Lebanon Needs Affordable Housing

 

This letter is in regard to the plan for affordable housing that, sadly, has already been tossed in the trash by the City Council.

Quite frankly, if the building was truly for low-income people (like Rogers House), then I was all for it! Further, many people in the lower bracket or who are older don’t even own a car. It seems that some units could have been reserved for those who have cars, and the rest reserved for those who don’t drive and who would use the bus.

Our town needs affordable housing, and not another “bait and switch” where they say it will be low income and then charge rents at $2,000 a month. Please, Lebanon, reconsider.

Connie Kroner

Lebanon

 

A Letter to Mr. Trump

 

A Memorial Day letter to Mr. Trump:

Dear Mr. Trump, You are a hero to your many supporters. They’ll vote for you to lead our nation because you want America to be great again.

Is our country not great now?

American soldiers fought and died in wars so that we didn’t have to. Some were captured and tortured and when they returned went on to serve again in public office. Why are these men less valued because, in your words, “they were captured’?

Mr. Trump, you did not serve in the military due to multiple deferments, yet you reserve the right to judge those who did. Have you not heard soldiers observe that they don’t recognize the America they see after returning from deployment overseas?

Public speech has become crude and disparaging, the kind of language we often heard from you. Do you understand that the suicide rate among returning soldiers is more than 20 per day? Do you know that veterans who fought to preserve your right to speak often hear little more than hate speech from you?

Veterans watch your rallies on TV and hear you say about those who protest your speech, “Get them out!”

You are a hero to some, a demagogue to others. Perhaps a visit to a military cemetery to show respect for those who paid the ultimate price will enrich your love for all Americans.

Don McCabe

Norwich

Spraying the Rail Trail

 

The board of directors of the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail Merrimack County have contracted with a licensed applicator to spray herbicides on a six-mile section of the trail from Chance Pond Road, Franklin, to Stirrup Pond Road, Boscawen, for vegetation control. While no date has been set, as it will depend on weather conditions, this will take place before June 15. The FNRT board has agreed to post signs on this section of the trail the day of application.

As a frequent user and lover of the Northern Rail Trail, I think others would appreciate knowing about the spraying of herbicides on the trail. For more information, contact Friends of the Northern Rail Trail at Info@FNRT.org.

Linda Howes

Springfield, N.H.

We Are in Jeopardy

 

In the past I have admired and supported Bernie Sanders for his enthusiasm and his agenda.  He has always espoused the rationale of the American Dream and worked tirelessly for the necessary societal conditions to make its achievement possible.

Now he has caught the “presidential fever.” His current uncompromising course of disparaging Hillary Clinton is driving a steel wedge between these two Democratic constituencies, and I fear there will be no unification in this election.  I fear younger voters will stay away from the booth.

This whole election cycle is becoming all too like 1968, when the Republicans chose an essentially unelectable candidate in Richard Nixon. Then the Democrats, in Chicago, with the assistance of Mayor Daley, destroyed their party and so American politics took a turn toward paranoia, demagoguery and partisanship from which we still suffer.

My fear is that as this goes on with Bernie we will tap into a prejudice against women in power that is greater than fear of African Americans. Many years ago, during the Clarence Thomas hearings, Joe Biden said, referring to Anita Hill, “women are not gunfighters.” I surely don’t want a gunfighter in the Oval Office — it won’t serve the country or the world. Just as long ago, in a sermon to the local Unitarian Universalist church, Rev. Nancy Crumbine said, “You can’t beat darkness with a stick, you have to bring light!” That is what women, and emancipated men, bring to the table. My fellow Americans, we are in jeopardy. Who will talk sense to Bernie?

 R. Heathcote Russell

Hanover