Last month, the Upper Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America released a plan for improving community safety and well-being in Lebanon.
The plan is well-researched and draws from successful strategies used by other communities (www.uppervalleydsa.org/care-not-cops).
The Care Not Cops campaign is about an all-inclusive vision for safety. A community is only truly “safe” if it is safe for all residents, regardless of wealth, race, ethnicity or mental health status. Poverty is not safe. Lack of access to mental health care is not safe. Homelessness and housing insecurity are not safe. Addiction is not safe. We don’t have a safe community until we provide support for those who need it.
We’ve learned that we cannot count on the state of New Hampshire or the federal government to deliver this support. We have the resources to help our fellow residents and improve safety — if we are willing to reallocate funding from the police and redirect it to needed programs and services.
Policing cannot deliver mental health services, provide substance abuse support, house the homeless or combat poverty. Instead, policing provides a reactive and suppressive response to the symptoms of these problems. Addressing well-being directly requires reducing the role of policing and implementing alternative programs.
This plan would not reduce emergency response capacity. Rather, it proposes better options for emergency response.
The plan calls on Lebanon to implement a 9-1-1 redirect system for mental health crises and other nonviolent emergencies, similar to the system in Eugene, Ore., which enables unarmed mental health professionals and social workers to be dispatched as first responders — a safer and more effective response than police for many nonviolent emergencies. Similar systems have successfully improved outcomes and substantially reduced law enforcement costs in communities around the country.
The plan lays out strategies for addressing mental health, addiction, homelessness and housing insecurity, hunger and traffic safety — all without raising taxes.
I invite fellow Lebanon residents who share this vision to stand up and demand the change that is needed in our community.
LUKAS SLIPSKI
Lebanon
The writer is a member of the Upper Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
With both rail and fuel businesses in Westboro in transition, (“Westboro Rail yard on ice for winter,” Nov. 1) now is the time to move forward on a comprehensive plan to extend the Mascoma River Greenway to West Lebanon proper.
A likely first phase would go west from the Greenway’s current termination on upper Glen Road, extending about a quarter-mile to near the stone underpass on lower Glen Road. From there, a design prepared by a Thayer School of Engineering student team would carry the trail down to Riverside Park below the corridor. The plan, warmly received by the City Council last year, would likely gain the same enthusiastic private financial support that built the Greenway two years ago.
In negotiating with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation over this first phase, the city should aim for an “if-then” agreement for the remaining mile into Westboro: trail only, rail-with-trail, or something else. The “ifs” include property transfers to the city within Westboro, possible fuel storage relocation, continuation of rail service, and redevelopment of Twin State Sand and Gravel. If mixed use occurs at the sandpit, for instance, access to an extended Greenway would add enormous value to the property. The goal should be to sort things out now, end to end.
While on the subject of trails, let me state the obvious: Biking and walking has exploded in the last six months, so much so that that common measure of success — “There’s no place to park” — is what trail managers are hearing coast to coast. Lebanon is well ahead of the curve, with both the tunnel rebuild nearing completion and new support for maintaining the city’s section of the Northern Rail Trail out to Mascoma Lake. Next up, getting a move on to West Lebanon.
DICK MACKAY
Hanover
The number of times we saw honor, integrity, honesty or pragmatism from President Donald Trump during his White House days can be counted on zero fingers of one hand. Never happened.
So we have no right to expect anything different as his occupation time there ends soon. In his speech or actions, he was never uplifted by the unaffected grace of precision nor guided upward on pathways to progress.
Even so, it’s a sad and sorry sight we have of him today, a spoiled brat in the body of an aged man, throwing his final public tantrum, filing numerous meritless lawsuits, seeming to be flat on his back in the Oval Office, screaming and pounding his feet on the floor, going around in circles in frustration that he didn’t get his way. Chaos and chronic disregard for all those unfortunately around him.
It is even sadder and sorrier still when we know that this is the person yet in charge for a couple of months more, in charge of our national security, supposed to be leading us against the onslaught of a worldwide medical emergency, and supposed to be inviting and enabling a seamless transition between presidents. The world, our allies and our enemies, they all watch this dangerous circus closely and make plans accordingly. Count on it.
This idiocy, too, shall soon pass, but not soon enough.
Trump for his entire life has advanced his causes by telling lies and repeating them often and loudly. The same tactic works, by the way, even when you tell the truth. President-elect Biden knows this and is doing it now — cool, calm, clear, consistent truth. Let’s count the votes. Let’s move forward with the transition. Let’s develop a lucid understanding and action plan on mitigating COVID-19. Let’s put qualified folks into demanding jobs. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with allies, and rejoin international agreements that cement our future and theirs.
Welcome back, America.
ROBERT ROUDEBUSH
North Haverhill