Glen Arbor Sun Here to Enlighten You Volume XXV, Issue X OUR 25TH YEAR October 8, 2020 www.GlenArbor.com FREE! Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore turns 50 with virtual party By Jacob Wheeler within the current boundaries of the Sun editor park. … My hope is the Sleeping Bear Dunes of 2045 is as recognizable as it Twenty-five years from now a fu- is today and the relationship created ture superintendent of Sleeping Bear over the next 25 years contributes to Dunes National Lakeshore will open a the park you are managing today.” time capsule stored in a metal lockbox In the time capsule the future super- and read a letter written to them by intendent will also find memorabilia Scott Tucker, the Lakeshore’s current showing what it felt like to experience superintendent, on the occasion of 2020 here in northwest Michigan. The Sleeping Bear’s 50th anniversary on items in the lockbox will tell the story of October 21. a global pandemic—of signs encourag- “As Sleeping Bear Dunes National ing people to wear masks and practice Lakeshore celebrates the 50th anni- social distancing, of a spring shutdown versary of the park’s establishment, of the National Lakeshore prompted we must remember our story is not by COVID, a celebrated reopening, a finished,” wrote Tucker. “Throughout record number of visitors during a gor- 2020 and 2021, we will look to how geous summer, and also record-high the past 50 years will shape the next Lake Michigan water levels. As intense, 50. One key piece of the celebration bewildering and painful as 2020 has is acknowledging how we have gotten felt, Sleeping Bear Dunes has leant us to where we are today. These ventures a sense of joyous normalcy. Swims in would not have been possible without Lake Michigan feel just as exhilarating, the passion and commitment from rolling in her sand dunes releases just Travel companions Siddhika (left, pointing toward the Glen Lakes) and Soham innumerable employees and partners as many pheromones as any other year. Gokhale hiked the Dune Climb Trail and jumped into Lake Michigan on June throughout the years, not to mention 17. The couple use their Instagram account “PeachyAndPumpkinsBucketList” the sacrifices of former landowners See SLEEPING BEAR on page 9 to document their travels through American National Parks. The things we carry on Munson’s COVID ward By Elitza Nicolaou safe and calm, to stop him from pull- day. I hope they managed to before he Sun contributor ing the oxygen tubing from his nose, died the following afternoon. to help him lie on his side or belly to Patients have lost limbs to blood There are gowns and face shields help his lungs work. clots, gone through amputations and and masks. The new air purifier By the end of my shift, he’d broken died anyway. Families are being forced helmets are lighter and quieter and his oxygen tubing and needed two to have conversations about death and more comfortable than our old ones, people to hold his arms down while we dying and treatment and care that they but after three or four or 12 hours got everything reassembled. In the bare aren’t ready for. Let me tell you: have nonstop in one, they’re heavy on the few minutes it took to get him set back the conversations now, before you neck, and they dig into your scalp. up, his blood oxygen level went from need to. Make sure your people know Wearing one lets a patient see 88%—which is low, but tolerable; where to draw the line, what your your face, but it’s hard to hear over normal is above 95%—to 50%. A pulse priorities are for life, so that if you’re the fan next to your ear. An N95 oxygen reading of 75% generally leads the one on a ventilator, on life support, mask and face shield is okay too, to loss of consciousness. 50% doesn’t with dialysis running continually to but in order to be effective, the mask bode well for continued survival. support failing kidneys and nutri- has to be painfully tight and the face When we got him calmed down and tion going through a tube, they know shields flop around at usually incon- settled, I let myself cry for the first time whether that’s actually what you want. venient times. Overall, the helmet since the pandemic started. There have been beautiful moments, and hood are a better choice; we can I have seen some truly painful too: nurses singing hymns to their pa- move fast in them when we need to. things while working at Munson’s tients through masks and shields, staff On a weekend in late Septem- COVID ward during the Coronavirus forming bonds like in trench warfare, ber, I had to move fast. I