Newport
For Tom and Janet Noonan, a retired couple from Massachusetts who own a cottage in Lempster, N.H., Trump’s executive order prohibiting migrants from seven majority-Muslim cuntries from entering the country was the correct thing to do. Emphasizing their immigrant roots, the Noonans said the country is not protecting its borders and that has to change.
“I think it is a smart move because I think he is trying to protect us from terrorists coming in,” said Janet Noonan, who was having coffee in McDonald’s in Newport with her husband on Tuesday. “Yes, I want immigrants to come in, especially Syrian immigrants. They have no more homeland. But we have to vet them and if these people aren’t vetted, you’ve seen things that have happened in the world, so I’m afraid. I’m afraid for my grandchildren.”
Former Sunapee Selectman Steve White, having coffee in Dunkin’ Donuts in Newport with his niece on Tuesday, thought the country will be better served with the ban.
“He has the right idea trying to make sure we keep the country safe, protect the borders,” White said. “Those who come in, we should vet. That process has to be improved.”
Trump won Sullivan County in November with 48.8 percent of the vote, and not everyone has embraced his changes, which include a promise to dismantle Obama’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, and to restart efforts to build the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access energy pipelines.
For Bob Ostrander and Mike Myers, both retired, the mention of Trump and the immigration ban was met with a thumbs down when they were interviewed in Claremont.
“I’m appalled,” said Ostrander, a former teacher in Claremont who now lives in Maine.
Myers said he is not against vetting but called the implementation of Trump’s ban “ridiculous.”
“It was very painful to a lot of people. And I’m not convinced there wasn’t sufficient vetting before,” he said.
As for whether it would achieve the goal of making the U.S. safer, Myers believes the opposite is true. He agrees with those who say the Islamic State and other declared enemies of the U.S. will use the ban as a recruiting tool to claim there is Islamophobia in the U.S.
“I object to the way this has been handled,” Ostrander said, suspect of claims the U.S. needs a more rigorous vetting process for immigrants or tighter borders. “This is not the democratic process. This is a witch hunt and it will have very negative consequences.”
Outside the Country Kitchen in Newport, Leslie and Richard Lougee, of Massachusetts, who were visiting family in Newport, said the ban will improve security.
Richard Lougee said he supported Trump’s immigration ban.
“Letting these people in from all over the place from these countries … they’ve got to be to be very, very careful,” he said.
“They need to be vetted,” Leslie Lougee said.
Charlie Lewis, finishing up his laundry at Best Dressed Laundry in Newport, said the ban might help.
“I think it could be a good idea because you never know who is out there and some immigrants can be bad and some can be good,” he said.
In Village Pizza in Newport, George Keeler, of Springfield, Vt., was more concerned with what he sees as a rush by Trump to make good on a campaign promise.
“Sounds like he hadn’t really thought about the implications of what he was signing,” Keeler said. “He is trying to work through all the details after. He needs to think through what he is doing before he takes action. He never really explained the idea of the ban.”
Ibolya Prepost also thought the ban was not well thought out. The Ascutney resident arrived in the United States from Hungary in 1970; her husband escaped in 1956 when Soviet troops entered the country and crushed a revolution.
Prepost, who is now an American citizen, said her reaction to Trump’s ban was that he didn’t think it through and now it is affecting people who pose no threat to the U.S.
“He needs to do something (to make the U.S. safe), but I think that was a very hasty decision. It is putting people, immigrants, just like myself, into jeopardy, ” Prepost said, sitting with her husband, Leszlo, in McDonald’s in Claremont Tuesday evening. “I know friends living in those seven countries and they went to visit and now they can’t come home.”
Some of Trump’s other early actions, including chipping away at the Affordable Care Act and restarting attempts to build the Keystone and Dakota oil pipelines, got mixed reaction as well.
“I support restarting the pipelines and they either have to totally trash Obamacare and come up with something new or they have to drastically change it,” Richard Leslie said outside the Country Kitchen. “There is too much in there that is the exact opposite of what it was supposed to be. It is not the affordable care act, for some it is the unaffordable care act.”
The Noonans, of Lempster, agreed.
“It is not affordable,” said Tom Noonan, who thinks the subsidies to pay a portion of premiums for those who can’t afford insurance are unsustainable.
“Who is paying for the subsidy? The kid working his fingers to the bone for $10 an hour, they are taking his money and giving it to somebody else,” Noonan said. “Never worked. Never will work.”
Keeler said he has not seen a better alternative from Republicans.
“I always thought we do need to provide health care for everyone, the question is how are we going to do that and so far I haven’t seen that (from the Republicans) and we can’t undo everything,” Keeler said.
Ostrander, in Claremont on Tuesday evening, said the Affordable Care Act has achieved the goal of reducing costly emergency room visits.
“The Affordable Care Act is not the best thing possible but it is a step toward getting some kind of insurance to a lot of people,” Ostrander said. “Is it the best? No. Reform the Affordable Care Act. Do anything. But throw it out? Taking away affordable care means hospitals are going to be inundated. There is no follow-up care.”
White, the former Sunapee Selectboard member, agreed with those who said Obamacare is not affordable and needs to be replaced.
“It has gone off its wheels,” he said.
As far as the controversial energy pipelines, the small sample of opinions on Tuesday supported their construction.
“We are for it,” said Janet Noonan, adding that the Dakota project could be moved to accommodate opposition from supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who say the pipeline would threaten their drinking water and cross sacred burial ground.
“They can make adjustments and move it,” she said.
Tom Chagnon, of Stoddard, N.H., having lunch in Newport, was not sure whether the immigration ban or any Trump initiatives will be effective but thinks they should be allowed to be implemented.
“I think the whole country should give him a chance,” Chagnon said. “They gave every other president a chance; they are not giving this guy a chance. Things are crazy. Let’s see what he is going to do.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
