For the safety of his family, and of New Hampshire citizens, Gov. Chris Sununu cancelled his outdoor inauguration ceremony as a precaution against armed protesters (“Sununu cancels due to protests: Governor cites gun-toting, ‘aggressive’ demonstrators,” Dec. 31).
I, too, value the safety of my family and fellow citizens, which is why I believe that firearm ownership must be tempered with responsibility.
In a reasonable society, we implement rights and concurrently protect the common good — the safety of others. This is why I support universal background checks, requiring a permit to carry a concealed firearm, requiring firearms at home to be locked away from children and ammunition stored separately, allowing only law enforcement personnel to carry a firearm in a school, and other sensible firearm proposals.
Sununu has vetoed any legislation that he perceives as encroaching on the right to bear arms. I hope his recent experience with armed protestors will prompt him to reconsider these positions, as he so wisely did with his planned outdoor inauguration.
DENA ROMERO
Hanover
You may get dozens of responses to Jeff Lehmann’s Forum letter (“Biden fills his Cabinet by employing identity politics,” Dec. 31). This is but one. Lehmann asserts that President-elect Joe Biden’s efforts to “make his administration look more like America” is “high-minded cover for using race, gender and sexual preference (sic) in place of experience and merit.”
Wowser.
Can anyone actually believe there are no qualified, experienced candidates hiding somewhere among women? No merit in any Black or brown people that might deem, I don’t know, one or two folks fit for high public service? Do only white, straight men have the requisite “experience and merit” to hold high positions in America? That is the only conclusion I can draw from this letter.
Rummaging for talent among white males has in the too-recent past brought us the likes of Scott Atlas, Anthony Scaramucci, Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski, both of those creepy Millers — Stephen and Jason — Steven Mnuchin, Michael Flynn … the list of this president’s policymakers who would seem to fit Lehmann’s fitness filters is long, sad and sordid.
It’s beyond time — by a century or four — to widen the eligibility pool. That way, someday, we might indeed make selections based on merit and experience, not just privileges and past connections.
MEREDITH LIBEN
Hartland
This is regarding Jeff Lehman’s Forum letter stating that President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of diverse candidates for his administration is “high-minded cover for using race, gender and sexual preference in place of experience and merit” (“Biden fills his Cabinet by employing identity politics,” Dec. 31).
After four years of watching a parade of wholly unqualified Cabinet members run through the revolving door that was the Trump administration, I’d like to nominate this as the most comical complaint letter of 2020. Well done.
WILLIAM GARNER
Windsor
My letter refers to the beauty of Jonathan Stableford’s recent Sunday Valley News column (“Startled by a sudden and profound beauty,” Dec. 13). I am now 97. As it happened, in my past incarnation, I worked with his mother, Nancy.
My husband had been transferred to Lehigh County, in my beloved home state of Pennsylvania, to an education-only affiliate of Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Atlantic Region. I was challenged to “go medical.” With Executive Margie Fleigle and President Suzanne Burkholder, we sought funds to support our effort. We won our purpose. The “light of our sun” shone on Planned Parenthood of Lehigh County. Nancy Stableford worked with us. Her husband was a professor at Lafayette College. They were the parents of the fine writer Jonathan Stableford.
My gratitude to all the Stablefords for “the light” they provided in fulfilling the needs of women and girls for a more intended family life.
LINN DUVALL HARWELL
Perkinsville
Something has been overlooked too long. I have a younger daughter, Sallie, who has come to live with me. She spoils me, cleans, cooks meals and waits on me. I didn’t ask her to do all this, but she does it automatically, out of love.
Do I thank her? No.
Little do I consider that she deserves to be rewarded. Are many elderly folks like me as thoughtless? I’m 81, and age should not be a factor.
Thank you to my caring daughter.
RITA PEASE
Orford