was as- pandemic. One of my nurses spent 45 conquering steep learning curves and signed to sit with a COVID patient minutes trying to set up a FaceTime ever-evolving standards for everything who wasn’t getting nearly enough chat, a Zoom call, anything that he and from what mask to wear, and when, oxygen, so as the day progressed he the patient’s family could think of so to how to wipe off your helmet, to became more and more agitated and that they could see him and talk to him. who’s even allowed in COVID patient confused. My job was to keep him They never did get it figured out that See COVID on page 10 From Republican to hippie: my evolution, a party’s evolution By Norm Wheeler years) in the 1930s. (I still have the my grandpa’s cottage on Lake Sun editor chair he brought home from his stint Michigan one day as he memo- in the Capitol Building.) So my father rized his speech for that night’s I was raised in Shelby by Republi- helped to elect his friend Sen. Robert Lincoln Day Dinner. As president cans. In the 1960s my father, Robert R. Griffin, a member of the U.S. Congress of the local chapter of the Young Wheeler, was the Republican chairman from 1957-66. He was appointed to the Republicans, I walked the neigh- of Michigan’s Ninth Congressional Senate by Governor George Romney borhoods of Montague, Shelby, District, stretching from Grand Haven in 1966, and kept being reelected un- Hart, Pentwater, and Ludington to Traverse City up the shore of Lake til 1977. He was later a Justice of the passing out campaign leaflets in Michigan. Republican activism ran Michigan Supreme Court. Governor 1966 for Vander Jagt, and in 1968 in the family: my grandfather Neil William G. Milliken was another of for Nixon and our young state rep- Wheeler had been elected state repre- my father’s friends. So was Elly Pe- resentative from Manistee, Dennis sentative in Lansing for one term (two terson, chairwoman of the party from Cawthorne, another frequent guest Our 2020 election coverage includes: 1965-69, and candidate for the Senate and friend. against Phil Hart in 1964. That’s the The Republican party of the •Pg 3, an editorial advocating for year Gov. Romney visited Shelby and 1960s tended to be fiscally con- you to vote Biden on November 3 I shook his hand. servative and socially progressive. Guy Vander Jagt had supper at our Griffin voted in favor of the Civil •Pg 12-15, interviews with candidates house many times. He was our con- Rights Acts of 1960 and 1964, the for the Leelanau County Board of gressman from 1966-93. I watched Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Norm Wheeler (middle, age 13), together with Commissioners him pace the shoreline in front of younger brother Jerry (left) and Michigan See REPUBLICAN on page 11 Governor George Romney, in Shelby in 1964. ac·count·a·ble Commission Candidates Respond on Racism /uh-koun-tuh-buhl/ If you are elected as commissioner, what actions or policies will you work toward in order to address racial responsible; answerable disparities, equity, justice, diversity, and/or inclusion? What have you learned about racism recently that has influenced your thinking about it as a person and as a potential commissioner? : be responsible for something that happens. *No Response: Candidates received three emails and a phone call from us inviting a statement. **See More: Additional comments from the candidates can be found at www.LeelanauUnited.com District 1 District 6 George Bowers: Recently, I've come to the conclusion that racism is directly Lana Schaub: I believe in life from correlated to exposure. I have long conception to death, and that informs my been grateful to say that my past has moral compass. I want to help my entire afforded me exposure to many community with my whole heart and I cultures. As a potential commissioner, I would be willing to listen. Commissioners seek to gain further exposure to our deal with the budget. Our tax dollars are Native neighbors, their culture, and dependent on votes within the committee. their needs as a community. **See I stand with my moral compass - that More: I do not see the issue of race each life is important. as partisan... Gwenne Allgaier: Even though my generation has been aware of racism, Rick Robbins: *No Response white privilege has undoubtedly left me with unconscious bias which I am very willing to learn about and address. District 2 County employees should take anti-bias training, hiring patterns should be John Hunter: Education is key and the reviewed. Positions on boards and sooner it starts the better.