The Carter Community Building Association is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and it has been my privilege to serve as one of 12 trustees during this auspicious year. While we have many achievements to be proud of and thankful for, I would like to mention one in particular because it so clearly exemplifies our mission and place in this wonderful community. This summer we dedicated the gym in the Carter Community Building to Jim Vanier. If there is a living, breathing example of what we stand for, it is this remarkable man.
This is what he has posted on the wall: “One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in my bank account, nor what my clothes look like. But one hundred years from now the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a child.”
Please join me, Jim and the rest of our community and send your donation of any size to: The CCBA Annual Fund, 1 Taylor St., Lebanon, N.H. 03766.
We need and are grateful for your support.
PETER LAND
Lebanon
The writer chairs the CCBA’s board of trustees.
As we approach the 2020 legislative session I think about the challenges and successes we encountered over the last year, and the work that lies ahead.
In June, after six months of working to make New Hampshire a family-friendly, more accessible place to live, work and be educated, we passed historic bills in both bodies, including a remarkable budget.
House and Senate Democrats worked to build a budget that increases education funding, provides much needed municipal aid, and allocates additional funds for lead poisoning prevention. Our budget also allocates $3.2 million in additional family planning funds as a backstop to the care that was threatened by the Trump administration’s Title X gag rule.
Despite a record-breaking 57 vetoes from Gov. Chris Sununu, we were able to pass legislation that will move New Hampshire forward.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with high school senior Caroline Dillon on SB 142, ensuring access to free menstrual hygiene products in middle and high schools.
Additionally, I sponsored SB 279 to ensure insurance coverage for infertility, bringing our state in line with others in recognizing that infertility is a disease.
In the upcoming session, we will work as hard as ever to bring about the needed changes in our state, while understanding that barriers will be presented at every turn. We will not be easily deterred — I promise.
My priorities in the New Year include implementing a sexual assault survivor bill of rights on our college campuses and strengthening campaign finance reform. I will continue as chair of the Judiciary Committee and as a member of the Transportation Committee. We will see new versions of many bills that were vetoed in 2019, including long-overdue gun violence prevention initiatives. I am encouraged by the resolve shown by my colleagues in continuing to push for progress.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me with questions or concerns. You give me hope and courage, and I promise to continue to do my best for District 5 and New Hampshire.
MARTHA HENNESSEY
Hanover
The writer represents District 5 in the New Hampshire Senate.
Such delicious comeuppance: President Donald Trump had a shot at being named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for a second time, having made 2019’s short list. He might have joined such other two-timers as Josef Stalin and Richard Nixon, who are also remembered for their wretched histories, but he lost out to someone he has bullied, badmouthed and slandered, who at 16 is already renowned for her accomplishments: the remarkable Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg.
It’s amusing to imagine Old Yeller’s irritation at being bested by this world-famous teenager. It must really sting!
MICHAEL WHITMAN
Lyme