In 2012, the M-22 route marker became the center of a legal and financial debate over whether a business can trademark a specific state highway route marker and prevent others from selling merchandise with the depiction of any other state highway route on it, not just the original one trademarked. In 2003, Matt and Keegan Myers began making and selling t-shirts and stickers featuring a close approximation of the M-22 route marker (they don't utilize the actual FHWA typeface for the numerals "22") and started using the slogan, "M-22 is not just a road; it is a way of life." They claimed it is "marked by the simplicity and appreciation for natural wonders such as bays, beaches and bonfires, dunes and vineyards, cottages, friends and family everywhere." οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½Soon after Keegan was featured on the cover of Traverse magazine wearing one of the brothers' M-22 t-shirts in 2006, sales of the shirts and stickers bearing the M-22 route marker started taking off. Soon, the pair began working with other retailers in Leelanau Co to produce additional apparel and accessory lines, including coffee and an M-22 brand of wine. An M-22 "company store" was opened in November 2007 in downtown Traverse City as well and the brothers filed for trademark protection for their M-22 logo in 2010 to further support the branding effort. Meanwhile, Heidi Marshall and Mary Roberts of Route Scouts, LLC in Harbor Springs started making souvenirs using the M-119 route marker and even tried to trademark it. Their effort failed when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied the application when it responded that it was 'too similar to the M22 registered trademark."
So goes the logic of “desire paths” – described by Robert Macfarlane as “paths & tracks made over time by the wishes & feet of walkers, especially those paths that run contrary to design or planning”; he calls them “free-will ways”. The New Yorker offers other names: “cow paths, pirate paths, social trails, kemonomichi (beast trails), chemins de l’οΏ½ne (donkey paths), and Olifantenpad (elephant trails)”. JM Barrie described them as “Paths that have Made Themselves”.
Rural and small-town homeowners are more likely than the rest of the nation to own their dwelling “free and clear,” a new study by the Housing Assistance Council finds.
But rural homes have lower property values, the study also found.
I’ll start if by saying I am just a white boy, as that Merle Haggard song goes. I honestly didn’t know many black people – most of them were city folk – living a life culturally different than myself. But I do believe in political activism and sticking up for ones own rights and betterment of one’s community.
I believe that there is too much government and that too often law enforcement acts like an occupying force rather than a community protector. Too often communities call on law enforcement to do all jobs, but the problem is the only tool set that police really have is the penal law. They’re a hammer – an excellent tool for nailing nails but an awful tool for fixing most problems with an automobile.
I think we need a more just police force, a smaller one that does less and treats people more fairly – regardless of race. We need less laws and more communities that solve their own problems by discussing things and offering appropriate supports to those in need. We need a more affordable government, so that police aren’t so dependent on making revenue off the colored and poor.
There are a lot of white people who just want to point to the racists and bad cops. But that is ignoring the enormous institutional pressures that encourage cops to behave badly. Going after black people in poor neighborhoods is an easy way to get ticket quotas up – the poor have little voice. Cops aren’t bad people but they are often forced to act badly. Stop blaming bad cops and start blaming bad police departments.
And while being white and middle class gives me privilege, it certainly doesn’t make me immune from injustice and doesn’t exempt me from being abused in many of ways African Americans are by the police. If police are treating black people badly, it certainly can spill over far from there. Tactics used on one community can and do spill over. Being white gives me priveledge but it doesn’t make me safe from an abusive state.
They often have Black Lives Matters protests in my neighborhood. I have often considered attending. I’ve thought about adding a Black Lives Matters flag to my collection. And I’m always trying to listen and learn more about the unique things that people struggle with being poor or of color. Injustice in one community is injustice everywhere and one communities problems can spill over elsewhere.
The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was on the best seller list in 1968, it's content captivating news headlines and providing countless hours of commentary and analysis over the past 50 years. You can read all 426 pages of the report online.