I read with great interest the debate about the wind noise experienced by the Therriens (“Cabin at Center of Wind Debate,” Oct. 13). I live next to the Masonic Temple in Woodstock and the bell chimes every half-hour, 24 hours a day.
There’s a single chime on the half-hour and 12 chimes at noon and midnight, 11 chimes at 11 a.m. and p.m. I cannot tell you the number of nights I have been jarred awake by the chimes, often several times.
They are lovely during the day. However, I and many others experience interrupted sleep and all the symptoms that come with it. I have been told nothing can be done and no one else has ever complained. I speak with people all the time who wish the bells could be silenced during sleep times, especially for children and seniors.
Deeya Pavelle Woodstock
I grew up listening to the Red Sox on the radio. My grandmother and father were faithful to the Sox from the ’30s to the ’90s, living in hope that their hearts would not be broken again. They passed this on to me, and my heart broke and broke until the 2004 win!
But a recent night was different. It wasn’t about winning or losing. It was an incredible heartwarming display of what one man can do to bring out the best in people. We know what David Ortiz did after the bombing at the Boston Marathon. On his last night, he worked at his game, cheering his teammates on. When the last out was made, the fans stayed on, cheered and called out “Papi, Papi, Papi.”
I knew he would come out of the dugout, despite some thinking he wouldn’t. When he did he simply tipped his cap over and over to the fans. Everyone waited for him to speak, but this was one time David Ortiz let his eyes speak, and so many of us shed a tear. We said goodbye all year to this man, but the last night was truly the best. It was said that it was too bad he didn’t knock one last one out of the park. But he did. He hit an emotional grand slam out. I am sure many others will remember his farewell as a true gentlemanly goodbye. Thank you, David, for being such a positive male role model.
Donna LaFleur Quechee
Regarding David Bowen’s letter on Oct. 12 (“Another Option for President”): vote for Gary Johnson on the hope the election would go to the House of Representatives? The GOP House that voted over 60 times to repeal Obamacare? The same House that, while ‘disturbed” by Donald Trump’s actions, mostly still supports him? The House that’s led eight investigations of Benghazi because they still can’t find the results they want? He really thinks they’ll choose the better option and elect Gary Johnson? Either he’s kidding us or he’s kidding himself.
William Garner Windsor
Thanks for the Support
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Last Saturday I successfully run my first (and maybe only) half-marathon raising money to support Augie’s Quest and the fight against ALS. It was an unbelievable event with 17,500 runners; even though more than 10,000 had faster times than I did, I ran all the way. More importantly, the support I got from family, friends and neighbors helped me surpass my fundraising goal.
I set out to raise $3,500 and the total is over $4,400 so far. My team at the River Valley Club raised over $24,000 and together all of us raised more than $410,000! I feel so blessed to have such support from family, friends and the greater community. I want to say a special thank you to those who do not know me personally, but responded to my Forum letter asking for support and to the article in the Sept. 29 Valley News by Jared Pendak.
For the next month or so, the link to my fundraising page will remain open should you care to learn the story of Ellen and donate. The fight against this dread disease is a much longer marathon.
Bill Waste Lyme
The Main Case Against Ayotte
Your Oct. 9 editorial, “The Trump Evasion,” takes our Sen. Kelly Ayotte to task for crass political calculation, trying to embrace Mr. Trump at arm’s length during this disturbing campaign season. More press attention on the over-publicized Trump, however, obscures the issue here. Ayotte’s impact on governance and politics boils down to the reliable partisanship of her vote in the U.S. Senate, a group that has been AWOL for eight years.
The Senate Republican leadership proudly and publicly announced after President Obama’s inauguration that denying him a second term was their highest priority. With Sen. Ayotte in lockstep, they have obstructed virtually every executive branch initiative since 2010, denying the president any possibility of legislative or diplomatic accomplishment. They have repeatedly joined with the House to try to erase Obama’s signature early success, attempting dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. To ice the cake, the Mitch McConnell Senate now refuses its constitutional obligation to hold hearings and vote up or down on our president’s current Supreme Court nominee, leaving the judicial branch of government as unable to do its work as the Senate has been unwilling to do its own.
Would a Republican-led Senate in the coming term act to check or balance a President Trump’s more dangerous impulses, as the Constitution intends? Would it buckle down to do the country’s essential work with a President Clinton any more cooperatively than it did with President Obama? As to the Supreme Court, given the ages of the present justices, what sort of court would a Republican Senate leave us with?
The issue in New Hampshire this November is not Kelly Ayotte’s campaign gyrations. The issue is whether we insist that our government function or we watch it continue fiddling while our future burns. It’s nothing personal, Sen. Ayotte, but you have embraced a center-stage role in a do-nothing, obstructionist caucus, and that’s why you won’t get my vote.
Dodd Stacy Etna