New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has announced that all New Hampshire ski patrollers, full-time, part-time, paid or volunteer, are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine even if they live out of state, as long as they patrol in New Hampshire.” (“NH adds ski patrol to vaccine recipients,” Jan. 16).
I have no problem with making the vaccine available to paid people. It may help them from having to apply for unemployment benefits. But I am incensed that volunteers are also eligible. Volunteers volunteer so they can ski for free. I, on the other hand, am 74 years old, have high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia for which I take daily anti-cancer drugs, chronic kidney disease, and osteoporosis severe enough that I have recently begun yearly infusions in hopes of preventing broken bones. Beginning on Friday, I will have to play computer and phone tag to try to sign up for the vaccine, which I’m told will be dispensed between the end of January to March. Perhaps it is coincidental that the Sununu family owns the Waterville Valley Resort. To paraphrase Shakespeare, something is rotten in the state of New Hampshire.
TERRY GRIGSBY
Lebanon
In response to the letter from Forum contributor Barbara E. Mills (“Anti-Trump headline no surprise,” Jan. 9), we’d like to respond that, now that Donald Trump has left office, the Valley News and other newspapers will have plenty of issues to address far more urgent than the endless focus on Trump’s latest tweets.
Finally, the nation can get back to the serious problems that confront us. We will again join the world in confronting the climate crisis, which presents us with a challenge to develop and embrace new technology to replace our reliance on fossil fuels. As geologists, we urge people to accept the fact that all the changes due to the rise in global temperature threaten the very future of the planet as we know it. It’s the only home we have; migrating to Mars is an unrealistic, utopian dream. Unfortunately, news of our climate crisis has nearly been lost during the terrible pandemic that has so upset our daily lives.
For the near future, getting ahead of COVID-19 to save lives, get kids back in school and folks back to work, has to take precedence. News media will be reporting on progress with vaccinations, growing knowledge of the novel coronavirus and the gradual recovery of our economy. But attention to reversing climate change must then become paramount. As for other newsworthy issues, how about racial justice, equal pay for women, restoring common sense to campaign finances and reforming our health care system? We are sure that no one will be raising a toast to “blank newsprint” unless our nation utterly fails to address these challenges.
PETER and THELMA THOMPSON
Post Mills
President Ronald Reagan gave a tax cut favoring the wealthy. President George H.W. Bush added a trillion to the deficit and left office with the country heading to a major recession. President Bill Clinton averted the recession, balanced the budget his last four years and left the country booming. President George W. Bush gave a big tax cut — as always, favoring the rich — and started the war in Iraq through lies, which cost hundreds of billions of dollars and killed many people. He and his vice president also helped drive the country into the greatest recession since the Depression.
Anyone who is fair-minded and knows the history knows that it was President Barack Obama who got our country going again, with economic indicators on the rise. President Donald Trump … need anything more be said?
I don’t know why conservatism is a big deal.
JIM DAIGLE
Plainfield
Will the Capitol rioter wearing the “Camp Auschwitz” shirt be getting a stimulus check? Extended unemployment benefits?
And how about the companies that enabled the gangster in the White House? Will they qualify for Paycheck Protection Program grants? On that score, while the mills of justice grind on, it’s time for a no-fly-type list: “No Buy.” Pass it on.
DICK MACKAY
Hanover
Happy brave new world! I’ve been busy playing schadenfreude bingo. Got so many cards I can hardly keep up. But I’ve torn myself away to impart a couple of warnings to the general populace: Be careful in the Hypocrisy Superstore. The aisles are so overcrowded these days, folks might snap their ankles in the scrum.
And, whenever entities conspire to so constrain the free sharing of ideas that significant numbers of the public may find it necessary to begin communicating by samizdat, it always ends badly.
SARAH CRYSL AKHTAR
Lebanon