I am writing to recommend that we dispense with Green Up Day next year. My fellow residents seem to think that the Green Mountain State is far more beautiful with glittering cans, reflective bottles, eye catching plastic containers and endless strips of cellophane. The state celebrates holidays all year long now with decorations in the trees and floating in the ponds and creeks. We don’t need a day to green up when we can celebrate every day as a day to decorate our beautiful home.
In all seriousness, ignoring the fact that we are facing extreme environmental decline due to climate change, I am tired beyond tired of seeing the environmental aesthetic of roads festooned the way they are now. I don’t take this lightly or with a sense of humor. I am embarrassingly serious. The past two years as spring has emerged, I have been overwhelmed with the quantity of litter on our roads. I have never, ever seen it this bad and it is getting worse. Each week now requires a clean-up by neighbors on my road. It sounds trite to say that people don’t have any respect, but that appears to be true.
My grandparents and ancestors would be appalled at how little we seem to care for our aesthetic environment. It is embarrassing and certainly doesn’t help our tourism, which directs people to our back roads and highways.
I request that we reinvigorate the old “Don’t be a litterbug” slogan or something similar — “I’ll pick up mine if you pick up yours!” — and clean up the littering culture we now have. How about going back to posting fines, even knowing that they are hard to enforce? It’s a nonpolitical topic that has a negative economic impact on tourism. (Yes, it has occurred to me that tourists leave litter too.)
“Famous around the world for our beautiful fall foliage colors, visitors love to flock to Vermont’s byways to enjoy the spectacular change of seasons every year … The state welcomes over 13 million visitors each year.” (The Agency of Commerce and Community Development) Please guide our residents to make the above statement worthy … by cleaning up Vermont roads.
Deecie Denison
Fairlee
Domestic and sexual violence, stalking, and sex trafficking are topics people have a hard time discussing and yet they are so often in the news. Just recently, we have seen the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell for sex trafficking on these pages as well as cases closer to home. Agencies like Turning Points Network (TPN) are here to help.
For over 40 years, TPN has provided individualized services for victim-survivors in our area — spanning from Washington in the south to Plainfield in the north and every other town in Sullivan County. Through court advocacy, peer counseling, transitional housing, K-12 education programs in schools and a 16-bed emergency shelter, TPN offers support, safety and a way forward. Support services are available to victim-survivors, their family members and community members who are seeking information or help.
Sixteen years ago, TPN took its message to the streets with the first Steppin’ Up to End Violence 5K Walk and Fun Run. And every year since, this signature event has raised tens of thousands of dollars to keep TPN’s services available 24/7 and free to all who need them. This year, Steppin’ Up returns in person, taking participants through historic downtown Claremont on Saturday, April 30, to raise $90,000.
TPN has been able to meet the increased demand for services through the generous support of teams, sponsorships and donations. Dollars raised through Steppin’ Up fund programming such as financial empowerment classes for shelter residents. These programs have helped decrease the number of survivors who returned to their abusers — from 90% when TPN first began to 30% today.
TPN’s work continues to make our communities safer, more supportive and more inclusive. For more information about TPN or Steppin’ Up 2022, please go to turningpointsnetwork.org/steppin-up or contact us at 603-542-8338.
Pat Whitney
Sunapee
Pat Whitney is a member of the TPN board of directors.
The recent Upper Valley Community Health Needs Assessment has highlighted something that, unfortunately, we know all too well. Affordability and accessibility of health care is not uniformly available to all. At the Good Neighbor Health Clinics, we regularly see patients who turn to us for free care and dental services because their limited incomes are forcing hard choices around gas, food and rent. The reasons for the need are numerous, including the complexity of insurance plans, lack of primary care providers and the cost of care.
In addition to shining a light on this issue and suggesting that universal health care or Medicare for All are among the possible solutions, we are encouraged that the New Hampshire State Legislature is moving forward with SB 422, which, if passed, will provide a limited dental benefit for Medicaid enrollees.
Lack of dental coverage for those on Medicaid represents a significant health risk factor as well as a profound impact on quality of life. The proposed legislation would help provide a brighter future for the most vulnerable among us.
On behalf of those we serve, we are encouraging Gov. Sununu to sign this important legislation if it lands on his desk.
Dr. Peter Mason, Co-Founder
Lebanon
Dr. Don Kollisch, Trustee
Hanover
Dana Michalovic, Executive Director
Lebanon
Numerous Americans are questioning Putin’s sanity, calling him nutty and a “dirty cornered rat.” They fear he will lash out further, maybe even use nuclear weapons.
Unlikely. He is balanced and rational. He is an authoritarian, but not a supreme dictator. And he has tough, experienced people around him who have much to lose, and a public to which he must ultimately answer.
But he and his group have made a huge miscalculation by invading Ukraine. They expected that the government would quickly collapse under pressure and the country would be brought under complete Russian tutelage. They overrated their abilities and did not understand their adversaries, thinking they would get their way with ease, not unlike us in recent foreign adventures.
Putin now must backtrack promptly, not appear a “loser,” and claim to have achieved a “victory” for his country.
So a likely scenario is as follows. The diplomatic talks now underway will lead to a cease fire. Combat forces will retire from the front lines. Ukraine will agree not to pursue membership in NATO, removing it from their constitution. Putin will claim this as “victory.” In return, Russian forces will return to their country. The cease fire will also apply to the Donbas, but there will be no change in the situation of it or Crimea. Verification processes will be agreed upon, probably including international observers. There will be a huge international aid effort to Ukraine. Some sanctions on Russia will be gradually and quietly eased.
And as the war recedes in time and the world’s attention moves to other urgencies, Russia will gradually resume its usual place, as the U.S. and other countries have after foreign disasters. And if statesmen and diplomats prevail, and not politicians, we might even have a large conference between Russia and NATO to try to strike a grand bargain for long-term security for all countries of Europe, including both Ukraine and Russia.
Raymond Malley
Hanover
Raymond Malley is a retired senior foreign service officer of the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development. He is also a retired Air Force officer.
I am not saying that I want the United States and their allies to go to war. But when the president says “The free world is coming together to confront Putin,” the truth is that it really isn’t. And I know that until true confrontation comes, the murders of Ukrainian citizens will not stop.
Barry Wenig
Lebanon