Search Results

Keyword search: letter to the editor

Dear Granite Staters, hello! I am a third-grade student in Northern Virginia. Our class is learning about the United States, and I will be teaching our school about the state of New Hampshire. In late May, I will create a display for our State Fair that I hope will make you proud.

At the upcoming Bow town meeting, voters have the chance to preserve open space. The Bow Conservation Commission will seek approval, through a town warrant article, for optional powers that are available under New Hampshire law. This would allow the Commission to provide funding to a qualified land trust for purchasing properties or conservation easements in Bow. This would give Bow landowners another option to receive funds for conserving their land.

The real crisis isn’t the rising cost of eggs, it’s the horrific reality that billions of chickens spend their short, miserable lives crammed into factory farms, which serve as breeding grounds for disease. They are subjected to extreme crowding, confinement, abuse and ultimately brutal slaughter.

Residents of Newmarket should know that the town is involved in litigation that has reached the New Hampshire Supreme Court. While legal disputes involving municipalities are not uncommon, this case raises serious allegations that deserve public attention. The Appellant in this case has argued that the Newmarket engaged in unethical and illegal acts, claims that, if true, could have significant implications for local governance and public trust.

привет товарищ– or, if you prefer, “Greetings, comrade.”

House Bill 524 is an outright assault on public health and small medical practices, and it should outrage every New Hampshire resident. This reckless bill seeks to dismantle the New Hampshire Vaccine Association, a system that ensures vaccines are accessible, affordable and efficiently distributed. Why? To appease a small group of anti-vaccine extremists at the expense of children’s health and small businesses.

To my neighbors in Wilmot, I am running for re-election to the Wilmot Selectboard. Wilmot is my home by choice. I’ve gotten to know Wilmot, and you, by being there. When I agreed to run for the Selectboard in 2022, Chuck Thompson sat me down to ask my intentions. I told Chuck then the same things I would say now: to preserve all that is good in Wilmot, while watching out for the challenges of the future, and to make sure that Wilmot moves carefully and sensibly towards that future.

Shakespeare’s often repeated — and mostly misunderstood — line in Henry VI, Part II is particularly relevant today. Forty years ago, former Justice John Paul Stevens explained that “Shakespeare insightfully realized that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.” President Trump apparently agrees. In the first month of his presidency, he has fired nearly all Inspectors General, fired and replaced key lawyers in the Department of Justice and has now fired the key Judge Advocates General in the military branches. He has also fired most of the top generals in the military. In short, he has purged all those in the government who would stand in his way.

On several occasions President Trump has reminded us that he survived this past year’s assassination attempt as the result of divine intervention. “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” he’s said. At the inauguration, he told us “I was saved by God to make America great.”

Hooray for Janet Mills, the governor of Maine. In her response to President Trump’s rebuke on Feb. 21, 2025, she upheld the much honored tradition of Margaret Chase Smith, who spent 30 years in Congress as a representative and senator. Margaret Chase Smith is famous for standing up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who with the help of his lawyer Roy Cohn and feckless fellow senators, conducted a cruel and destructive witch hunt against anyone in the U.S. suspected of having Communist leanings. Many lives and careers were destroyed and an atmosphere of hate and suspicion permeated the country. In a famous address to Congress in 1950, Smith warned senators not to embrace the Four Horsemen of Calumny — fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear. In a recent speech, Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker said “tyranny requires your fear, and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires courage.” Show your courage now!

James Mayotte’s Monitor letter asks a series of questions, but there’s only room to respond to a few. Two related questions he poses are: “Why do Democrats protest DOGE?” and “Why are we negative about Elon Musk?” DOGE is performing surgery with an ax instead of a scalpel. DOGE’s process is not transparent. What are DOGE’s metrics for performance? How can DOGE measure complicated government processes in only weeks?

Are you concerned our elected leaders don’t seem to represent the majority of voters? Many multi-seat elections are won with less than 50% of votes because first-past-the-post often results in winners who only represent the margins of political ideologies rather than the largest group of voters. A ranked choice voting method mathematically ensures that winners have the broadest support of the electorate. RCV also reduces polarization and eliminates split voting.

The Department of Government Efficiency is headed by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. What a joke. If President Trump wants to get rid of “government fraud, waste and unnecessary spending,” he should put poor people in charge of the program. They know how to spend money carefully.

Last week, we joined with engineers across the country to celebrate Engineers Week, and I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the essential role engineers play in the lives and communities of every Granite Stater. The critical work of engineers makes virtually everything we do in our daily lives possible. Access to clean water, safe roads and bridges, environmentally responsible waste solutions and improved infrastructure are not only critical parts of our communities but they also keep our economy moving. The work that engineers do, in both the private and public sectors, helps keep New Hampshire the best state to live, work and play in, and we need more of them! The focus of Engineers Week 2025 was on designing the future. Not only was it a chance to spotlight the important work of engineers of all disciplines, it also offered us an opportunity to point young people toward a rewarding and empowering career in the field. We need more problem-solvers, thinkers and creators who want to design and build the future for generations to come. If you have a student in your life, discuss engineering as an impactful, rewarding career. Help us inspire and encourage the next generation of innovators, and we’ll design the future together.

Melody Towle wrote “I can’t figure this out. If President Trump won the election, then why is Elon Musk cleaning out all the federal agencies while Trump just sits there? Who did we all elect to the presidency?” Well, “we all” did not vote for him. Some of us saw a totally irresponsible and destructive person and voted for Kamala Harris. The American people missed the opportunity to have someone who would work “for the people.”

As a member of the Northwood Budget Committee, I paid close attention to our School Board’s presentation on its proposed operating budget, especially to the money allocated to be paid into the retirement system. $744,688 was budgeted out of the $15,070,878 total. This represents 4.9% of the budget.

Matthew St. Onge’s recent letter suggesting that Concord residents should be able to prioritize major spending projects via Ranked Choice Voting is a good idea, since it would give residents more say in which projects are most important to them. New Hampshire towns and cities could also benefit from using RCV for their local elections.

Two state Senate bills address how we regulate educational content. SB 208 offers a collaborative solution while SB 33 invites overreach and censorship. Of course, we parents want age-appropriate materials in schools. But SB 33’s vague wording goes beyond protecting kids and opens the door to unnecessary restrictions. It requires school boards to define “approved” materials and creates procedures for complaints about content deemed “harmful” or “offensive.” That means that, upon the bill’s passage, my school board would have to create a process so simple that, if I complained loudly enough about The Little Engine That Could promoting toxic positivity and hustle culture, the principal could ban it. C’mon.