Please keep Eugene Sheffer’s crossword puzzles in the Valley News. We usually do all three puzzles every morning with our coffee. There are some days when they are a challenge. If people want more of a challenge, they should get The New York Times.
Please, please don’t swap Sheffer’s puzzle for someone else’s.
Joyce Childs
Norwich
No one asked where I’d like to be born; it could have been in a field of rice paddies, an igloo or a palace, amidst pomp and ceremony. No one asked what color I’d like to be, black, white, red, brown or yellow, or if I wanted to be female or male. No one of us had a choice — not me, not you.
To be called terrible names, screamed at, beat up, hurt, because of nationality, color or birthplace, is so cruel. None of us had a choice.
So remember, when you shout your loud, hurtful remarks in Fenway Park, neither you nor he had a choice.
Jann Macdonald
Quechee
And the beat goes on: the giant hammer pounding on the drum of the U.S. Constitution in a deafening roar, beating to a pulp the checks and balances of our unique democracy. There’s still something rotten in Trumpmark — I’ve written it before and I’ll continue as long as the fetid stench blows across our land, this great country normally awash with the fresh air of independence and free thought and will.
Trumpmark, of course, is Washington, D.C., the seat of government power. It is from there that the nasty smell emanates, because the chief executive is morally rotten and makes everything and everyone around him stink to high heaven too. Americans do not have a Republican in the White House, nor do we have a Democrat — we have an autocrat and I don’t recall any of us voting for anyone in that party.
Looked up autocrat lately? A ruler having unlimited power. A despot. Despot means a ruler with absolute power, a tyrant. An autocracy is government by a single person having unlimited power. Or someone who thinks he does and acts that way. Some signs of autocracy include demonizing the free press, or threatening to cut off regular White House press conferences. Also, marginalizing the court system, and getting rid of anyone who might say or do something you don’t like, say an acting attorney general, or the FBI chief, maybe a U.S. attorney based out of New York who asks too many questions about finances.
Autocrats also engage in continual lying, loud, long and strong enough to blur the borders between truth and self-aggrandizing fiction. Sound familiar? One needn’t have the title of tyrant to act like one — it is abundantly clear now one only needs be elected president of the United States.
Looked up dictator? See the above paragraph.
There is something smell-bad wrong about Trump and the foul reek is spreading. Looked up impeachment lately? Have no doubt that many in Trumpmark are doing so right now, studying the rules closely as they hold their noses in anguish.
Robert Roudebush
North Haverhill
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed a bill that establishes in law that Israel is an apartheid state.
Despite the fact the 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arab Christians and Arab Muslims, the law reads, “the right to realize self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” It goes on to provide that all Israeli law is now to be interpreted in the light of this declaration, and to permit the establishment of towns confined to “followers of a single religion” or “members of a single nationality.” Hebrew is declared the only official language of the state; Arabic is demoted to an undefined “special status.”
Needless to say, Israel’s right-wing extremist government will deny that this is apartheid. They will call the charge “delegitimizing Israel.” And they will be right. This law claims to define what it means to be a Jewish state. If so, then Israel is not a legitimate nation, at least among the free and democratic nations of the world.
The most urgent task facing Israel’s well-wishers is to address clearly and publicly what properly constitutes a “Jewish state.” If a definition can be found that is logically consistent with equal human and civil rights for all citizens, then there can be a legitimate Jewish state. To date, neither Israel’s actions nor the political rhetoric of its rulers indicate any desire to adopt those conditions.
In the meantime, U.S. financial and military support for Israel should be made conditional on its meeting the requirements of international law on human and civil rights.
Mary J. Wilson
Orford
Recently I decided to not renew my New Hampshire driver’s license. As that is the primary item used for ID purposes, I also decided to obtain a picture ID card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Newport is the nearest office of the DMV to Lebanon; one has to go there with necessary credentials to apply for an ID card and to be photographed (with a check for $10). This is required in spite of the fact that I have had a driver’s license for more than 80 years.
After filling out the required form, one has to join the line of applicants there for all motor vehicle business. There were at least 25 people in the queue with three clerks processing transactions (one went to lunch soon after I arrived). During the half hour I stood in line, I saw about three or four transactions completed. It became evident that it would be two to three hours before I would be processed. I spoke to an employee and told her that it was far too long for me to remain standing. She took me to a seat and admonished me to make note of who was ahead of me and to step in at the head of the line when that person reached the service counter.
After being seated for a few minutes, I realized what my popularity would be when I stepped into the front of the line. I got up and left the DMV without my ID.
I think the consensus of opinion would be that it is a poor way to conduct a service, and a business operated in this manner would soon fail. But government — both state and federal — seem to care very little as they have a product or service not otherwise available.
I will try again, but I think I will go elsewhere.
Gordon M. Stone
West Lebanon