A law you can eat

The Farm Bill is usually re-authorized every five years. It was to be finalized in 2023, but a new bill has not been formally enacted, so the 2018 bill is being extended until an update is complete. The Farm Bill affects everyone who sells, buys or eats food in the U.S., as well as those facing hunger internationally.

The Farm Bill covers four specific areas of interest: nutrition, crop insurance, commodities and conservation.

Nutrition programs make up 80% of projected spending, including SNAP (the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program); the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program; The Senior’s Farmer’s Market Nutritional Programs; The Community Food Projects; and the Gus Schumacker Nutritional Program (GusNIP).

SNAP supplies nutritional assistance to millions of Americans, serving more than 40 million individuals. It is of the most effective tools to reduce hunger. GusNIP enhances SNAP, providing benefits to purchase fruits and vegetables.

Bread for the World (BFW), an ecumenical advocacy group, is advocating for measures that will not only enhance nutrition but also assure equity and sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.

The simple act of writing to our elected officials, encouraging them to bring about public policy to enhance a sustainable, equitable Farm Bill will benefit all of us.

Go to bread.org/offering-letters to find sample letters that you can send electronically.

Paul Manganiello

Norwich

Justice delayed

Imagine, God forbid, that you are accused of and indicted for a serious crime that you did not commit. The wheels of justice are grinding on, evidence is piling up on both sides, lawyers are hired, a judge assigned. But it all seems interminably slow: month after month you hang in limbo, uncertain what the future will bring. And all the while, your friends are thinking that perhaps you are not the person they thought they knew and trusted. And your enemies are rejoicing month after month as you twist in the wind.

In such circumstances, would you not move heaven and earth to prove your innocence as quickly as possible? Would you not do anything and everything in your power to have the world hear your side of the story and get a final judgment that would put all questions of your culpability permanently to rest? You want your day in court, you want your innocence affirmed, before permanent damage to your reputation is done as the words “accused” and “under indictment” are applied every time your name is mentioned.

But, of course, if you are guilty of the crime of which you are accused, your attitude would be radically different. In that case, you would spend every waking hour trying to delay your day in court. Judgment, in this case, would not be your friend, but rather your enemy. You would do everything in your power to put off for as long as possible the verdict that you fear is coming.

Certainly if there are procedural errors, evidentiary anomalies, or conflicts of interest, you must endure the necessary delay while they are sorted out. But if you are guilty, you need to try to find (or invent) as many of these obstacles as possible so that delays pile up and the time of judgment is pushed further and further into the future.

So it’s time to ask ourselves this question: Is the 45th president (“accused” “indicted”), behaving more like a guilty man or an innocent one?

Susan White

Norwich

Netanyahu must go

Sen. Schumer is not alone in seeing Netanyahu as an obstacle. In Israel there has been and continues to be massive opposition to the Netanyahu government. Demonstrations and billboards call for early elections to rid the country of the government responsible for this debacle. A recent headline in Ha’aretz, a trusted Israeli paper reads, “Nothing Biden Does Can Remove Netanyahu.” This, despite the overwhelming majority of Israelis, including those who voted to make his extremist coalition possible, wanting to see him depart.

It is important to separate the government from the people — for Hamas which has not held elections since 2005 and for the Likud-led Israeli government. In Israel, it is still permissible to oppose the government openly. There are Israeli voices for peace and people who are putting themselves at risk to support Palestinian rights and lives and to bring relief into Gaza. While not in power, they deserve recognition.

There were serious Jewish voices against the establishment of the state prior to 1948 and there have been steadily more voices for Palestinian rights and against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since 1967. Several of these have U.S. affiliates, including Americans for Peace Now. Others lobby Congress, predominantly J Street, and the New Israel Fund which, among others, channels donations to B’Tselem, an organization that for over 30 years has witnessed and opposed the occupation. If you also oppose that occupation, you have relied on information from B’Tselem and you, too, can support their peace-seeking boots on the ground.

Painting all of Israel as a war machine is as misguided as painting Palestine as a nation of terrorists. Neither is true. We must have a cease fire, relief for Gaza, Palestinian self-determination, return of the hostages, and elections in Israel. In addition to pressing our government, the people on the ground, Israeli Jew and Palestinian Arab, working to end this nightmare deserve recognition and support.

Liora Alschuler

East Thetford