The recent Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra concert conducted by Filippo Ciabatti was an excellent (and insightfully chosen) program of two long, familiar and very expressive compositions: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony.
Our community owes a profound debt of thanks to Hopkins Center Director Marie Lou Aleskie and her staff, the conductor and everyone in “our” orchestra, and to Carlo Aonzo, the mandolin soloist who transported us back to the early-18th-century world of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by a magical performance of what is traditionally a violin solo).
It’s appropriate to speak of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra and its conductor as “ours” insofar as they serve the Dartmouth community along with the entire Upper Valley, bringing to an audience far from America’s major cities musical experiences normally rare even in New York, Boston or San Francisco.
When I moved to the Upper Valley in 1967, I don’t remember concerts at the level of this performance. Our entire community benefits enormously from artistic events of this quality. The Upper Valley is a wonderful place to live, thanks to the Hopkins Center and its management. Even if you detest classical music, don’t forget that any property you own is worth more if it’s in the Upper Valley than in other locations in Northern New Hampshire — in no small part because of Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Roger D. Masters
Hanover
I am a former high school teacher (for more than 50 years), a board member at Thetford Academy, a taxpayer and I live on a fixed income. While I have not benefited from the recent tax cut, I believe our future greatness depends not on tax cuts or restricting immigrants or a larger military. It depends on how we educate and support our young people.
Whether a youngster needs extra support, as many do, or is at the top of his or her class, we, as the adults and the taxpayers, should be doing everything possible to prepare every one of them for the 21st century — as citizens and as productive workers at the highest possible level.
Good education is labor-intensive and it is expensive. We get what we pay for, and if we do not pay now, we will pay dearly in the future. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said in 1927, “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” It rings even truer today.
As we all face tough choices over school budgets and local tax rates, it is imperative that we not try to build a future on the cheap. Supporting our local schools, and especially the teachers who are there every day, is the best investment we can make in our future. And this is not fake news.
Jim Wilson
Strafford
Dairy farming is in a freefall. Dairy farmers do need support. In 2016, at the highest rate in 30 years, almost 2 billion pounds of government subsidized cheese went to waste. In North Dakota, 75 percent of dairy farmers have closed their operations in the past 15 years. And in 2016, alone, 16 percent of New Hampshire dairy farmers left the business. Dairy farmers see the handwriting on the wall, including Henry Schwartz, former owner of Elmhurst Dairy, in operation 92 years in New York state. Schwartz remarked to The New York Times about there being no strong demand for animal milk anymore, saying it has “gone out of style.” He converted his operations to plant-based milk.
The bottom is falling out of the industry as people learn three facts: Raising animals for food is the leading cause of environmental destruction. Dairy is the product of forced impregnation/serial rape, kidnapping and the extreme physical and emotional suffering of cows and their babies. Protein from meat and dairy cause deadly and debilitating diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, dementia, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, erectile dysfunction and more. Also, 70 percent of people are lactose-intolerant.
As a result, plant-based milks and cheeses are seeing record growth. The dairy-free market is predicted to grow to $35 billion by 2024. Consumption of almond milk alone has increased 250 percent in the last five years. Underscoring these facts, in 2010, the United Nations called on people worldwide to eat plant-based diets as the only way to save the planet, improve health and end starvation.
So what can we do for dairy farmers? We can push for government subsidies and farm programs that help them transition to cruelty-free, healthful and profitable plant-based alternatives for their livelihoods. And in so doing, we will create a kinder world in which animals live not as commodities, but as vibrant, sentient beings, unharmed and respected by humans.
Margaret Hurley
Claremont
Massive tax cuts combined with massive spending will lead to crippling deficits. Trumponomics is nothing more than Reaganomics on steroids and will have even more disastrous long-term effects for our country.
Sometimes a lone voice is correct. Sen. Wayne Morse was that voice during the debate on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing the war in Vietnam. While I do not often agree with Sen. Rand Paul, he was spot on to protest this incredibly irresponsible spending bill.
John Freitag
South Strafford
The column by Bill Nichols regarding Vermont and New Hampshire struck a chord with me (“Two Roads Diverged: Taxation, Education and How the Twin States Are Truly Different,” Feb. 11). Living in Connecticut for many years I had always thought of Vermont and New Hampshire as being truly “Twin States” sharing the same culture and attitude.
After moving to New Hampshire, I realized I was wrong. I heard or read (probably in the Valley News) a comment that, “The only thing people in New Hampshire have in common with people in Vermont is a dislike of people from Massachusetts.”
Things haven’t changed much in the last 24 years.
George Sutherland
Grantham