Our city is very family oriented. The children and the parents dress up in Dutch costumes every year and have an official scrubbing of the streets to show our cleanliness. The “Dutch” cleanser company actually come to our city took pictures of our dancing Dutch girls and put it on their cleanser can for everyone to see.

We are proud of the fact that over the years, we have had many Presidents and Presidential campaigners come to be in our Saturday Parades. We have often had guest celebrities over the years as well as Royalty. The Queen of The Netherlands paid us a visit along with her court.

Many times the citizens join together to clean up the city before the festivities starts as they like putting on a clean face. The children practice marching in the Children's parade and you can listen to the music of the marching bands long before the tourists arrive.

The uniqueness of our city helped us to win an award for being one of the beautiful cities in America today. The whole community noted for working together in times of crisis as well as helping each other on a daily basis. We have many churches in our town some are large and others are small. Our city founded by Van Raalte and his followers are instrumental in keeping our ecosystem.

Holland, Michigan is located by the lake shore and has many factories for those who desire to relocate and move in our community. Heinz's major American pickle-processing plant is located in our city and one of the oldest manufacturers in the area. We have other factories such as Request Foods, Perrigo, Herman Miller, Prince Corp, Howard Miller (Clock Company known around the world) and many more manufacturers. We are proud of our manufacturers, as they have paid an important part in keeping with the environment and recycling.

We have shopping malls, major department stores, and other large chain stores just like other cities. We have in our downtown area very nice unique shops that are family owned and many times, you can find things that you never thought existed. The streets lined with red brick and have a melting system underneath to keep the snow away in the winter.

Our local restaurants pride themselves in excellent Dutch foods and Hispanic foods. The Russ Restaurant is famous for their foods all made at their own commissary and in the Dutch style.

The winter months in Holland are beautiful you may catch the waves as they freeze in a certain pattern or go ice-skating. We have cross-country skiing and ice fishing. We have places that you can visit and watch the artisans create beautiful candles, wooden shoes, and other things that depict our city.

Our children are robust and healthy. They walk to school or playing outside on their sleds all of them enjoy the hearty winter climate. Our city has many people of many races that work together as a team. We have many Hispanics besides the Dutch population. We have many other smaller minorities that co-exist in our city and take great pride in being a part of our celebration during our Tulip Festival.

The Hispanic people of our city have help to build the community culture into part of what it is today. The Cinco De Mayo festival starts the Tulip Festival off with a flare. The food and the hospitality that the Hispanic people in our community are an outstanding feature that adds to our Dutch heritage. The Cinco de Mayo festival has many dancers and singers who portray the culture of their native country just as the Dutch present the culture of their native country.

Our sister city in Mexico brought us a beautiful fountain that we keep in Kollens park which is beside lake Macatawa a subsidiary of Lake Michigan. Along side the beautiful fountain, you will find a statute of three Dutch people as they are landing in our community.

The diversity that our community has together is part of what makes our city the beautiful city it is today. I would like to invite all of you to visit us anytime but especially in May during the Cinco de Mayo and the Tulip Festival. You will get very good culture awareness and share with us our hope for the future, our children living, working, and praying together.

Today in our city, many people fill our market places and enjoy our beaches all summer long. The winter months are great for winter sports and we still enjoy the company of many visitors.

The city is always growing and changing with the modern times but it seems to maintain the early era of our Dutch and Spanish settlers. We have museums and art shops that many who enjoy our culture like to visit.

We also have several colleges that are Hope College, Davenport, and Grand Valley University, where many come to get their higher education. The city noted for its work with the disabled as well. The residents are very helpful with workshops, taking food to the elderly, day camps and a beautiful center for the seniors called Evergreen Commons.

Welcome to Holland, Michigan, U.S.A.

In New Mexico, in the southern and central region you will find a town called Truth or Consequences. “Truth or Consequences, New Mexico” is the title of a film starring and directed by Kiefer Sutherland. It’s something of a tragedy, that movie.

Truth or Consequences was once called Hot Springs, named for the natural hot springs found in the area. The name was changed in the middle part of the last century for what was then a popular radio game show.

Just outside of Truth or Consequences you will find Elephant Butte Lake, at one time one of the greatest and most treasured of lakes in the American southwest, and hopefully it will be again soon. It’s just too bad the foolish politicians and bureacrats of that state drained that particular lake for Texas and Mexico. There are plenty of other lakes, where the governor’s rich friends play, that could have been drained. Oh well, hopefully, in a few years Elephant Butte will be back to its onetime splendor.

About thirty miles outside of the Truth or Consequences area the world’s first commercial space station, owned by the Virgin Corporation is being constructed. In less then a decade, healthy individuals with a decent-sized pocket book will be able to soar up past the clouds and see a view of an earth only possible in science fiction movies of the decades past.

The official state capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe, a rather liberal city, rich in art, culture, history and sophistication.

However, “the city” of New Mexico, one referred to by Bugs Bunny, who should have taken a left turn here, is Albuquerque. Known as “Buque” or “Burque” (pronounced Boo-keh with emphasis on the second syllable) to the locals, this city provides the youth with the city environment the so crave—the clubs, the night life, and the crime that has made Albuquerque a favorite site for the popular television show “Cops.”

Financially speaking, New Mexico is not a wealthy state. Some would joke that the economy is based on three things: tourism, drugs, and law enforcement to fight the drugs. Sure, this state is in the heart of the American drug pipeline. Some of the people here, are willing to accept that marijuana, called “mota” by many is, for better or for worse, a part of the culture. Like the rest of the nation, there is a flow of cocaine here, and unfortunately, like the rest of the states, that evil methamphetamine is prevalent here.

But, don’t get the wrong impression. This is universal of the U.S., and much of the world today.

The people of New Mexico, Love to party, and in that beautiful and proud Hispanic culture you find a people who look for cause to celebrate. New Mexicans celebrate two Independence Days. The Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo. Fireworks, beer, Tequiza, Corona, Tequila, and the occasional “mota” to remind the people what life, America, and freedom are all about.

Many pioneers of various kinds of lived in this state. If you want learn about Billy the Kid this is the state to travel. If you want to learn about the history of science fiction, one of its greatest pioneers, Dr. Jack Williamson, a man who several decades ago coined the terms “genetic engineering” and “terraforming” amongst others calls this state home.

In the eastern part of the state resides a museum called the Black Water Draw, where one can gaze upon the remains of the Clovis Man, some of the oldest human remains ever found.

The countryside of New Mexico can take your breath away. Vast desert covers the southern and central parts of the state, including the ever beautiful white sands. But, travel north into Taos, or Chamas country and you will see beautiful snow-capped mountains.

New Mexico is more than a state on the map. It is a culture all its own where traditional Caucasian culture exists with an even older Hispanic culture, and nestled amongst them here and there, a small population of once great peoples, that we today call Native Americans. Here, in New Mexico the old live with the young, the conservatives and the liberals, perhaps begrudgingly, call the same places home. For some people here, the war, whichever one it might be, is still going on, and for others the 1960’s never died.

New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment. You will never find another place like it on Earth.