Thankful for Harbor Friends

True, a card-carrying charter member of Harbor Friends, is thankful for the selfless hard work by the dedicated founders. These folks have virtually single-handedly saved the Grand Marais Harbor as well as the RV Park and Campground from a takeover by misguided folks who would rather see a Bayfield-style marina in our tiny harbor than an eclectic shared space for campers, boaters, birders, rock skippers, hikers, and everybody else who loves Grand Marais. It wasn't an easy struggle and the Friends got grant support to show that a mega-marina was not likely to be successful based on a study of other marinas around Lake Superior.
Some recent letters about the Friends in the papers have delegated the level of public dialogue to somewhere near the scum layer in my septic tank. So, you didn't like the anti- snowmobile- skipping campaign by the Friends? Hmm, neither did True. But, that's only one issue and not a biggie at that, not like devastating the Grand Marais harbor with a mega-marina that would eat up all the RV Park and campground space for boaters' parking and send all revenue to the DNR. Not like allowing the city to dump toxic landfill in harbor wetlands or overturning the conservation easements adopted to protect the harbor permanently....
All of this, the Harbor Friends have saved us from, us being a public interest that reaches far beyond the nearsighted few who put dibs on the "process" and refused to allow any other public input.
One writer this week brings his old grudge forward as if it is relevant to snomo skipping, sniping at the Friends even though the marina issue has now been resolved by the city in a good way that benefits everybody. The writer conveniently forgets that the process was deeply flawed by rejecting public input, and that there would have been no Harbor Friends without a great outpouring of concern and longing to protect the harbor beloved by city, county and statewide residents.
Another letter writer who doesn't like the Harbor Friends decided to attack the lifestyle of its president, Lonnie Dupre. How mean-spirited, how petty, how unkind, and how inappropriate. Stick to the issues, folks, and stick to the facts.
Public dialogue needs to be respectful and thoughtful. Most newspapers recognize this and have standards for publishing letters. True doesn't only blame the letter writers; the papers ought to have more sense than to publish letters that exceed the bounds of decency and fair play and ignore or deny the reality of a broad public consensus regarding the harbor that belongs to all of us who love it.
Thank you, Friends.
True