I confess I am a diehard Red Sox fan. I have looked forward to the Boston boys of summer ever since I could swing a baseball bat. I have been to every World Series parade — 2004, 2007, 2013 and this year.
Thus, I read with great interest and enjoyment your Oct. 31 editorial, “A Common Purpose: The Keys to Success for the Red Sox,” until the last paragraph, where it ventured into politics: “In a larger context, the ebb and flow of American history suggests that persistent divisions over race, ethnicity, sex and economic class sometimes are subsumed in a broad consensus about what needs to be done at a given moment, bringing unity out of diversity.” Then there was Dan Mackie’s Nov. 3 column, “For Fans, These Sox Were the Feel-Good Bunch.” His columns are always refreshing and fun to read. Not this column though. He wrote, “Cora met controversies with aplomb, carried himself with an easy dignity. A certain unavoidable national figure could learn from that, but he won’t.”
Why can’t we all celebrate the success of the Red Sox together without using them to make political points and annoy a certain element of your readership? Is there an edict at the Valley News that states: “When possible, inject politics into your column”? Were you purposely trying to bring disunity out of an amazingly successful season? Enough. Please keep politics in your political columns, where it belongs.
Dave Cioffi
Etna
I thank Willem Lange each morning when I reach for my hot coffee cup in the microwave and the handle is in the perfect spot. He once wrote about timing the rotation. Thank you.
Thank you to all the men who voted and who supported the people whose goals promote the well-being of every American. Women are credited with making the difference for Democrats in the midterms, but it’s like the last putt in a golf tournament: The win comes from every vote, and men unthreatened by women were just as essential.
Thank you to the candidates who “identify” as a person who could get old and need Social Security, get cancer and need pre-existing conditions covered, have children who need an education, need employees or service providers with a higher education, work to pay bills, need the financial sector to run honestly and, last but not least, serve in the military or are willing to pay enough taxes to support those who do.
Thank you to the women of #MeToo who have come forward with their stories in such numbers as to finally be believed. I want to thank those people who did not, and may still not, believe those women because you have not personally acted that way, or the people around you have not acted that way. But keep your eyes open and be an “upstander.” And thank you to whoever came up with the word “upstander” to set a cultural standard that we all have a duty to protect others.
Thank you to Domino’s Pizza for taking action on America’s bad roads. The company’s ads ask people to send in a picture of a pothole that interfered with the delivery of their pizza so Domino’s could fix it. People should send the picture to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, too. Republicans successfully blocked President Barack Obama’s infrastructure bill, so I call them McConnell potholes.
And thank every newspaper reader for paying attention to our world.
Lanea A. Witkus
Newport
In recent times we’ve been bombarded with news coverage reflecting troubling issues, globally and locally, leaving us pining for anything resembling good news. In that vein, we want to acknowledge the coaches, trainers, players and staff connected to this year’s Dartmouth College football team.
We held season tickets to the home games, and on all those Saturdays sitting in the stands we took great joy in seeing the results of hard work and dedication coming from all corners of the team. Thank you all for a stellar season and great memories.
Jay and Linda Caruso
Barnard
This is in reference to Jim Kenyon’s recent columns about Scott Pixley, who makes $12.50 an hour as a dishwasher at Kendal at Hanover: With all the wealth at Kendal, that’s all they can afford to pay?
Laird Klingler
Cornish
I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all who participated in the Scouting for Food Drive that was held on Nov. 10. Lebanon Pack 279, Hanover Pack 45 and Lebanon Troop 279 collected a total of 961 items for the Upper Valley Senior Center’s food pantry. These three units collectively worked 208 hours to make this possible. Our seniors in the Upper Valley thank you.
Jill Vahey
Lebanon
The writer is director of the Upper Valley Senior Center.
In his recent letter, Dan Leggett defines globalism as “putting a global perspective above the national interest, our interest as Americans” (“Globalism Is a Slippery Slope,” Nov. 20). This reflects President Donald Trump’s success at framing the issue as “us vs. them,” where Americans believe they must sacrifice their own interests in order to help others.
But as any American who has lived overseas knows from personal experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Our longstanding willingness to set an example for the rest of the world — through our democratic institutions, and through our social and cultural behavior — has created an unrivaled fondness for America that benefits us in so many ways: travel to our country, sending us their best and brightest to be educated, electing leaders who ally themselves with us, lending us money to fund our deficits and on and on.
Of course there are some — a minority, to be sure — of foreigners who oppose us. But that doesn’t come close to outweighing the benefits we get from being, in Ronald Reagan’s words, a country “whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.” That’s the proper definition of globalism, and our unique pursuit of this philosophy — not building walls or attacking our allies — is what has made America great.
If only our president understood that.
Jonathan Spector
Woodstock