Raise Income Taxes Now

I was recently reminded of the earthquake in the summer of 2011 that damaged the Washington Monument. Congress appropriated half of the $15 million required for the repair, and left the remainder to be raised by donation (which it was).

Earlier this week, I was cleaning out an abandoned file cabinet and came across our income tax return for 1982. For an income of about $36,000, we had a tax liability of about $6,000. Compare that with 2015. With an income more than twice as large, our tax was about the same. No wonder the federal budget is never balanced and only the military is adequately funded. The government can’t even repair its own monuments. Income taxes need to be raised, now!

Stephen Neirman

East Thetford

A Movie Not to Be Missed

Please join us for a one-time screening of the movie The Messenger, at the Nugget Theater on April 16 at 11 a.m., sponsored by LindeMac Real Estate and the Hanover Conservancy.

The Messenger is an emotionally engaging and visually rich movie from the first frame to the last. Up-to-the-minute facts on how birds communicate, and about environmental change, are interwoven with gripping stories about the perils faced every year by these world travelers.

This provocative and beautiful documentary is sure to appeal to everyone, particularly bird-watchers. It is scored with sounds from the birds themselves. The stunning flight sequences are conveyed in slow motion, making the complexities of wing movement, control and rhythm visible to the human eye.

The Messenger is probably the most outstanding film ever made on birds. The movie is strongly science-based, emotive and beautiful.

We hope you will join us to see this remarkable movie. Tickets, which will be for sale on the day of the event, will go to support the conservation work of the Hanover Conservancy. The price is $5 for conservancy members and students and $8 for non-members.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Linde McNamara

Hanover

The Right Ratio at the Co-op

Your report on the Hanover Co-op meeting on April 2 (“Amid Concerns of Factionalism …”) covered, discreetly, the recent history of the Co-op, but omitted one facet of its operation that deserved at least a mention. Let’s say that members expect “delicacies” and “bargains.” Both may not be possible for any single item, but both are possible. Any member has a right to an opinion as to what the overall desirable ratio, (delicacies/bargains), ought to be. It seems to us that this ratio has gotten too high in the case of the Hanover Co-op, and needs to be brought down. We have shopped there for 32 years, almost on a daily basis; very little of our food has come from anywhere else in that time.

It is a mundane topic, perhaps, compared with the high-level social policy disputes that have consumed some of the board’s energy, but it is a topic that deserves at least a passing mention.

David Montgomery

Hanover

Onward to Washington, D.C.

Is the media failing to report on what will be one of the largest civil disobedience actions in a generation? Democracy Spring! With the goal of ending legalized corruption of our democracy, there is a mass nonviolent action taking place right now!

Have you heard about it? On April 2, concerned Americans began a march of 140 miles from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., where many thousands gathered Monday to reclaim the Capitol in a powerful, peaceful and massive sit-in that no one can ignore. We are demanding that Congress take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice.

If you could not march or sit-in, there are other ways to support the effort. Please visit www.DemocracySpring.org for more information. We need to end legalized corruption of our democracy. Please demand that this action receives the widespread media coverage that it deserves.

Bria Singer

Norwich

The Business of Incarceration

How many citizens are aware that federal law now requires the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to maintain 34,000 beds every day, available for the detention of immigrant men, women and children? And that over 60 percent of these beds are in facilities owned and/or operated by for-profit prison corporations?

It is not surprising that since this quota was instituted in 2012, the two largest for-profit prison companies in the U.S. have increased their profits by millions of dollars. Nor is it surprising that these corporations have since 2003 spent over $32 million in lobbying the government, and that individuals associated with them have contributed hundreds of thousand of dollars to support candidates for Congress and for the presidency.

We must ask our New Hampshire candidates how they will act to stop such private prison influence on our immigration policies and support legislation to end the immigrant detention quota. This arbitrary quota separates families, undermines the right to freedom, and, in some locations, subjects people to deplorable confinement conditions that violate human rights standards.

Rose Miller, Charles Uffords and Peg Myers

For the Quaker Worship Group, Hanover

Trump’s ‘Stolen’ Votes

In the April 4 Valley News was a headline that said, “Trump Says Kasich Should Quit: ‘He’s Taking My Votes.’ ” The amazing Mr. Trump apparently knows how each voter should vote because some of their votes belong to him. Implicit in this statement is that as each voter enters the polling place, his vote is known and should be registered immediately. No need to go into a voting booth. That way Kasich could not steal Trump’s votes. Insofar as there is no law to cover this contingency, I can only shed a tear for Trump and say, “Shame on you” to Kasich. By the way, how does one identify a Kasich voter who has been stolen from Trump?

Herbert A. Knapp

Orford