Recently The Dark Star Orchestra and Lyle Lovett with John Hiatt have performed shows at the Lebanon Opera House. All of the proceeds were donated to benefit the Rusty Berrings Skate Park on Glen Road in West Lebanon in memory of Tyler S. Kirschner.
Over the next few months, three more bands will be performing with all profits going to the Lebanon Recreation and Parks Department and the Friends of Lebanon Recreation and Parks, Inc.
Darlingside will host a concert at the Briggs Opera House (Friday); and both Get the Led Out: “The American Led Zeppelin” (April 28) and Michael Franti & Spearhead (June 22) will be live in concert at the Lebanon Opera House.
To date, we have raised more than $200,000 toward our goal of the $350,000 needed to finish transforming the wooden park to one that is all concrete. We hope to have the project completed by October 2017.
Please join us for some great music, and help us to build a safer and more permanent skate park which will continue to serve young people throughout our region.
For more information, please contact Lebanon Recreation and Parks, 603-448-5121, or visit us on Facebook at Remembering Rusty Berrings.
Buddy and Ginny Kirschner
Norwich
Crocodile tears are a false, insincere display — the phrase deriving from an ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while consuming their prey (Wikipedia). What a good description of the Republicans’ sudden concern for West Virginians and one-parent families!
According to the Trump administration, it’ll be OK to burden this lower-class demographic with a tax increase for military spending, but they shouldn’t continue to be taxed for programs such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Public TV and radio was highlighted for a deserved cut, but the Republicans’ proposed budget would also cut many other programs that actually will hurt “coal miners and single mothers in Detroit”: public transit; public housing; climate science; public education; aid to the indigent; Planned Parenthood; after-school programs; job training and retraining; early-childhood education; funding for medical research; food assistance for the hungry; home heating assistance programs; rental assistance to low-income families; economic development projects in rural areas; Meals On Wheels (“Failed to meet its objectives”!); forbearance on student loans.
Trump, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Worldcom, GM, et al. can declare bankruptcy, but not financially broken students!
And there are more, but this Forum limits the word-count.
Everything the Republican Congress is pushing will make life harder for people living below the upper crust, and shift even more wealth to the wealthy.
Instead of shedding crocodile tears, if Republicans want to make taxes less burdensome for those who can’t afford expensive advisers and tax lawyers, they could start with progressive tax increases for those who earn the most. Easily seen, high-dangling fruit:
The $125,000 cap on income for paying FICA taxes, which is scandalously regressive: The more you earn above $125,000, the less you contribute to the security of our democratic social system.
Recognizing hedge-fund managers’ income as taxable salary, not a capital gain.
Limit carry-forward tax losses such as Trump’s $915 million “loss” in 1995.
Oh, and what about that $1 trillion for infrastructure repairs?
Michael Whitman
Lyme
Deep thanks for running the March 20 story titled “George Iskander: A Life: ‘When Your Child Is Sick, What Are You Willing To Do to Save Them, to Help Them? Anything’.”
His struggles with addiction were described with empathy and humanity, and he was portrayed as a full human being, from childhood stories to employment to family.
It is still much too easy for “us” to separate ourselves from “them,” despite the opioid crisis that surrounds us here. Stories like this help bring the politics home.
On a similar note, I also very deeply appreciated Paul Manganiello’s opinion piece concerning the role of health care and insurance in our local community (“We Need Universal Health Insurance, Not Less Insurance,” March 21). He brought a divisive national issue home with grace, and it is as serious as life or death — as he cites very clear examples. We are very lucky to have individuals like Dr. Manganiello who never tire of fighting for the right thing, and walking the talk.
Gretchen Stokes
Hanover
I recently submitted a letter to the editor in which I discussed school taxes in Sunapee and different ways we might look at them.
I calculated my individual contribution to the education of students in Sunapee using the town school tax rate of $6.45 per thousand on taxable real estate. I did not include the state education tax rate of $2.46 per thousand, which is a tax assessed by the state. Since that money does come back to the town it came from, I should have done so to give the full picture.
John Augustine, whose different presentation of school taxes prompted me to write in the first place, graciously pointed out my omission and I thank him. So, to correct the record, my family’s personal contribution to the education of the 420 children in Sunapee schools works out to about $4.16 per child, instead of $3.01, the figure I arrived at in my first letter.
I did not intend to understate the amount of taxes that I or we collectively pay to support public schools. I still willingly pay my school taxes to support public schools.
Mary Hillier
Georges Mills