The New Hampshire Legislature is preparing to undermine the right of New Hampshire residents to cast a ballot. Senate Bill 418, to be voted on April 21, both makes same-day registration unnecessarily burdensome and potentially violates the privacy of same-day voters, as their ballots will be individually reviewed by election officials. Please urge your state representatives to vote no on this latest attempt to undermine democracy in New Hampshire.
Carolyn Gordon
Hanover
I read Forum contributor Judy Phillips’ letter on April 12 and concur with her request (“Consider Christina Nolan for U.S. Senate,” April 12). Please consider Christina Nolan for U.S. Senate this November in Vermont. She isn’t a career politician, with a “million dollar war chest” like her Democrat opponent.
Christina Nolan is a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont, implementing a “law and order” consistency to her office. She respects the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and its amendments.
Ever since the Democratic administration took office in January 2021, they opened our country’s southern border to millions of illegal immigrants and drugs. No background checks or testing for diseases in a country mired in a COVID-19 pandemic. That border and flow of immigrants and drugs continues non-stop to this day!
Even before this administration took office, it campaigned on “defunding police,” and in many Democrat-run cities, police have been reduced in numbers. But now the country has suffered an incredible upward spike in “violent crime!” There is a cause and effect.
Inflation is now at a 40-year record high with no end in sight. Draining our country’s “strategic oil reserves” by ⅓ and buying oil from Russia, Venezuela and Iran, instead of drilling for the vast supplies we have here in the U.S. (in Alaska) is the “energy policy” of this Democratic administration.
Check the polls! Most Americans realize this administration has failed its citizens immensely! Why send another Democrat to Washington, D.C., to observe this disaster? Vote for Christina Nolan for U.S. Senate, and let’s pray she helps change the direction of this failed “D” administration!
John Nelson
Wilder
In a recent Valley News theater review, the writer compares two local theaters, Northern Stage and Shaker Bridge Theatre, creating a narrative that one has sold out to splashy popular productions while the other labors to put on serious, thought-provoking, but less popular shows (“Art Notes: Two theaters, two plays and two directions,” April 14).
This characterization isn’t fair to either company. Perhaps the writer has forgotten some of Northern Stage’s more serious recent shows (Oslo, Citrus, Dutch Masters and Grounded come to mind). And Shaker Bridge Theatre has produced its share of hilarious comedies (Sylvia, Fully Committed and Taking Steps, e.g.). While the current shows do display a marked contrast, to say they are emblematic of different paths pursued by the two theaters is a bit of a stretch, given that both program a variety of plays that appeal to many different tastes.
So, at the moment you can choose between musical comedy and a probing look at the intersection of civilization, war and human emotion. Or you could do yourself a favor and see both! What a blessing to the Upper Valley to have such varied and talented local theater options.
Bill Schults
Norwich
As Russia openly ramps up for its next phase of brutality in Ukraine, I can’t help wondering if the watching world intends to do anything besides continue sanctions, send weapons and give standing ovations to the “Brave Little Country That Could”?
What should we do? I don’t know. I am not a politician, a diplomat, a military advisor, a member of the United Nations, a historian or a geopolitical scientist. There are thousands of such people in the world, in key positions of influence, particularly in developed countries. Am I to understand that all these highly educated, well-resourced, brilliant people are incapable of coming up with a creative and bold plan to outsmart one really awful man in Russia?
Of course, reasonable people say (and should say), “We don’t want to start World War III.” “We’ll be drawn into a nuclear war in minutes.” “We can do only so much because Ukraine is not a NATO member.” But when we look back at our paralysis in the face of this blatant genocide, won’t we discover our aspirations for a moral and ethical world order and, most of all, our own humanity damaged beyond repair?
May I suggest one tiny action? Could the Valley News please keep the story of Ukraine on the front page? It seems the least we can do is be reminded to feel terrible.
Joette Hayashigawa
Thetford Center