On Sunday I received with my daily newspaper a copy of the Valley Almanac. Shawn Braley’s drawings were spectacular, and totally captured the essence of the communities. I urge the Valley News to publish a copy of the almanac on heavier, long-lasting paper so that the information and drawings can become part of everyone’s permanent collection of Upper Valley facts.
Willy Black Hanover
If you are a fan of high drama, great story and beautiful and inspiring music, you should run, not walk, to get tickets to the final performance of Opera North’s Tosca on Friday night. The Wednesday night performance was fabulous from start to finish, with beautiful sets, costumes and direction, as well as spectacular singing and acting by all. It is well worth your time to attend this beautiful performance of one of the best operas of all time, and to help keep opera alive in the Upper Valley by supporting our wonderful local opera company.
Melissa Haas Etna
Tim Dreisbach (“Unfair Claims of Racism,” Forum, July 29) acknowledges that he becomes angry when attacked for his opinions . . . and then, without turning around, attacks columnist Steve Nelson for his opinion that the anger directed at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is caused by racism and sexism.
Dreisbach seems to have concluded that there are no people who feel as he does in disagreeing strongly with the policies of Obama and in having disrespect for the “many falsehoods of Clinton,” and who are doing so because of racism and sexism. Of course, Dreisbach doesn’t know that as a fact. Just as Nelson couldn’t know that all the people angry at Obama and Clinton are doing so out of sexism and/or racism.
It would appear that neither side is open to any idea that the other side might have a point worth considering. As I have written in the Forum before, the point of view that the way I see things makes them the way things are only leads to strong antagonism and not to a resolution that would be useful to all. We need to put away anger and rejection from our discussion, even if it remains inside, to have a chance for progress.
Greatness in America is fed by all the differences that can and do exist here side by side. It seems to me unfortunate there is such anger existing in those (and I am not meaning to include either Dreisbach or Nelson, who have written otherwise) railing against the differences. Better that we would feel that we are all Americans.
Louis A. Kislik West Lebanon
I just don’t understand how Donald Trump could have any supporters. The man is an unscrupulous businessman who stiffs the so-called middle and lower class, and let’s not forget he declared bankruptcy four times and made more money each time.
He has no foreign policy experience that I know of, nor any political experience whatsoever. It’s very sad that anyone could support him. I realize that some people have issues with the economy and social issues (the police, immigration, race, etc.)
Electing Trump is not the answer. He is entertainment — what will he say next? Many people are thinking about moving to another country, rightly so. I’m not enamored with the idea he could press the nuclear button and annihilate the world. Don’t his supporters see the hypocrisy?
Charles Rauscher Windsor
I read the article in Monday’s paper (“Should the Government Step In to Try to Drive Up Wages?”) about the dispute in the economic field about when government should intervene to have more of the proceeds of business go to the employees.
The economists believed the market would take care of the issue, except in extraordinary circumstances. I find the economists naive. Government has always had and exercised the power to determine the rules business works under. They should be familiar with the tax code which rewards people with big mortgages, and allows people to pay less tax on certain forms of income. The government is in control of the labor laws, which determine whether workers have any real ability to negotiate with their employers. The market is a system or a mechanism, yet people who benefit from the status quo try to make it into a substantive policy. It’s not, and we the people always have the right to determine what goes into the supply and what goes into the demand.
Lanea A. Witkus Newport
Thanks to the families, friends and volunteers who made the Canaan Town Library’s Summer Reading Olympics a success. Without your help, we wouldn’t have been able to provide such a full program. Over 50 kids and their parents participated in three craft Saturdays, a fencing demonstration, a stuffed animal sleepover and our annual ice cream social, and still found time to read over 800 books. Special thanks to Papa Z’s for donating prizes for readers, the Friends of the Canaan Town Library for donating to our ice cream social, and the Children’s Literacy Foundation for providing storyteller Marv Klassen-Landis and the gift of books for children. I would also like to thank the volunteers who made bookmarks, cut and glued craft supplies, took pictures and scooped ice cream. And to the library staff for their support and expertise in running the summer reading program; you all deserve a round of applause.
Amy Thurber Library Director, Canaan Town Library