Opinion

Column: A meditation on tricks of the mind

By MARY OTTO

Winter HoursI don’t think I am old yet, or done with growing. But my perspective has altered — I am less hungry for the busyness of the body, more interested in the tricks of the mind. by Mary Oliver On a recent chilly Sunday afternoon in early...

Forum, Jan. 15: What kids can read

Censorship begins at homeI do not support censorship and believe that individuals should choose what they or their young children read or hear. I taught elementary school for 34 years. Over the years, several parents objected to my reading of The...

Column: Dartmouth dorm plan doesn’t address housing issue

By BARRY HARWICK

Dartmouth College officials bill their current plan to build housing for 400 undergraduate students on Lyme Road as a solution to a drastic shortage of beds on campus. There are two parts to that assumption.One is quite accurate; Dartmouth absolutely...

Column: Novel experience happen, whether we want them or not

By WILLEM LANGE

For many decades now I’ve harbored the conviction that to live a vital, interesting life, I should try something new each week. This has led to many fascinating experiences, lots of new acquaintances, and now and then some distress, especially if the...

Column: Where lost innocence becomes a marker

By JONATHAN STABLEFORD

“Where were you on the day President Kennedy was shot?” For people of a certain age this question has become a cliché, and for others there is another about the morning of Sept. 11. 2001. Those of us who lived in the Northeast in November of 1965 can...

Column: Travel plans are always weather-dependent

By WILLEM LANGE

Christmas week 2022 in the United States was, depending upon your circumstances and point of view, exciting, challenging, profitable, calamitous, frustrating, expensive or ruinous. The winter storm, as if programmed by an enemy, caught us at our most...

Column: At Christmas, Dickens piques our conscience

By WILLEM LANGE

As always at Christmastime, I’m troubled by a spirit: Charles Dickens. Climbing from abject poverty — his father in debtors’ prison, and himself toiling in a lamp-black factory — to international fame as an author and public speaker, he never forgot...

Forum, Jan. 10: ‘Discomfort with literature’

‘Discomfort with literature’ showsJust when one thought New Hampshire elected officials were comporting themselves with a mixed bag of sense and non-, Rep. John Sellers has set off the alarm of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (“State representative...

Forum, Jan. 9: State Rep.’s letter

State Rep.’s letter lacked evidenceI was disheartened to read in the Jan. 4 Valley News that State Rep. John Sellers believes that “there are books in many of our schools that are pornographic and even demonic.” (“State representative warns about...

Forum, Jan. 8: Hartford solar project

Solar project won’t aid resilienceThe Valley News is incorrect in stating the new 15-acre solar development off Route 14 will “strengthen the resilience of the entire New England energy grid” (“Town won’t intervene in solar project,” Dec. 29) In fact,...

Forum, Jan. 7: NH legislators’ pay

Don’t raise NH legislators’ payIn a recent article on the upcoming legislative session, State Rep. Walt Stapleton, R-Claremont, was quoted advocating for an amendment to the New Hampshire Constitution that would increase lawmakers’ pay 25-fold. No...

Forum, Jan. 6: Vermont gun laws

Gun measures Vermont lawmakers should enactThe new legislative session is about to begin. After a year like no other in Vermont and across the nation, with gun violence spiraling out of control, Gun Sense VT and its many allies in Montpelier are...

Forum, Jan. 5: Taxing big oil

Time to tax big oil’s big profitsWhy is the cost of gas so high? Because big oil has been profiteering. For example: ■Oil giant Chevron raked in $11.2 billion in profits from July through September.Exxon did even better, making $19.7 billion in...

Forum, Jan. 4: Norwich’s woes

Norwich’s woes aren’t a laughing matterIn his column from Dec. 24 (“The Mean Streets of Norwich”), Jim Kenyon pokes fun at Norwich residents’ concerns about the collapse of our town’s public safety and community services. As fellow Norwich residents,...

Forum, Jan. 2: ‘Grinch Award’

Landlord wins ‘Grinch Award’This holiday season’s Grinch Award goes out to Robert Parpinelli, who owns out-of-town Growth Cap Management. This out-of-town landlord has bought 13 rental units on Maple Street in West Lebanon, and sent out eviction...

Forum, Dec. 31: Norwich policing

Preventative policing for Norwich and beyondJim Kenyon’s piece about the current state of the Norwich police and Selectboard was a truly inspirational article (“Mean streets of Norwich,” Dec. 24). I stopped driving through Norwich long before the...

Forum, Dec. 30: 2016 election

We made a mistake in 2016In 2016, the United States elected as president a sexist bully, a pathological liar, a grifter, a traitor, and a psychopath who is contemptuous of laws made by other people. He makes and obeys his own laws. He is a user of...

Forum, Dec. 27: Newbury facility

Newbury facility harms state’s reputationThe following copies a letter I have recently sent to Gov. Phil Scott.I’m a longtime Vermont resident who has always valued and even boasted about our state’s high ethical standards. Recently, however, my pride...

Forum, Dec. 24: Sacred texts

How to interpret sacred texts?In his two recent letters (“Some Christians are more ‘real’ than others,” Nov. 8 and “How would Jesus vote, part 2,” Dec. 4), William Wittik addresses an issue that applies to the spiritual journeys of seekers in all...

Forum, Dec. 23: NH bridges

NH’s transportation folliesOn the subject of the Lyme-Thetford bridge, even though I had grown up in the state, I knew little of how NHDOT operates. Then came the Ledyard Bridge replacement event, followed by working for years on developing the...