What does it mean? Is it OT, is someone protesting overtime? OI – oy vey, what does OI stand for? Ottawa Impact! Oh yeah, where can I get one of those signs?
The signs are popping up all over Ottawa County in front of Democrat, Republican and even religious households. There is no central organized group behind them, they are truly a word of mouth phenomena, neighbor to neighbor.
County Government – not extreme partisan politics
The yard signs first appeared in Grand Haven but have popped up now in Holland, Zeeland, and beyond. Why? Everyone has their own specific issue but all would agree – county government should be about county business not extreme partisan politics. And while Ottawa Impact supporters would like to make this a Democrat versus Republican issue, the county has been under Republican control long before Ottawa Impact was ever thought of.
Ottawa Impact supporters accuse the local media of bias in labeling Ottawa Impact a far-right extremist organization. You may judge the far-right label for yourself by reading the propaganda directly from the source. (A link to Ottawa Impact website is provided at the bottom.) The extremist label is justified because they keep taking extreme actions ignoring the law, ignoring proper county procedures, and/or actions outside the purview of normal county government jurisdiction.
The Extremist Formula
There is a recognizable time proven formula for extremists. First create a crisis, one of their own making. Then justify their extremist agenda by using it to fight the protagonist of the crises they created.
We have seen this applied repeatedly at the federal level. Election Fraud justifies the violence of January 6th and the fake elector scheme. The national debt justifies blackmailing the country with the threat of a shutdown even though the Trump tax cut added 8 trillion to the debt just a few short years before.
For Ottawa County the pattern remains the same. A Christian school refuses to adhere to state mandates during a worldwide pandemic. The mandate was not limited to Christian schools, all schools were required to comply, and they did so with online learning, masks and distancing. We can debate endlessly the effectiveness of the mandate, the consequences of not complying with the mandate was a shutdown of the school.
The school took their case to court, (Libertas Classical Ass’n v. Whitmer case is available on the FAQ page) which is their constitutional right. Some steps the Libertas school was taking to fight coronavirus, according to the school’s complaint: Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and traditional spiritual aids to combat disease. This crisis, of their own making, is the justification for the Ottawa Impact extremist agenda. The protagonist, the Ottawa County Public Health Department.
The court upheld the right of the state and the actions of the Ottawa County Health Department.
The Strategy and Reasoning to Gut Health Department
The Ottawa Impact commissioners, all Republicans, have been trying since January to fire the head of the health department and replace her with a safety manager from a local HVAC company, Nathan Kelly, who had risen to prominence as a critic of mask mandates. They have blocked the county government from accepting grants that mentioned the goals of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or World Health Organization. And they have passed a measure questioning the safety of vaccines.
Now they want to return the health department’s budget to pre-pandemic levels, because as pronounced by John Gibbs the county administrator the covid pandemic is over. I am sure that will be a surprise to the hospitals and doctors still fighting the disease.
Covid has killed more than a million Americans and triggered one of the largest government interventions into everyday lives since World War II. Even though deaths caused by the virus have declined, the anger, mistrust and disinformation that grew out of the government’s response are still radiating through the nation’s politics at all levels. This paved the way for Ottawa Impact to elect nine county commissioners who pledged their loyalty to Ottawa Impact.
According to Miedema, an Ottawa Impact Commissioner, the reason for removing Hambley and replacing her with Kelly who has questionable qualifications is as follows:
“Over the past few years, I have seen science become political in nature — one where many well-known doctors and scientists have been silenced. These medical professionals were ridiculed for their views and pressured to abandon the oath they had taken on behalf of their patients and community. Kelly wouldn’t let the medical establishment cow him and would prioritize citizen’s rights and healthcare freedom.” These are principles she and the new county board members believe have been compromised during the pandemic. They are the values the new board members have vowed to protect.
Commissioner Rhodea pronounced the health department and grants in particular as Marxist. But then again, she also pronounced the motto Where You Belong as Marxist. The Commissioners seem to find protagonists to fight with there extremist agenda everywhere they turn.
Commissioner Moss is quoted as saying how the pandemic awakened the county’s residents to the tyranny of public health. Cutting the department budget and gutting the health department of expertise is one way to fight the spread of dangerous ideas.
The Commissioners were unsuccessful in firing the Health Department director without cause so they manufactured a crises. When Hambley defended her department against dramatic budget cuts that would have potentially forced it to close its doors, the commissioners had their cause.
Moss alleged misconduct in the way Hambley handled and communicated to the press about the recent budget process. The self made budget crises allowed the commissioners to convene a kangaroo court the verdict of which was preordained before the hearing began. Hambley will be fired and the Health Department gutted of expertise and replaced with loyalists.
How low will the the county commissioners go? Stay tuned as they get creative on how to get rid of Hambley and gut the county health system.
Back to Business
The county and its commissioners are supposed to be overseeing the county’s infrastructure not waging a culture war. The gutting of the health department is only one example of the damage being perpetrated on Ottawa County by the Ottawa Impact extremists.
The goal of extremism is more extremism. As the commissioners fire and replace the staff with loyalists the extremism will become the norm. Already commissioners find Marxism and Fascism at every turn. The mere presence of anyone who is not white evangelical Christian is of concern to them. Even non-loyalist denominations are excluded. The Reverend Cramer from the Episcopal Church of Grand Haven has filed a lawsuit for excluding him in the invocation prayer at county board meetings.
It should concern every resident of Ottawa County to have these extremists deciding public health, education, and county administration. We do not need morality or thought police. That is why Ottawa Impact is too extreme for Ottawa County
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