Billions for Basketball

On July 6 in the Valley News, I read that in the first 96 hours of free agency, NBA teams committed about $3 billion toward salaries. So all you sports fans out there complaining about the economy, does your complaint mean you will not watch the NBA because you are appalled that players and management so shamelessly spend this kind of money. I bet not. You, sports fan, are the reason they are spending that kind of money. And many of you would complain about a $15-an-hour minimum wage, family leave policies comparable to the rest of the world, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Social Security, your local school budget for your kids — I could go on and on.

I am as guilty as many of you about sports. I love the Red Sox and the Patriots. But I think our priorities are out of whack and I think the time has come for all of us to say enough already to the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR and the players. Wake up, sports fans, we have a problem! 

Karen Dewey

Newport, N.H.

Kenyon Is Wrong About Guns

Jim Kenyon’s column in the July 3 Sunday Valley News (“Dog Day Afternoon”) was yet another shining example of the author’s keen intellect. He faulted a police officer for using his gun, stating that such should happen only as a last resort. This after describing the previous attempts to which the officer resorted without effect. He writes of being unable to “wrap my head around” the need to carry a gun in a local park. After all, he wrote, it’s not as if Watson Park were Central Park. So we have Kenyon arguing both that this area’s gun laws are too lax and that they have resulted in a level of safety that makes carrying a gun unnecessary. He obviously finds New York City’s gun laws more to his liking, but he implied (rightly) that the need for a gun was more likely in Central Park.

One wonders what Kenyon’s take on the story would have been had the victim of the attack been a child rather than a dog. Would he have found the use of a gun to be warranted then? One hopes so, but not with a great level of confidence. If such an attack resulted in the death of a child because no one was able to stop it, would Kenyon have the intellectual honesty to write that our anti-gun culture had claimed another victim? The evidence makes it seem unlikely.

Anthony Stimson

Lebanon

Don’t Use Private Property

I want to inform the public that public access to Tewksbury Pond in Grafton is at the boat launch only. All other property is privately owned. If you do not have the owner’s permission, please respect their property and do not think you can fish, swim, dump your trash, park, camp or do any other activity.

We have allowed people to fish or swim on the “rock” that we own by the rail trail, but this is no longer the case. We have posted the property and will be enforcing the signs as we have spent countless hours picking up trash and we are done. Sorry to all of you who have respectfully used the property, but as always, there are those out there that have no respect and ruin it for everybody.

Donna Dugan

Grafton

Liberal Elite Are Let Off

Now it’s official: We now have two legal standards, two separate rules of law. One for the liberal elite, and one for everyone else! Hillary Clinton didn’t intend to commit a crime? Did she accidentally set up a private server? And what about those classified emails the FBI found that Clinton had insisted were not there? Does that woman ever tell the truth?

Jim Newcomb

North Haverhill

Flag Theft a Disgrace

As has happened every year since 2002, the American Legion placed a flag on our father’s grave for Memorial Day.

However, this year shortly thereafter, someone removed the flag. We went out and purchased another one and placed it on his grave, and two days later someone once again removed it.  

Whoever is doing this might think it is funny, but we don’t. It takes a very sick person to dishonor a veteran who served this country for your freedom. If someone should be caught doing this, hopefully he or she will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. You are a disgrace to our country.

Sandra Benjamin and Margaret Thibodeau

Lebanon

GMOs Can Help Humanity

“Vt. Leads National Fight Against GMOs,” read the front page of the Valley News on July 6. Vermonters seem to be joining with Greenpeace in opposition to GMOs such as Golden Rice, which reduce Vitamin-A deficiencies that cause blindness and death in children in the developing world. However, 107 Nobel laureates have signed a letter blasting Greenpeace’s inhumane actions as a crime against humanity. Read supportprecisionagriculture.org. 

 Robert Hargraves

Hanover