How very beautiful the funeral of former President George Herbert Walker Bush. How warm his memory. How brave and amazing his World War II service. How wonderful to hear words full of dignity, love and humor about his remarkable life of leadership, friendships and family. His ceremony of remembrance reminded us of who we are as a nation and how the highest office of our land is revered at home and abroad when our president brings honor, dignity and intelligence to the Oval Office and gracefully puts his country first above all else.
So shame on those who have brought an ugly darkness to our great land by not speaking out against President Donald Trump’s foul mouth, hateful persona and obvious desire to tear down our country’s laws and institutions that serve our better good. Shame on all of you who pay reverence to Trump, a scoundrel who used the power of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a KGB creep known for murdering those who oppose him, to worm and lie his way into our White House and who uses it now to enrich his own bank accounts.
Shame on anyone who continues to support a president who cannot speak truth on any level and who cannot own up to his mistakes. Shame on those who call themselves Americans and who don’t have the capacity to see Trump’s hatred, ignorance and jealousy on full display daily, in stark contrast now to the magnificent celebration of the honorable life and presidency of George H.W. Bush.
Jackie Smith
Sunapee
Alan Tanenbaum’s Forum letter (“Minimum Wage Law Is an Intrusion,” Dec. 5) hit the nail right on the head. I mean, what was government thinking to impose a minimum wage law on the good shopkeepers of America?
Let’s not stop there. What about those intrusive child labor laws? The good shopkeepers shouldn’t have to pay the little girls and boys the same wage as big women and men. Forget eight hours a day. Let’s keep ’em 10, 12, 15 hours a day. They will be safe and warm in the good shopkeeper’s factory. Better there than on the street, where they’ll be doing drugs, cashing food stamps and collecting fuel assistance.
Come to think of it, those 40 percent of full-time MacDonald’s workers who still qualify for public assistance and the estimated 40 percent of all Americans who own no tangible assets should get their skills “down pat” and show “dependability, reliability and initiative,” and apologize to everyone, not just New Hampshire residents. Then, by God, after they man up, maybe they’ll move ahead.
Speaking of God, remember the carpenter who lost his court case? He said, “What you do to the least of my servants, you do to me.”
Matt Cardillo
Sharon
Sydney Lea’s letter (“Seeking Some Specifics,” Nov. 30) gave yet more evidence of a prodigious talent for misapprehension. In the realm of genuine logic, if not in that of the progressive variety, his claim that to point out the incompatibility of feminism with multiculturalism is to betray hostility to both of them is a flagrant non sequitur, as is his claim that to suggest a link between gender and biology is to express hatred for the LGBT community. And if Lea had read my letter (“Earning a Ph.D. in Progressivism,” Nov. 24) more closely he might have picked up on the fact that it predicted his response with perfect accuracy.
To forestall any further confusion, let me state my view on the fetish for group identity in terms which anyone ought to be able to comprehend: If you are a good and decent person, I certainly don’t fear you, much less hate you. If you are tolerably logical and rational as well, I may even like you. And if with these traits you can claim a keen eye and ear for hypocrisy, guile, delusion and absurdity in general, I might like you very much. But if you lack these qualities, you can’t plead inclusion in enough identity groups to compensate for their absence.
Anthony Stimson
Lebanon
It is highly ironic but definitely deplorable to note that the antics of antifa — the militant anti-fascist groups formed to resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists — accurately mirror the odious tactics of Nazi SA Brownshirts during the Roaring ’20s of the last century. The aggressive militarism, Aryan racial superiority and racist pillorying of Jews, Slavs, etc. of Adolf Hitler were intellectually indefensible. Consequently, he resorted to the Brownshirts and used their intimidating confrontation and muscular militancy to stifle dissent.
Antifa has stolen a page from the Brownshirt playbook. But little does antifa realize that it is being used. In political science, toleration is the delight of anarchists. However, its real purpose is to be the seedbed of tyranny. After a while, society tires of ceaseless uncertainty and chaos. It turns to a strongman, as long as he suppresses the anarchists. Unfortunately, when he does, citizens lose their freedom, as the Germans did under Hitler. The natural political progression of toleration is from extreme anarchy to extreme tyranny.
It is laughable for antifa to represent itself as a force against fascism when it effectively and routinely employs fascist methods. But then again, logic is not the strong suit of fascism. It speaks volumes to the lack of character in the members of any movement that has Hitler as its prime exemplar.
Michael W. Johnson
Fairlee