Yes It’s True: After further review, I return to the Hut

“After further review, the ruling on the field is being reversed.” — A whole slew of collegiate and NFL football referees in recent years.

Indeed, I have received further review and information after I wrote my column about boycotting the Hair Cut Hut in Wayland because it was host for a wrong-headed petition drive to recall Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Trusted personal counsel has advised I back down from my brash and bold threats against a local small business that like so many others struggles to stay afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic. I have been told the Hair Cut suffered revenue loss last spring during the shutdown and it continues to face economic challenges.

Then I got the news that Kim Miller Powers suffered a mini-stroke and now has been quarantined with the Coronavirus along with her husband, so the small and storied eatery, the Auction House Cafe, has had to be shuttered as a result. Even worse, Kim, an all-state basketball player just 33 years ago, doesn’t have health insurance and has had to go to a GoFundMe page on the Internet.

It is true that I have a history of attempting to “buy local” when possible, but I was outraged that my local barber/stylist shop was host to a really awful petition drive, an effort to punish Michigan’s executive for following science guidelines to keep us as safe as possible, though making things more difficult for small business.

I generally oppose recall movements, though there are exceptions under dire circumstances. I remember two State Senators getting recalled in 1983 for voting to pass an income tax increase, a move that eventually restored the original millage and enabled Michigan to pull out of a recession. The recall was all about punishing two lawmakers for having the temerity to increase taxes for the greater good down the road.

Closer to home, the attempted recall of the seven Dorr Township Board members still has repercussions nine years later. Dorr Township consequently has suffered through the most dysfunctional local government in Allegan County and perhaps West Michigan.

But what happened during this past last week now seems a bit different under further review.

Hair Cut Hut owner Stacie Frederickson posted a response to my column that seemed a bit conciliatory, perhaps even an olive branch.

She wrote, “I learn something new every day. I did allow them (the petition proponents) to use my parking lot, and I am sorry that people feel offended.”

It almost sounded as though she’s acknowledging she won’t do something like that again. So maybe it was just an understandable mistake.

I have enjoyed my walk-in visits at the Hair Cut Hut and the barber/stylists who work there have had the good sense to cut my hair the way I want it, a far cry from bygone days at other emporiums.

My counsel accused me of cutting off my nose to spite my face. Though I still fiercely defend the health policy decisions of “Big Gretch,” perhaps I did.

I intend now to return to the fold, if the gang at Hair Cut Hut will have me.