Ex-general steps down as public face of Sovereign Deed

Great reporting! Eartha,

I’m a daily reader of Ed Brayton’s blog and also a resident of Northern Michigan. 

I’d like to congratulate you on a great job bringing to light what kind of people are involved in Sovereign Deed.  I’m especially thankful regarding the impact you and Ed’s stories had on the local newspaper, the Petoskey News-Review; your findings provided the impetus for them to become more critical and skeptical in their reporting rather than acting as head cheerleader for the area.

Given the small population of our area coupled  with our current economic conditions, it’s naturally difficult to be too harsh on the local news media when they are covering stories regarding companies considering or committing investing in the area. We do need more jobs and industry up here, some would say desperately.  Having an advocacy media source also covering events is a great compliment to the more local-centric media sources.

BTW, probably the biggest potential con job going on up here is going on in Grayling, MI regarding a company looking to buy state land to put a giant amusement park up.  They’re claiming they have the wherewithal to put around $60,000,000 in cash via private investment, not to mention private financing into this park and are predicting 1 – 3 million guests per year will visit the park, I number I find almost impossible to believe.

The Traverse City Record Eagle has done a couple of stories on this company where their reporter has provided some skepticism regarding the viability of the business plan given the people involved and their inability to communicate with the press in any meaningful manner on their financing and  capability to pull off such a large venture.

From what I’ve seen to date, the Amusement Park story appears to be a much bigger story given the amount of land they are looking to purchase from the state and the impact this would have if it moved forward on real estate and jobs in the area.  Many people up here see this as a boondoggle in the spirit of Flint developing Auto-World.

Thanks for your feedback I'll be sure to pass your comment on to our team members who cover Northern MI and MI economy.

The entire state needs to have a more public dialog that is long overdue about the future of Michigan.  What does Michigan look like in 5 years? 10, 20, 50 years?  Because we have not had this strategic conversation and are only addressing the state's needs on a tactical basis (putting out fires in an economic sense and never actually spending time on fire prevention), we find ourselves driven by the whims of cycle and opportunists rather than by shared values as a state and the resources we have that are open for development by wide consensus.

Wood harvesting gave way to farming, giving way to industry, which now gives way to…???  Shouldn't we find a way to stop the cycle of boom and collapse while answering that next question?

Thanks again, very glad to hear from you.

Thanks for your feedback I’ll be sure to pass your comment on to our team members who cover Northern MI and MI economy.

The entire state needs to have a more public dialog that is long overdue about the future of Michigan.  What does Michigan look like in 5 years? 10, 20, 50 years?  Because we have not had this strategic conversation and are only addressing the state’s needs on a tactical basis (putting out fires in an economic sense and never actually spending time on fire prevention), we find ourselves driven by the whims of cycle and opportunists rather than by shared values as a state and the resources we have that are open for development by wide consensus.

Wood harvesting gave way to farming, giving way to industry, which now gives way to…???  Shouldn’t we find a way to stop the cycle of boom and collapse while answering that next question?

Thanks again, very glad to hear from you.