On New Year’s Day, Lebanon’s “welcoming ordinance” goes into effect, joining similar policies in Hanover, Norwich and Hartford. All four municipalities will then have a policy that instructs local police not to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, in addition to prohibiting them from racial profiling.
The organizers and activists who worked to pass these policies are planning a celebration in the form of a vehicle parade to connect our municipalities in this time of physical distancing and to recognize that we are all one community.
Beginning at noon on Jan. 1, vehicles will meet along Dartmouth Hall — the large white buildings on the east side of the Dartmouth Green — and will start to circle the Green in Hanover slowly to form a parade. This will continue for about 10 minutes, at which point participants will follow a clearly marked lead car to Huntley Meadow in Norwich and then to Main Street in Hartford, pausing for a photograph at the Hartford town offices before arriving finally at Colburn Park in Lebanon around 1 p.m. for a few loops around the park.
All are welcome to join us in this parade, with signs and banners sharing positive messages from your cars. If you cannot drive with us, you are also welcome to stand at the location most convenient for you and celebrate with us in a socially distanced manner.
Email Devin Wilkie with questions or for more information at devin_wilkie@yahoo.com, or call 802-392-3223.
Depending on the weather and walking conditions, I will be standing at the bottom of Slayton Hill Road or on the sidewalk near the Price Chopper supermarket on the Miracle Mile. If you would like a sign, I have a few extras.
AMELIA SEREEN
Lebanon
I take drastic exception to syndicated columnist Megan McArdle’s Dec. 24 opinion piece, “Our COVID-19 failures extend beyond Trump.” Her column was biased from beginning to end; her final charge is especially revealing: “States and cities were caught flat-footed, and many of those that failed catastrophically were led by Democrats, most notably New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. …”
In fact, Gov. Cuomo had held the most transparent and informative public dialogue since the COVID-19 crisis unfolded. His daily reports have been followed internationally by millions of people in eight languages; he has been awarded an International Emmy award for “Masterful COVID-19 Briefings.”
Cuomo has divided the state into 10 regions, each required to submit daily information about COVID-19 cases, intensive care unit beds, etc., to identify “hot spots” that require tracing and enforcement, if necessary. As of Dec. 30, New York still had one of the lowest rates of coronavirus cases in the nation, despite being an international point of entry receiving tens of thousands of visitors every day. Cuomo cites the 3 million visitors from Europe who entered New York in February and March without any screening for the state’s initial heavy infection rate. Now he’s concerned about the mutation of the virus in the U.K. Dozens of countries have banned travelers from Britain, yet our government hasn’t imposed a travel ban.
Is this catastrophic failure?
McArdle is either grievously misinformed or willfully ignorant.
RICHARD DYBVIG
Tunbridge
Some people seem to think that without the United Church of Cornish, there is no God in Cornish (“Lawsuit blocks Cornish church from dissolving,” Dec. 27).
LAIRD KLINGLER
Cornish
Thank you for carrying Jim Kenyon’s two-part column about Mohsen Mahdawi this past weekend. (“A place to call home,” Dec. 26, and “New land, new purpose,” Dec. 27).
Kenyon lets Mahdawi tell his story, and offers brief background from United Nations sources and The New York Times about the Palestinian refugee camp on the West Bank where Mahdawi grew up. Kenyon also notes neighbors in the Upper Valley who helped open doors for him.
In these days of strife, we can take heart as we remember Mahdawi’s journey from suffering, with raw anger, to peace within himself, discovery of a vocation and the purchase of a wooded parcel for his new home.
We are very fortunate to have the Valley News as our paper, Jim Kenyon as a news columnist and Mohsen Mahdawi as our neighbor.
SARAH DREW REEVES
Norwich
President-elect Joe Biden has changed the criteria for selecting members of his Cabinet and other high positions. He proudly declares his choices are designed to “make his administration look more like America.” That’s simply a high-minded cover for using race, gender and sexual preference in place of experience and merit. Identity politics at its finest.
JEFF LEHMANN
Lyme Center