What a pleasant surprise! Ten letters to the editor in the Feb. 15 paper and not a mention of Trump, Democrats, Republicans or Congress. I guess there are other topics of interest in the Upper Valley. Relief!
Grant Isham
Stockbridge, Vt.
Mysterious Reports Of Buses
President Trump and his minions claim that Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire only because her campaign bused in people from Massachusetts who voted illegally.
Hillary Clinton garnered 2,736 more votes than Donald Trump, so she would have had to bus in at least 2,737 people. If the buses carried 55 people each, then about 50 buses would have made the trek from Massachusetts to New Hampshire voting places. This prompts a few questions:
1.) How did they recruit that number of people from Massachusetts?
2.) Who organized them, and did they all assemble at one spot for the trip north, or did they have stations throughout the northern tier?
3.) When a bus pulled into a polling place, how did they get past the voting clerks who checked off their names on the rolls?
4.) Why were the Republican and Democratic poll watchers asleep at the switch when a busload of people came through?
Pete Bleyler
West Lebanon
Twain Would Enjoy This
Mark Twain would find it delicious: a school board officially voting that it doesn’t need any further educating on a topic. They know enough already.
Sounds like good Huck Finn reasoning to me.
Paul Keane
Hartford Village
Watch for Snow on Roofs
Once again, I am writing my annual letter about the dangers of snow on rooftops. Ten years ago, we had a very snowy week that left several feet of snow on the ground. I had just turned 4 years old, and was outside playing with the dogs. As I was chasing the dogs into the house, a substantial amount of snow slid off our metal roof and buried me.
I was buried face first under 3 feet of snow and ice. Did you know that a cubic foot of compacted snow can weigh more than 20 pounds? Yikes!
Without my mom seeing it, I would not be alive today. I spent the night in the pediatric intensive care unit with a fractured femur and a concussion. To this day, I am constantly reminding people to shovel their roof and look up at rooftops before walking underneath them.
Caleb MacNeil
Thetford Center
Hypocritical Caterwauling
When Ben Franklin was asked what the new Constitution had given the people he replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Honestly, I have followed presidential elections since the 1948 Republican fiasco and have never heard such hypocritical caterwauling from bad losers. Even Tom Dewey had the good grace to joke: “I feel like the man who suddenly woke up in the middle of his funeral and said, If I’m alive, why am I laying here with a lily in my hands? And if I’m dead, why do I have to go to the bathroom?”
Another eight years of the same old blood-sucking tag team song and dance of Bush-Clinton and we wouldn’t have a star or stripe left. Forget Harry Hopkins’ panacea of tax and spend; plow and plant instead.
It’s time this country got off line and back in line.
There’s a pair of oars for everyone on this boat: dip and pull!
John E. Jersey
Hartland
The Impulsive PresidenT
Every pejorative adjective and psychiatric term has been used to describe Donald Trump. For the present the only certainty is that decisions made by his administration will be based on impulsive and unpredictable behavior. The Republican Congress seems willing to embrace the former, as expressed in the Feb. 8 New York Times article, “Mitch McConnell Sees ‘High Level of Satisfaction’ With Trump Administration” and, second, rubber stamping of the White House appointments, many with questionable experience and qualifications.
Once the election was over, I had hopes that the Republican majority would bring some sense of balance to an unpredictable administration, but so far that has not happened. It is not too late if the Republican Congress will get out of its “shock” mode and deal with these issues:
1.) Put in comprehensive immigration legislation that: protects most of the people already in this country; establishes the ground rules for people who are needed to support business, science and education; recognizes the importance of diversity and immigration for economic growth.
2.) Stay the course on the investigation of Russian hacking into our election process and force the president to put in place a program that effectively deals with this issue.
3.) Do what is right for our country by thoroughly vetting the 118 vacant federal judgeships and others to come, so that the significant progress made in civil, women, gay and judicial rights are not reversed.
4.) Force Trump to follow the rules regarding conflict of interest and tax returns as other presidents have done.
Bill Tate
Hanover
Concealed Carry Law Is Irrelevant
Mark Fernald’s op-ed piece in the Feb. 8 Valley News (“Concealed Carry Would Increase Danger”) and the Concord Monitor article on Amy Lawton’s testimony before the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee which appeared in the Feb.10 Valley News were themselves testaments to the fact that reports of the left’s depth are greatly exaggerated.
Both Fernald and Lawton subscribe to the absurd notion that those bent on mayhem are thwarted by the failure to secure a piece of paper from the proper authorities. Ms. Lawton shared the story of the death of her stepmother at Sandy Hook, but Connecticut’s carry laws had absolutely no bearing on the events that transpired there.
A more logical insight would have been into the utter irrelevance of such laws.
As a sop to objectivity, the Monitor article stated that “Critics of the permit process argue it … does not affect the safety of the state.” The reader who doubts the validity of this claim need only ask himself a simple question: Who gives a second thought to visiting or relocating to Vermont, for purposes of this discussion a lawless state, due to concerns about violent crime?
Anthony Stimson
Lebanon
Sensible Step on Climate Change
Because of their concern about global warming, former Secretaries of State George Shultz, James Baker and others have proposed a carbon tax, the proceeds to be distributed to all Americans in the form of periodic cash payments, not retained by government. This proposal was published in the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 7 and solidly endorsed in a Washington Post editorial that ran in the Valley News (“Carbon Plan: Republicans Offer an Alternative,” Feb. 11).
The plan makes eminent sense to me. This tax will buy us time and encourage all of us, citizenry, industry, businesses and government to conserve and take more seriously the development of carbon dioxide-free sources of energy. And it will not further bloat government spending. I’ve written to my senators and congresswoman asking them to support this plan. I hope your readers will do the same.
Walter Noll
Etna
Editor’s Note: This letter ran Feb. 17 with the incorrect name of the letter writer.