Alternative motives for cigarette tax

Kudos again to The North Wind for recognizing the hell Gov. Jennifer Granholm and President Barack Obama have unleashed upon smokers (“Sin tax across board,” April 2). For this I do not regret tripping Granholm when I was in the eighth grade. As a smoker for the past four years of my life, I have used tobacco for a number of reasons, from killing depression to relieving stress.

A recent article online states that Obama quit smoking, but slips from time to time. It seems to me that Obama raised the tax to resist temptation himself, so as to not spend any of his ridiculous salary. The belief of the government is that they know what is best for the people residing in the country, so they raise the cigarette tax to save us from medical bills and insurance increases. But I ask you this: Who are they to decide how we live? It is not their place or right to influence individuals in any way.

Brett Lampson

communication

Spring service event an absolute success

ld like to thank all of the volunteers and non-profit agencies who participated in our first Spring into Service event on Saturday, April 4.

Over 320 students participated and they represented more than 40 student organizations. Forty service projects were completed in the Marquette area. Projects ranged from building homes, visiting residents at several area nursing homes to picking up trash along the lake, and spring cleaning and raking yards for numerous non-profit agencies and the elderly in Marquette County.

The feedback from local agencies was very positive and supportive of the NMU volunteers who willingly woke up early on a Saturday morning to give their time. Comments from area agencies included “the volunteers we had even stayed two hours longer than scheduled,” and “I very much appreciated having the volunteers. They were a fun group of students.this is such a great service to the elderly population in Marquette.” Comments like these show how important NMU student involvement is in the community.

Without the financial support of the Student Activity Fee, Dining Services, Volunteer Coordinators of Marquette County and the Center for Student Enrichment, such a successful Spring into Service event would not have been possible. We thank these sponsors for their support and for their acknowledgement of how beneficial community engagement and service projects are.

We encourage students and student organizations to contact us if you would like to volunteer for future projects. It can be a one day event that we help you plan just for your student organization, or it can be an on-going event. We look forward to student and community participation in future service events.

Nicole Weber,

coordinators

Protest against going totally trayless

With the announcement by students and staff to remove the trays from the cafeterias here at Northern, students and staff are taking a stand and doing what they can to help keep the trays in the Wildcat Den and Marketplace.

Over 200 students and staff so far have signed a petition to keep trays in the cafeterias. They have cited many different issues preventing trayless from working well at NMU such as more time and less convenience getting food to efficiency issues in the dish rooms. There are also suggestions like Trayless Tuesdays (where trays are removed one or two days a week), or removing both trays and plates to go to a compartmentalized tray style that is used in the military and K-12 schools. Some students are citing improper representation of student opinion through the Housing & Residence Life and a lack of representation for off-campus students and students that live in the on-campus apartments by ASNMU.

Respect is an issue to deal with in a situation like a protest. I have had talks with Dean of Students Chris Greer, Director of Dining Services Greg Minner, Assistant Director of Housing & Residence Life Kevin Conlin and ASNMU President Jason Morgan to make sure that all voices are heard. To find out more information or to offer a counter argument, we encourage all people to join our Facebook group “Official Protest against the Tray Removal at NMU Cafeterias” and to sign our petition that is circulating around campus. Communication is the key for an efficient solution and to get both sides of the argument is the best way to get the best overall solution.

Brice Burge

junior, public relations