With immeasurable thankfulness, I’ll give a shout-out to Rebecca Zuurbier’s letter “Mammographic Screening Saves Lives” (Oct. 8).
The death rate from breast cancer has indeed dropped for the first time in history. And yes, this can be attributed to mammography screening programs over the past three decades. Moreover, behind each statistic lies a uniquely personal story. Here is mine:
A healthy lifestyle and no glaring risk factors lulled me into a sense of complacency. So it was that I planned to save some premium time by skipping this year’s mammogram.
Glad I didn’t, because a surprise was in store. Through this nearly-omitted mammogram, a 12-millimeter tumor — far too small to be felt with my fingers — was spotted. Four weeks later, I underwent a mastectomy. Viola! My early-detected invasive ductal carcinoma is gone.
What remains from this experience? I face a yearlong regimen of home exercises, a tiny pill to swallow daily for five years and a boundless future.
No need to send me flowers. No Christmas presents, please. Instead, give yourself the priceless gift of a mammogram this year and all the years of your life to follow.
Susan Baxter
Hanover
It’s been almost a year and I still cannot believe that we, the citizens of the United States, elected Donald Trump to be our president. I cannot believe that we put into the highest government position a probable traitor, a man who does not have a clue of what our Constitution stands for, and who obviously believes it doesn’t apply to him or any in his circle.
I still cannot fathom that we elected him to be our president.
What is wrong with us?
Matthew Locker
Lebanon
An outsized apartment building is being proposed behind the old junior high in the heart of Lebanon.
A Valley News editorial (Oct. 5) imagines the project as a boon for city demographics. Under the headline “Think Younger,” the Valley News quotes a Planning Board member worrying that Lebanon may be “sliding into a very large old-folks’ community, (so) we need projects like this.” Nonsense.
The Valley News is fretting over a demographic problem that isn’t really a problem. The fact is, Lebanon’s median age is 39.6, while the statewide median is 40. Among our nearby towns, Lyme’s median is 49, Enfield’s is 48.4, Plainfield is 45.2, Hartford is 43.3. OMG! Lebanon is the youngest. (Hanover is a youthful exception, of course, skewed by many hundreds of Dartmouth adolescents.) The concern that we are in danger of turning into an old-folks community is fanciful.
Young Lebanon or old, this construction project has many problems (including the core fact that a new multi-family apartment building is not a permitted use on this site). Specific issues will be deliberated by the Planning and Zoning Boards and the public in due course, as the proposal gets firmed up. But as that process unfolds, let’s not get derailed by unsupported fears like the old-age canard.
Robin Carpenter
Lebanon
I read your article titled “Lebanon School Board OKs Energy Contract” (Oct. 12) about the decision to sign a 20-year contract with Trane Building Advantage to upgrade district schools’ energy systems. The article reported on a discussion about whether the district should use renewable fuels rather than propane, and I want to respond to statements made by Matt Wilson of Trane Building Advantage with regard to Ensyn’s Fuel’s renewable fuel oil project, RFO, at Bates College.
According to the story, Wilson told School Board members that “Trane assisted the college in that project, but RFO requires a special boiler.”
Trane did not “assist” the college with the project. Trane participated in the bid process, but ultimately did not win. Trane had no role in the actual project. Also, renewable fuel oils do not require a “special boiler.” Bates College converted a boiler that is 30 years old.
The story also reported that Wilson told the School Board that Bates’ primary motive in choosing its energy system was to avoid using fossil fuels. “Their drive wasn’t economics, it was environment,” Wilson is quoted as saying.
How Wilson knows what drove Bates’ decision is beyond me. He played no role in the project, and as someone intimately involved in the negotiations, I can tell you that Bates’ driver was economics. If renewable fuel oil did not make economic sense, the college would never have made the move.
Greg Gosselin
Northeast Regional Sales Manager, Ensyn Fuels, Inc.
Woodstock
On the subject of the Hanover Post Office, something strange is going on over there. I have just received a request to fill out “application form 1093,” in order to report “pertinent information” missing from my P.O. Box application. The question is what did I fail to fill in when I first got the box in the late ’70s? Mother’s maiden name, draft status, college I.D. number? Or perhaps I had checked off the Pacific Islander box by mistake, since I had visited Hawaii around that time.
I thought it could be a scam, either Russian hacking or one of those robo calls inviting you to a time-share in Florida. But then again, as a very heavy user of the USPS over many years, I’ve come to know that it doesn’t have a lot in common with say, Apple. The mail does get there, that’s for sure, but when you see a clerk (not in Hanover) fold up and put a passport application into an envelope and then ask the couple who is applying if there’s anything liquid, fragile or perishable inside, then you remember that strange is the only way to describe how the Post Office operates.
Dick Mackay
Hanover