Dartmouth College architect emeritus George T. Hathorn’s Forum letter (“Dartmouth Hall plaza addition would ruin an iconic building,” July 4) points out another disingenuous bit of communication by the college administration, which has maintained all along that the exteriors of the buildings on Dartmouth Row would not be touched by the renovation now underway. But the plans show otherwise: A broad, elevated plaza across the front of Dartmouth Hall will cover much of the original foundation and steps, and what is best described as “farmhouse porches” will be added to Dartmouth and Thornton halls.
This impending mess actually goes beyond defacement all the way to desecration. Perhaps the engineers (no self-respecting architect would be complicit) felt the need for an elevated plaza and other embellishments to satisfy Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. However, those requirements have long been met by ramped entrances where they did the most good, providing easy access from the parking lot between Fayerweather and Dartmouth halls. The contemplated exterior changes are brutal. They will destroy the simplicity, symmetry and beauty of the entire row, the integrity of which Hugh Morrison, an authority on American architecture, called “perhaps the finest group of early college buildings in the country outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.”
I urge all alumni and others who value these landmark buildings to exert whatever influence they can to persuade the college to take a more rational, historically appropriate and aesthetically informed approach.
JIM LUSTENADER
Hanover
The climate change disaster denialists, like the COVID-19 pandemic denialists and anti-vaxxers, don’t have a right to their deluded beliefs when they threaten the health, well-being and survival of the rest of the population of the United States and the world.
A majority of these denialists are members of the Republican Party, as statistical evidence is demonstrating regionally and nationally. Five times as many Republicans as Democrats are refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, enabling dangerous variants (such as delta) to rise and spread, and defeating the goal of achieving herd immunity for the country. Majority Republican states, especially those with majority Republican legislatures, have the lowest vaccination rates. Comparing the rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths in Vermont and New Hampshire illustrates this disparity well: with only twice the population, New Hampshire has four to five times the total numbers of infections and deaths and a far lower vaccination rate than Vermont.
The foolishness of Republicans is an existential danger to this country. That includes those who proclaim that the Republican Party should be credited for the Juneteenth holiday, along with saving the Union and freeing the enslaved under President Abraham Lincoln. This is ignorance of American history, given that current members of the Republican Party were previously Southern Democrats who changed parties in response to the civil rights laws enacted by the federal government in the 1960s and their descendants.
The delusional thinking of members of the Republican Party has also been responsible for the disastrous and costly wars of the past half century, from Vietnam (count my own brother, a veteran, as one of its victims) through Iraq and Afghanistan. The scourge of Dow Chemical Co.’s Agent Orange, another “business profit over all else” Republican promotion, is still wreaking havoc on millions of human beings, including Americans, as well as contributing to toxic pollution of our endangered planet.
My whole life of 68 years has been tainted by the perfidy of the Republican Party.
ALICE MORRISON
Newbury, Vt.
Our president and many liberal Democrats believe guns in America are the problem and we need to get them off the street. How about getting the criminals who use them off the street? In 1994, Joe Biden wanted to “lock them up.” In 2021, they terrorize their neighborhoods almost unobstructed by police.
Biden does not address cracking down on those people. I guess that would mean a lot of political backlash from some groups he is dependent upon for his party’s political survival. More than 100 shootings and 18 deaths in Chicago alone over the July 4 weekend alone! Still, nothing is said about getting tough on criminals. Just endless rhetoric on gun control.
JEFF MARTIN
East Corinth
Recently, I was in a White River Junction grocery store. I had about $30 worth of food in my basket. A few days before that, I had gotten a new debit card with a new PIN number. At the store I punched in what I thought was the correct number. It was declined. The cashier and I tried several more times to no avail.
A man in back of me, a stranger, observed what was going on. He offered to pay the bill for me. I declined but he insisted on paying it, and he did. What an example of brotherly love. I only hope I will some day have the opportunity to do the same for someone else.
BOB CATTABRIGA
West Lebanon