State Rep. Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, the primary sponsor of House Bill 255, which seeks to prohibit private employers from requiring employees to be vaccinated, was quoted after the bill was tabled as saying he considered vaccine mandates “counterproductive for our economy and way of life.” (“Lawmakers start session in overdrive: Some surprises, lots of tabling in first week back,” Jan. 9)
In the very same edition of the Sunday Valley News was an Associated Press article outlining how services around the country are being upended by the omicron surge. (“Services sustaining a big hit: Omicron surge creating basic function failures,” Jan. 9) Apparently, ambulances in Kansas are having to change course when they’re told the hospital they’re heading for is too full. Trash isn’t being picked up reliably in New York City. Subway trains are also not running regularly. In Phoenix, a whole terminal of security checkpoints was shut down due to staffing shortages. And school systems nationally are struggling to stay open amidst a shortage of teachers out with COVID-19.
Ladd’s comment is flat-out misleading and needs to be named as such. Those of us who value critical thinking, freedom and democracy need to step up when this kind of thing happens. People who lie when they speak should not be elected to positions of power and influence. I recommend the good people of Haverhill take action.
Leslie S. MacGregor
Grantham
The New Hampshire Legislature is a sprawling beast. Its sessions are packed with hundreds of bills, many dealing with shadings of existing law that are hard to understand and of only passing interest to residents. Others — such as the Republican-backed education voucher scheme diverting millions of dollars from the state’s public school system to private, religious or home-based school environments — are of enormous importance to residents and constitute a threat to the neighborhood schools that Granite Staters have relied on for generations. And some — like the reprehensible abortion ban that threatens to criminalize doctors and forces all women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasounds at their own expense — are cruel and will result in needless suffering.
But the supernova that exploded at the end of the Jan. 6, 2022, session needs to be seen and understood by all citizens of New Hampshire. It is distressingly easy to understand yet, at the same time, almost impossible to comprehend.
A longstanding tradition at the Statehouse is the granting of unanimous consent to members who wish to speak at the end of session. One Republican member used this to expound on what he considered a disastrous exit from Afghanistan. He was allowed to complete his remarks with only one interruption. A Democratic member, who asked for unanimous consent to mark the one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, was shouted down by almost every Republican present. She was prevented from delivering her speech.
In that speech, she wished to thank all the House members who have cared for her during a serious illness that coincided with the incidents of Jan. 6 last year.
She came to session at great personal risk, given that most Republicans refused to wear masks and many were unvaccinated. Still, she was attacked with verbal abuse and denied her right to speak.
Please remember when you vote in November that this happened here in our beautiful state renowned for its commitment to freedom. Help us return the Democratic majority to the Legislature and ensure that the people’s House remains a haven for free speech and honest, civil debate.
STATE REP. LAUREL STAVIS
D-Lebanon
The writer is deputy ranking member of the House
Municipal and County
Government Committee
I have often found myself siding with Sarah Crysl Akhtar’s comments in the Forum. She reminds us with wit and passion how policies and practices are often stacked against the disadvantaged and underrepresented.
But as for her most recent letter (“No such thing as green energy,” Jan. 2), I disagree.
We can debate all we want to about the documented benefits and hazards of every kind of energy production known to humanity. What is not debatable is that burning carbon-based fuels is causing climate change now. Just a few days after Ms. Akhtar’s letter was published, the Valley News ran an alarming article about how New Hampshire’s culture and economy are already threatened by climate change. Those “beautiful but wretched winters,” during which Ms. Akhtar supports continuing to heat our homes with carbon-based fuel, are becoming significantly shorter and warmer. Good-bye, skis and snowshoes. Hello, mud boots. Good-bye, tourism. Hello, whatever jobs hospitality workers can patch together.
Contrary to Ms. Akhtar’s teasing of Tesla drivers, we environmentalists don’t see our activism as mere political correctness. Most of us are terrified that the system we have will kill us and everything on Earth that we love, and we’re furious that nobody in power is seriously striving to prevent that. We want to keep Earth habitable for future generations of humans and wildlife. Clinging to carbon-based energy will make that impossible. We must switch to non-carbon (if the term “green” is too irritating) energy, whether solar, wind, geothermal, tidal or whatever works. We may make mistakes along the way. But the biggest mistake — the guaranteed failure — is to stick with the status quo.
Rebecca Kvam Paquette
Hanover
Happy New Year to our local newspaper, producing positive, solutions-oriented local news and features as well as well-selected news from outside the region. The Jan. 2 Sunday edition was a great start to the new year with articles addressing:
■Electronic surveillance (a local form of a growing national problem).
■How felons can serve their time and re-enter the community.
■The need for heating aid for the cold winter ahead.
■The contribution of a survivor who helped Austrians see the connections between the rhetoric used in the Holocaust and today’s politics.
■Poll results that remind us that the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol still requires our full vigilance.
We are very fortunate to have a local newspaper that connects our community!
Kathleen Shepherd
Norwich
Between New Hampshire, other states and the U.S. Supreme Court, pregnancy termination may become totally illegal. The New Hampshire Executive Council decided not to fund Planned Parenthood. Let’s see how many unplanned pregnancies result. Governor Sununu signed off on a state budget containing an incidental anti-abortion addendum to make it as painful as possible for women by requiring an invasive intravaginal ultrasound prior to any abortion procedure.
Such is the level of ignorance of public officials who know nothing about physiology or human nature. I’m not sure Governor Sununu understands what he signed on to in a hurry to get the budget passed.
I practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 35 years and concluded from my experience that no woman should be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy. This is supported by untold cases of child abuse, often the result of an unwanted child. There are consistent statistics showing full-term childbirth and its complications result in higher mortality than safe termination; my own experience reflects this. The first eight years of my practice were prior to Roe v. Wade. I saw it all. In New Haven, Conn., the abortionists rolled through town about once a month. The emergency room was flooded with botched abortions resulting in hemorrhages, perforated uteruses, high fevers and sepsis. I recall three deaths in one month from uterine infections uncured by the most powerful antibiotics.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says “safe haven laws” (“After SCOTUS hearing, a new look at baby ‘safe haven’ laws,” Dec. 23) would have allowed the unwed mother to leave the baby at a police station or hospital, and adoption would have taken care of the rest. I think she is misguided. Overturning Roe v. Wade would be a sad day for women and providers of women’s health. Pregnancy termination will continue illegally as it has for centuries, and the associated risks will increase as before Roe v. Wade.
Eric Sailer, M.D.
Lyme Center
I follow the saga of “River Dave” in your pages, most recently his return to his familiar riparian spot and arrest (“‘River Dave’ arrested at old site: Now-famous hermit charged with trespassing at past home,” Jan. 3). I share 81 years of age, chin whiskers and a powerful affection for place with the determined David Lidstone and would be at a loss if uprooted by a distant hand and justice system. Thankfully, I am neither a “hermit” nor a squatter.
I do not see “River Dave” as a “hermit.” Rather, like the members of Mar-a-Lago, he placed himself where the people he encounters are likely to be kindred souls. And membership at Mar-a-Merrimack was doubtless more affordable.
It occurs to me that Mr. Lidstone has much in common with black bears and beavers, not to mention the earlier David who took on Goliath. Bears and beavers who call attention to themselves by backyard rummaging and road flooding can be livetrapped and relocated, but they often return weeks or months later to pick up where they left off. Wildlife managers know the power of instinct.
We have not heard the last of “River Dave” — yet another reason to get the Valley News daily from the paper box.
Joseph S. Warner
Unity