Where Is Reverence for Moral Conduct?
I shared a glass of wine recently with a neighbor and friend who’s a theologian and an author, a man of very remarkable insights. We share concerns about the politics of 2016, and in our conversation he reminded me about what’s missing in this year of the Donald Trump campaign. What’s missing, so far, is any articulated reverence for what I would call ordinary moral conduct.
I don’t know a lot about Donald Trump’s thought processes, but what I do know suggests that he has a loose hold on the truth and a remarkably flexible approach to the commitments he has made (whether fiscal or matrimonial). He seems evangelical about his own self-importance, and quite content to attack people who don’t share his adherence to greed or admiration for himself.
And apparently he’s quite good at manipulating others for his own advancement.
There was a time in our political life when this collection of attributes would have called forth the voices of our national leadership in a chorus of condemnation. This year we get muted whimpering, followed by the sound of someone sucking up.
Good Lord, when I became a young man in the 1960s, people such as William Sloane Coffin raged fiercely about right and wrong. The people I admired most, including the friend with whom I shared some wine, were folks who went to Selma, or registered voters in the South, and fought for civil rights. Their voices were strong, and truthful and courageous. Now what?
The Granite State has always been a place that valued people of strong moral convictions and proven willingness to fight for what’s right. Think of governors John Gilbert Winant and Robert P. Bass; and Marilla Ricker, the suffragist from New Hampshire who fought for her right to be equal; and the Cornishman George Rublee who struggled to save the Jews of Europe in the 1930s: They all had an understanding of right and wrong, and a connection to the principle of greater good.
Can it be that we will now forget their determination to do what’s right and true, and turn to someone who, by telling lies and spreading false promises, can make the impossible and malicious seem irresistible?
I sure hope not.
Peter Hoe Burling
Cornish
The author was Democratic leader of the New Hampshire House, a state senator, and a member of the Democratic
National Committee.
Time for a Change
At this very moment the leaders of our country are worried about enacting crazy rules about school restrooms and locker rooms. Really? Folks, wake up! Rome is burning!
I read the front page of the Valley News recently to see that some of our veterans — our veterans, the men and women who will lay their lives down to protect us all — are homeless along with other poor souls and have to set up tents and live in RVs just to try to survive.
Virtually nothing this administration has done has been for the good of the average person in this country. It is not only making the poor poorer, but pulling the rug out from the working poor and middle class. The cost of everything has almost doubled: electricity, heating, groceries and the one thing that had started going down, gas, is on the rise again. No wonder people are losing their homes and their hope.
It’s time for a change, a real change. Like someone who loves this country and will fight to make everyone’s lives better. And someone who doesn’t wear a skirt or want to socialize this great country and make everyone’s lives miserable. Can you tell me one place where socialism has worked?
Terri Macomber
Lebanon
Understanding Transgender Students
I want to thank doctors Cathy Shubkin and Steve Chapman for their letter May 22. One important issue they raise is the idea that we must all educate ourselves about groups who use very official sounding names, such as the American College of Pediatricians. We cannot make assumptions about such organizations without looking into who the members are and what their political or philosophical agenda might be. There are plenty of groups with very important sounding names that stand for exclusion, bigotry and even hatred, in some cases.
On the very important issue of how transgender students deserve to be treated, I think the debate currently taking place on the national stage is complicated by a lack of understanding and education, on the part of many, about what it means to be transgender. It’s critical for all of us to understand this: A transgender person who walks into a female restroom is someone who has identified psychologically and emotionally as female since she was old enough to know the difference between a girl and a boy. Her body may look male, but she has felt like and identified with females since she was about three years old. She is not a person with voyeuristic intentions who wants to intrude on the privacy of other females for unhealthy reasons.
Robin B. Osborne
East Thetford
Shame on the DNC
Shame on the Democratic National Committee. Its tactics to pre-select the party’s presidential nominee have backfired. Now with the fear of its candidate losing to Donald Trump, it is leaning on Sen. Bernie Sanders to withdraw from the race. Bernie Sanders’ populist following and strength against the Republican nominee, poll after poll, make him a better choice as a candidate.
The news media’s stinted coverage of Bernie Sanders’ campaign also bears much responsibility for skewing the facts of the campaign. Sadly, the democratic process is anything but “for the people and by the people” unless you are an established Democratic politician.
Karin “Maggie” May
Claremont