Rick Santorum is coming today at 3:00 PM, warming up in Muskegon for the big Kent County Republican Party Dinner at the Amway Grand Hotel tonight, the Lincoln Day dinner at 7:45 PM. I am grateful for Mr. Santorum's visit and I ask all of Muskegon, Left and Right, occupied with a normal job or occupied with Occupy Muskegon, to give him a safe and warm welcome. It is an honor that Mr. Santorum has brought the presidential campaign right to our feet, to a place where we can walk and hear him out. I will be visiting downtown today, just so I can record the excitement, the chaos, and the circumstances. I hope this day is not besmirched with kampf.
I can only imagine the chaos of Mr. Santorum's visit, aggravated by the small venue. Across the street from 1700 seats, down the street from the capacious Walker Arena, Mr. Santorum's campaign has chosen to meet his public in a ballroom suited for around three hundred people. If you are reading this, Honorable Commissioner Bob Scolnik, please make a few calls so that the Frauenthal can be opened or the Walker. Perhaps Santorum's campaign cannot afford the larger facility. I say, we simply cannot allow Muskegonites to mass around the door of the Holiday Inn when the civic spotlight is upon us. I understand that we are far behind the planning curve. Most indoor events of this size require tickets, and those tickets are usually handed out at a campaign headquarters. And this campaign is flying by the seat of its pants not due to incompetence but due to sheer updraft. The rise of Santorum in the polls was an unpredicatable event. No time for a bit of crowd planning is left. We would not want the Frauenthal interior to be the site where any person on stage has failed to receive a fair hearing. Same with the Walker.
This is a rare opportunity when the state of Michigan and Muskegon has been thrust into the role of kingmaker. Please, citizens of Muskegon, let's not sully the reputation of our town with an uncivil reception.
Please don't think that I am a Santorum supporter. I will not be voting for him and I have fundamental disagreements with the former Senator's view, and these are not religious disagreements. I am a huge supporter of the process that has produced this historical windfall for our town, and I demand that process be respected with a warm Muskegon reception for the candidate.
/**************************************************************/
A Historical Marker at our Depot records the visits of Presidential Candidates. Might Muskegon be known as a place where any candidate recieved kind welcome and a fair hearing.
The Text from the Union Depot Marker. We are proud of the times when a candidate came with his hat in his hand to ask us for our support.
The Union Depot was opened in 1895 to serve the Chicago & West Michigan Railway; The Muskegon, Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad; and the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railroad. A.W. Rush and Son of Grand Rapids designed the Richardsonian Romanesque station. Several national political figures paused at the depot during whistle stop campaigns. In 1896, William Jennings Bryan stopped during the first of three unsuccessful presidential bids. The 1952 campaign brought Republican vice presidential candidate, and future president Richard M. Nixon to Muskegon as well as President Harry S Truman who stopped on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. The Union Depot closed in 1971. It was donated to Muskegon County in 1992 and restored as a visitors' center and museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment