Thank you for Sunday’s editorial on World War I and Hartford’s monument (“If Not Now, When? A Changed World, a Neglected Monument,” Nov. 11).
I am a World War I centennial memorial hunter, helping to track down and catalog these fading national treasures. Many of those in the Upper Valley were made at the Lebanon Machine Co. My greatest study has been of the honor roll in my own town of Plainfield.
Like many of the other area memorials, hard information about the monuments and the names on them is elusive. What information we could find was on display at the Plainfield Historical Society this past July 4.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the end of hostilities in the Great War, we will be having a wreath-laying ceremony and a display of artifacts and information about our honor roll names on Sunday. The wreath-laying will be at 3 p.m. in front of the town library on Route 12A. A reception and display will follow at the Town Hall across the street.
If you were excited about the recent celebrations of the 100th anniversary, come join us. If you have World War I artifacts or stories you would like to share, please bring them to our event.
All are welcome. Veterans especially are invited to attend.
For more information, contact me at vrdrye@gmail.com or 603-675-9159.
Virginia Drye
Plainfield
Thank you to voters of Enfield, Lebanon and Hanover. I am very grateful for your support and I look forward to continuing to represent you.
Wendy Piper
Enfield
The writer is Grafton County commissioner for District 1.
On Oct. 27, 11 lives were taken when a neo-Nazi entered a synagogue shouting “All Jews must die!” and fired for 20 minutes, using an AR-15 and four semi-automatic pistols. Among all of this violence and chaos, I have two questions:
First, where are our elected officials? The president, of course, is not mentioning the two causes of the synagogue shooting: anti-Semitism and lax gun laws. Instead, he is impeding investigation of him by replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
My second question: Where are the rest of you?
I come from a Jewish family. My grandfather left his home in Austria in 1938, when he was 16, to escape Nazis. During my childhood I was taught my grandfather’s story, and that we cannot be certain this won’t happen again. But anti-Semitism isn’t in this country, right? That’s why we put #NeverAgain on our social media posts.
Those of you who aren’t Jewish may be comfortable believing that. But the past two weeks included the deadliest attack against Jews in American history and saw the president trying to avoid the rule of law — a direct threat to our democracy.
To make it obvious, America is at risk of becoming a fascist country. History repeats itself. We have seen all of this before.
It’s time for a reality check.
Nazis exist in America, and we cannot be certain that our democracy is safe. The president has made evident his disregard for the Constitution, the rule of law and his complicity with violence.
So where are you? What are you doing each day to reject Nazis from American society? To make sure that Jews are safe to worship and exist? To make sure that guns do not fall into the wrong hands?
To make sure that our government doesn’t fall toward fascism?
Why are we saying #NeverAgain and not #NotOnMyWatch?
I’m raising hell. I have no choice.
What are you doing?
Emma Bauer
South Strafford
As someone who teaches high school in a wonderful, caring community, I am all too aware that most, if not all, of our school shootings have occurred in wonderful, caring communities. The same can be said for the shootings in churches, mosques, synagogues and even the bars and nightclubs.
Reasonable people recognize that we have a severe problem in this country.
Unfortunately, there do not seem to be many reasonable people in Congress.
Their inability to take any meaningful action to protect the right of Americans to get an education, worship their god, or even enjoy a little socializing can only mean that they do not perceive a problem serious enough to risk angering the National Rifle Association. Yet, when you go to the Capitol building or any of the legislators’ office buildings, you have to go through metal detectors and past armed guards. What are they afraid of?
Maybe the only way to get some action is to make it a law that the Capitol can have no more protection than the least-protected school, church or nightclub. I bet we would see some action then.
Skip Chalker
White River Junction
So President Donald Trump blew off a ceremony in France honoring World War I veterans. The fault lies with the event planners.
Next time, if the French want Trump to attend an event, they should invite him to Vichy.
Philip Glouchevitch
Hanover