All throughout my early childhood, I spent my days at Hartford’s Sherman Manning Pools. I had “Mommy and Me” classes at the pool. I had swim lessons at the pool. I also went to Camp Ventures every year, and we had an hour of free swim every day and swim lessons in the morning. I learned to swim and became a great swimmer by spending time at the Hartford pool.
When the pool closed, we started going to Storrs Pond with Camp Ventures. We only did this three days a week though, and there weren’t swimming lessons. Also, the pool was so crowded that I didn’t want to swim for most of the time. We had to drive 20 minutes to get to a pool that I didn’t want to swim at.
I wish there was still a Hartford pool, and I hope we build a new one. Please vote yes at Town Meeting.
PAYTON BESSETTE
Hartford
The writer is an eighth grader at Hartford Memorial Middle School.
Have you noticed recent stories in the news about a lack of quality child care in the United States? I know firsthand the media is right: The child care center I own has a wait list of more than 100 children. We would love to serve more families, but we can’t find the staff. The reason for this struggle is self-evident: The hourly pay rate of child care professionals is absurdly low.
Most people agree that our children are our most valued asset and prized gift. Working parents deserve to leave their kids in the hands of those who care for their well-being, and help them thrive. Our organization strives to be the best place to work. We already pay above-market wages and we even offer scholarships to our team members. But it’s not enough. The industry pay standard needs to change. Effective immediately, we are doing our part to exceed industry compensation practices with additional, across-the-board hourly pay raises.
The child care problem can’t be solved by just one child care center. Join me in insisting that child care is a profession, not just a job. Dr. Seuss said it best: Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
ELIZABETH AUSTIN ASCH
Hanover
The writer is the owner of FitKids Childcare at River Valley Club in Lebanon.
In military parlance, Iran’s 15-missile attack on two Iraqi air bases hosting American forces can best be described as diversionary. Do you really believe that Iran is so inept in attacking that it missed jet fuel storage, maintenance hangars or control towers? If so, then how did it successfully pull off last September’s attack on Saudi oil facilities with devastating accuracy?
The great lesson from Osama bin Laden’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was that America is frightfully vulnerable to asymmetrical attacks by Islamic terrorists. For a few million dollars and several years of pre-attack planning, they executed a spectacular, stunningly successful low-tech tactical strike that left America reeling. When coupled with random, deadly rampages by one or a few terrorists, they have succeeded in creating a climate of fear throughout America. Financially, 9/11 cost hundreds of billions of dollars over nearly two decades with the creation of the Transportation Security Agency, not to mention all the delay, hassle and lines for the traveling public.
A few more such asymmetrical attacks will easily bring the American economy to its knees. Iran, however, is “standing down.” That is true — until the next asymmetrical attack. Ever since I was a U.S. Army senior Middle East analyst many decades ago, I have repeatedly argued that Islam will not be defeated militarily. But the U.S. has no clue what it needs to do to emerge victorious.
MICHAEL W. JOHNSON
Fairlee
Not until a man wielding a machete stabbed six Jews at a rabbi’s house during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, N.Y., last month was there collective outrage about the spate of anti-Jewish hate crimes we are witnessing. But supportive tweets from politicians and presidential candidates aren’t going to keep Jews safe when they walk their children to school. Our politicians also need to be clear eyed that, though it may be convenient to weaponize charges of anti-Semitism against their rivals, the reality is that anti-Semitism isn’t limited to one political affiliation, race or age. The only thing that unites them is bigotry toward Jews.
President Donald Trump has let this kind of hate fester during his administration, particularly after Charlottesville, Va. He needs to stop. Another pernicious form of anti-Semitism is when criticism of Israel crosses the line into the delegitimization and demonizing of the Jewish state. We should elect a president who will call out anti-Semitism when he or she hears it and vigorously condemn it.
JACK SHIRE
Hanover
I, a devoted progressive, submitted an early Republican ballot to the Hartford town clerk on Jan 16. Convinced by American University professor Allan Lichtman’s predictive book The Keys to the White House that the presidential race is the incumbent’s contest to lose, rather than the opposing party’s to win, I opted out of the “horse race” for the Democratic nomination. It’s relaxing, in this fraught political time, to not much care who wins, though I have my preferences.
Thus, to help turn Lichtman’s Key No. 2 — “There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination” — against incumbent Donald Trump, I voted for Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts.
PEGGY RICHARDSON
Hartford