A Militarized America

Although we would like to believe that in our democracy our leaders respond to societal and political events in a rational and deliberative manner, current rhetoric makes that difficult to believe. In response to the recent events in Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas, a common response by many, including President Obama, has been, “This is not who we are, this is not America.”

All of the evidence seems to clearly suggest that in fact this is exactly who we are. We own over 300 million guns and kill each other at rates far beyond anyone else in the “advanced” world. I hope you see the irony in my choice of words describing the type of society we live in. The Washington Post stated recently that three people are shot and killed by police each day. The shooter in Dallas apparently owned five military assault weapons. The Second Amendment refers to “a well regulated Militia.” Unfortunately, what the public square has become is a free- fire zone with both the citizenry and those entrusted with protecting them armed to the teeth. We need to collectively acknowledge that our militarized society is the America we live in.

Sean Mullen

Thetford

Health Series Debuts

Bravo to the Osher Summer Lecture Series, “The New Medical Frontier,” and their kickoff lecturer, Rodney Hochman, M.D., president and CEO of Providence Health and Services, Seattle. Dr. Hochman gave an informative, succinct lecture and if you did not attend, you definitely missed a rare opportunity to be encouraged that someone out there is moving our health care system forward in a new and innovative way. His lecture could be described by the Osher slogan, “the new, the provocative, the timeless.” Definitely a series to follow.

Rosemarie Scibetta

Quechee

Be Skeptical About Poll Results

Polls are a quick and dirty way to gauge current political realities. During the upcoming general election, polling data will be cited by commentators, the presidential candidates and candidates on the state level. Two political observers note that in this highly charged election, the news media will see every poll like an addict sees a new fix.

Candidates know that polls influence citizens’ views and behavior. Polling data are quantifiable and appear factual. Yet it has been observed that polling may never have been less reliable, or more influential, than it is now.

The validity of polling data should be questioned. As critics have demonstrated repeatedly, a sizable number of people polled either know nothing about the matters being measured or hold no opinion about them. A landline-only sample conducted for the 2014 elections would have missed about three-fifths of the American public. Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com underscores the increasing difficulty of opinion research in drawing a random sample of the population.

Be cautious when reading the 2016 election polls. Conflicting results are likely, given the high cost, the over-reliance on internet polls, the growth of cellphones, and a decline in the number of people willing to answer surveys. Polls do not inform about the depth of citizens’ feelings toward each candidate, the extent of their knowledge about current affairs, the likelihood of acting on their choices.

As voting citizens, how can we make sense out of polling data? Some suggestions:

Rely on averages of polls rather than any one poll in particular.

Be mindful of who is conducting the poll. Polls conducted by the Pew Research Center and Gallup, in addition to Silver’s FiveThirtyEight poll analysis, are likely the most reliable.

Check out the polling process used to gather the data (sample polled, data-gathering method, rate of return).

Look for the biases of the polling organization (e.g. Republican or Democratic bias).

Gallup liked to say that pollsters take the “pulse of democracy.” But, as E.B. White wrote after one election, “Although you can take a nation’s pulse, you can’t be sure that the nation hasn’t just run up a flight of stairs.”

Bob Scobie

Hanover

A Better Location

Instead of building a new building, why doesn’t PetSmart buy the vacant store that was Shaw’s in the Upper Valley Plaza?

That store is up higher, and away from floods.

I would love to see a PetSmart here.

Mary Mercure

Woodstock