Despite two pending court cases, Harbor Shores,
the largest ever development on Lake Michigan, will open on August 10
Recent Propaganda in the Herald Palladium
Golf-glorification filled last week’s Herald Palladium pages - - Whirlpool’s company paper. National tournaments on the Jack Nicklaus course at Harbor Shores; details of the events reported as if the elite were expecting the second coming. See article below to experience trumped-up sensationalism: more brain-washing of readers to legitimize the biggest lakeshore development in Michigan. Maybe biggest in all the Great Lakes. Stolen land?* Readers will forget that fact when they see quotes from famous golfers anxious to get to Harbor Shores. The propaganda will make them forget the pending court cases. (Info - savejeanklockpark.org)
Under the guise of assisting people in poverty, the most outrageous lies are from Joe Steranka, CEO of “PGA of America.” Reminiscent of Steven Colbert’s “truthiness,” he claims that having tournaments at Harbor Shores will spread the PGA core messages of charity, job creation, and environmentalism. What planet is Steranka on? No Benton Harbor residents have meaningful jobs at Harbor Shores (Whirlpool promised 2,000), the development has destroyed countless plant and animal species, and much, much more. Golf course chemical runoff is the number one cause of Great Lakes pollution. Blatant lies from PGA of America and Steranka. (PGA contact info below in bold)
Charity? Whirlpool and the PGA will do absolutely nothing to improve Benton Harbor, a city with not one decent, maintained public park or playground for children. Not one museum. Almost no jobs. More people living in poverty than any city of it’s size in the US. More misery and suffering than one can contemplate.
Further points:
--For two years Whirlpool Corp. has stolen a half million dollars worth of water from Benton Harbor for the Harbor Shores development. Whirlpool has polluted precious public Lake Michigan shoreline.
--Harbor Shores may straddle three communities, but African-American Benton Harbor is the one being decimated.
--Golf courses nationwide are failing; the sport is on the decline.
--By the 2012 PGA Tournament, the elite will have driven all residents out of Benton Harbor, many into prisons. There has been a set-up going on for decades to destroy the lives of residents.
--Nicklaus’ involvement has assisted in Whirlpool’s land heist from poor people.
There couldn’t be a stranger juxtaposition. One of the wealthiest, antiquated old white boys’ clubs, imposing a golf course (of ALL things!) on one of the most impoverished, oppressed African-American communities in America. A community which has lived through the decay of their city. This gentrification is masqueraded as charitable, and reveals complete disregard, disdain, and disrespect for Benton Harbor.
Think of what the absurd amounts of money sited in the article below could do for Benton Harbor.
The old boys’ club brings its’ aging skeletons to roam Jean Klock Park, holding golf clubs for their dying sport, to haunt and oversee the land they stole from the public.
This is nothing short of the raids that occured in the Old South when similar men dresssed in white and took the land.
* “Perhaps some of you do not own a foot of ground, remember then that this is your park, it belongs to you. Perhaps some of you have no piano or phonograph, the roll of the water murmuring in calm, roaring in storm, is your music, your piano and music box... The beach is yours, the drive is yours, the dunes are yours, all yours. It is not so much a gift from my wife and myself, it’s a gift from a little child. See to it that the park is the children’s.” -John Nellis Klock (Mr. & Mrs. Klock deeded a half mile of lake Michigan frontage to the City of Benton Harbor in 1917, in memory of their deceased daughter.)
Please contact Ellison and Steranka and inform them about some of the story behind Harbor Shores, and any other information you’d like them to have.
--Earl Ellison, Pupblic Relations, PGA, eellison@pga.com
--Joe Steranka, CEO, PGA of America
100 Ave. of the Champs
Palm Beach, FL 33418, 516-624-8400
PGAfeedback@turner.com
Putting Harbor Shores on the map
With Senior PGA Championships, Nicklaus, others hope to build a reputation for great golf
By Darren Phillips - H-P Sports Writer, Thurs., May 27, 2010
BENTON TOWNSHIP - A golf course that isn't 100 percent open yet in two years is going to host one of the biggest events of senior golf - twice.
...Through a video feed from Parker, Colo., the organization Wednesday announced the 2012 and 2014 Senior PGA Championships will be played at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, on the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course that straddles Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Benton Township.
Additionally, KitchenAid, a Whirlpool brand of kitchen appliances, will be the title sponsor of the Senior PGA Championship...
Local officials and community members listened to the announcement made from Colorado Golf Club, the site of this year's Senior PGA Championship, via teleconference at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center...
"We are always going to have a mix of great traditional sites, but we have an opportunity to identify the next generation of major sites," said Joe Steranka, the CEO of the PGA of America...
Nicklaus feels the opportunity to host such events has helped build a tradition at Valhalla, and the same can be done at other new courses such as The Golf Club at Harbor Shores...
...It's got some great holes. The seventh, eighth and ninth holes play into the dunes of Lake Michigan, there are some beautiful trees, and we have two rivers that run through. We have some spectacular holes on it. I think people are really going to enjoy the golf course. It's going to be a testing golf course from the back tees."
The official grand opening ceremony for the course is planned for Aug. 10, with Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller joining Nicklaus for a charity event titled Champions for Change...
Dates for the 2012 and 2014 tournaments have not been announced... The past few championships have had a purse of $2 million, with $360,000 awarded to the winner.
Steranka feels Harbor Shores can effectively broadcast some of the PGA of America's core messages. The PGA of America is part of We Are Golf, a coalition of national golf organizations promoting the sport's economic impact of job creation, the human impact of charity and its environmental impact.
"Those three messages about just how good our sport is are capsulized at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores," Steranka said.
"It's going to be a great platform for a major championship, but also a great platform for our sport and our industry to share that message." dphillips@TheH-P.com Full article: http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/05/27/local_news/1456348.txt
