell you that USAID prevents wars. President Reagan increased the USAID budget linked to a national policy to promote democracy and business around the world. President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief), authorized by Congress, became the most successful aid program ever, so far, saving more than 26 million people. PEPFAR has made America safer and more secure with the AIDS pandemic under better control.

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Leelanau locals plant seeds, grow cultural exchanges in Guatemala

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Twenty years ago, when Paul Sutherland joined the board of Safe Passage, which launched a school for the children of the Guatemala City garbage dump, he also helped kickstart what has become a dynamic and ongoing relationship between Leelanau County citizens and Guatemala. In the decades since then, local schools have sent students, and teams of volunteers have joined cultural exchange trips to the beautiful, yet economically unequal, Central American nation. Since the COVID-19 pandemic abated, Guatemalan nonprofit Planting Seeds has hosted “service learning” groups from Northwestern Michigan College as well as Leelanau Investing for Teens (LIFT) and Leland High School. Planting Seeds co-director and Illinois native Mac Philips will visit Leelanau County this weekend to raise awareness about the nonprofit and build support in northern Michigan. He’ll visit Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate on Saturday, Suttons Bay Congregational Church on Sunday, and students in Suttons Bay and Leland.

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How to vote for Palestinians: Kamala Harris or third party?

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In October, the local organization Mideast: JustPeace held a community gathering to talk frankly about the dilemma those of us who care about Palestine and the Middle East face: cast a protest vote, or vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, knowing that things are likely to be worse under Donald Trump. Or at least equally bad. So in this presidential election year, what are we to do? Our choices are poor as far as American policy toward Israel is concerned.

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Report from the Climate Change front line: Mud, grief, perseverance in wake of Hurricane Helene

It’s hard to prioritize writing in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, while my small community of Celo, North Carolina—an hour by car from Asheville—is still knee-deep in mud, grief, and destruction, writes Katey Schultz. But we’re also heart-deep in resourcefulness, compassion, and perseverance. What could one resident of rural Yancey County have to say to the residents of Leelanau County, nearly 1,000 miles away? Having spent parts of 13 summers in upper northwest Michigan, and a few winters too, I know a close-knit, take-care-of-your-people kind of place. It’s the kind of place I come from, and it’s the kind of place I believe might actually listen if I say there is one thing you can do today that has nothing to do with dollars, blankets, or water, that will help you survive in the aftermath of a disaster. Talk to your neighbors. Yes, the ones you already know. And yes, the ones with the political signs in their yards that don’t match yours. These are the people whose survival you will depend upon, and these are the people you will most immediately be able to help.

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Their luck is our luck: Cultural Exchange workers help local businesses

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Thanks to the U.S. Department of State’s J-1 visa Cultural Exchange program, Empire and Glen Arbor businesses have a rich diversity of young folks from all over the world working here through the busy summer season. Cherry Republic and Anderson’s Market in Glen Arbor have staff from countries including Turkey, Jordan, and China working through August and into the fall. So do smaller businesses including Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire and Laker Shakes in Burdickville. In honor of Labor Day, we profiled a few of those J-1 workers.

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Swimming all five Great Lakes in one day

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The Niagara Escarpment rises from the Earth east of Rochester, New York. It extends over 650 miles across the top of the Great Lakes basin to Lake Michigan’s western limits on Wisconsin’s shore. The escarpment’s defining feature is its dolomite limestone, dating back to the Silurian age of the Paleozoic era. It has aged well. That’s where we, four northern Michigan men, enter the story, searching for adventure to help us age just as gracefully. Steve Nance, Evan Smith, Timothy Young, and I set off to follow the Niagara and challenge ourselves to swim in each of the five great lakes on the longest day of the year, June 20, the summer solstice.

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Nicaraguan priest meets Pope in Rome after taking refuge in Empire

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Priest José Luis Díaz Cruz and Sergio Jose Cárdenas Flores, political asylees from Nicaragua, have been living in the rectory at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church in Empire since March after they escaped the autocratic Ortega regime, which has cracked down on dissent and persecuted the Roman Catholic Church. Originally from the city of Matagalpa, Díaz and Cárdenas were among dozens imprisoned for six months in the capital of Managua after living under house arrest in their church last August. In February, they were among 222 political prisoners flown to the United States after being forced to relinquish their Nicaraguan citizenship. “We’re offering them a safe place to be,” said Rev. Ken Stachnik at St. Philip Neri. “This is important because it’s in the gospel. We are watching out for those who are lost and have no place to go.” The push to bring the Nicaraguans to northern Michigan came from Reverend Wayne Dziekan with the Diocese of Gaylord and who co-directs the Justice and Peace Advocacy Center, an organization which helps asylees and migrant workers in northern Michigan. Matagalpa and Gaylord are sister diocese.

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Leelanau pays it forward in Kenya’s Maasai Mara

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A group of Leelanau County locals traveled to Kenya in November to visit some of the world’s most famous wildlife parks. They explored the Maasai Mara with its prides of lions and other rare cats, and Amboseli National Park, notable for the world’s longest study of elephants and its large population of massive tuskers. That traveler group will hold a fundraiser for the rural Maasai school and other needs of children in the village from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30, in the community room of Keswick United Methodist Church in Suttons Bay. Come to enjoy a (by donation) meal of African soups and chai, live music, the chance to learn more about the region and to purchase or bid on beaded crafts made by village women.

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Exporting America’s best idea to Saudi Arabian sands

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“The national parks are the best idea we ever had,” novelist and environmentalist Wallace Stegner proclaimed in 1983. “Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Many nations around the world agree. Last month, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore superintendent Scott Tucker and Apostle Islands National Lakeshore superintendent Lynne Dominy spent two weeks in Saudi Arabia working with their peers in Riyadh and coaching them on community engagement, resource management, interpretation and education programs, park policy, and collaboration. “Our National Parks are the gold standard,” said Tucker. “We’ve been doing this for more than 100 years.”

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Carrying her own backpack: daughter of global activist, Stella Young joins On the Ground

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The message from Timothy Young to his six-year-old daughter Stella was clear: you’ll carry your own backpack, throughout the trip. About that he was adamant. The trip was to Chiapas, Mexico, in 2007 to meet rural coffee-growing communities which Higher Grounds Trading Co. supported through the Chiapas Water Project. That journey has now come full circle. A year after she graduated from Kalamazoo College, the 2018 Glen Lake School graduate recently became director of development for On the Ground, the international nonprofit co-founded in 2010 by her father and Higher Grounds owner Chris Treter. The organization has supported coffee farmers in Chiapas, Ethiopia and the Congo, and olive farmers in the Palestinian West Bank. On the Ground will host a party and fundraiser on Thursday, Oct. 12, at The Alluvion at Commongrounds in Traverse City.

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