Earthquake story deserved better

We have an earthquake that kills thousands of people in Turkey and Syria and Valley News puts the story on Page A3 (Feb. 7). This is responsible journalism? Don’t these people matter?

Come on, you can do better.

Abner Schlabach

East Barnard

The arithmetic of racism: 2 + 2 = 3

The notion that unless government schools teach race consciousness, the Civil War and 13th amendment were for naught is risible. Half a century ago, my father, a very dark-skinned black man, moved to Concord. I remained in NYC to attend college, visiting New Hampshire during breaks. On my visits, I was impressed by how beautiful New Hampshire is and enjoyed how well the citizens of New Hampshire dealt with meeting their first black person.

Now that I live here, I am impressed at the number of people who believe that I have been wronged due to my skin color, and they, being white, bear responsibility for this.

What nonsense! No one in New Hampshire has benefited from any of the racial discrimination I have experienced in employment or housing. And given the sort of student proficiency scores we see here in Claremont, the school system is not doing such a great job at teaching students to read and count that it should be trusted to take on the extra chore of teaching white cisgender heterosexual teenagers that they bear original sin, and that everyone else is part of some victim group or another.

Kevin Tyson

Claremont

A better example for losing Medicaid?

Regarding Nora Doyle-Burr’s Feb. 2 article on some losing Medicaid as pandemic rules end (“End of Medicaid’s pandemic rules will force many in NH, Vt. to seek new coverage”), surely you could have found a better example for your article than Griffin Shumway, who by your own facts of the math has been freeloading off the Medicaid system since finding a new job at $44,000 — more than 200% above the $18,000 income limit.

Good for him for retraining and finding a higher-paying job, but he should be ashamed of himself for continuing to take the handout.

Anthony Arcone

Franconia, N.H.

Praise for the Claremont Fire Department

Once again I would like to praise the Claremont Fire Department. On Friday, Feb. 3, the department responded in two minutes to an emergency fire call. With temperatures dropping, our fire personnel brought the fire under control. Claremont relies on our fire personnel to keep us safe. Thank you.

The story does not end here. It is also noted that the house had working fire detectors that helped save many lives. Our fire department has a history of providing free smoke detectors to our community and educating the public about the importance of smoke detectors. The importance of these detectors proved to be the case on Friday. All of our citizens need to say thanks to Chief Bryan Burr, Deputy Chief Brian Rapp and all our fire personnel.

Jim Contois

Claremont

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