The need to be known as ourselves

As an SAU70 teacher and a parent of two past and two future Hanover students, I foresee the mental-health toll that will unfold if Gov. Sununu doesn’t veto four New Hampshire bills currently targeting gender-nonconforming people: HBs 396, 619, 1205, and 1312. These measures would legalize anti-trans discrimination in health care, education, participation and facilities access.

My husband and I are parents of a gender-nonconforming teenager. Through the experience of parenting this child and three cisgender children, we’ve had some realizations about gender identity. What we’ve learned boils down to two simple facts, and doesn’t require a lot of fancy language. Every person has a gender identity that they know by looking inward. Every person has a need to be seen as who they know themself to be, gender-wise.

Cisgender people have a gender identity and the need for it to be recognized. What would it feel like if those you loved and respected often talked about you as a person of a different gender than the one you know yourself to have?

Gender-nonconforming people are no different. They have a gender identity and they cannot be emotionally well unless it’s recognized. Their bodies don’t grant them the easy privilege of being accepted as people of their gender. It’s the kind, fair and wise thing to do to include each person as who they tell us they are, rather than ostracizing some and believing others.

This legislation is personal, painful, and pressing. Please urge Gov. Sununu to veto these cruelly discriminatory bills.

Wendy Teller-Elsberg

Norwich

Scams are a constant worry

In an annual poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association, 70% of U.S. adults say they feel anxious or extremely anxious about keeping themselves or their families safe. (APA, May, 2023). For me the main source of anxiety is not increasing gun violence, the pandemic or civil unrest, although all of these make their contributions. The general anxiety I feel every day is occasioned by the large number of scam attempts that come to me through my various electronic connections with the world.

Every week I answer phone calls purporting to be from local numbers, businesses, or acquaintances, telling me that I need to give them my credit card information, Medicare or Social Security numbers, passwords, home address or banking information, and all trying to “help” me in various ways that will undoubtedly end up involving the transfer of my money to their pockets. Then there are the plaintive calls from my “grandchildren” who allege to have been in an accident, are sick in the hospital, or in jail and need money fast.

And every day I wake up to spam in my email inbox, with invoices for things I did not buy and requests for immediate action to prevent my accounts from being deactivated. There are even those demanding payment else I be immediately arrested for tax evasion or failure to appear for jury duty.

I cannot stop these from coming. I run a business and when Caller ID says that “John Smith” is calling, I have to answer it in case Mr. Smith is a customer. When I realize that it is a robocaller, I block Mr. Smith, but the next time it’s “Mr. Jones” with a different number, so call-blockers are useless. I use the strongest spam filters available on my computer, but these messages still regularly slip through.

No wonder people are anxious! No wonder politicians can play upon that anxiety. And if that is so, is it any wonder that the politicians we elect cannot seem to do anything at all about the firehose of scams that daily try to take us down?

Susan White

Norwich

The wrong kind of nationalism

Christian Nationalism is an incorrect name and one that causes confusion. Calvinistic Nationalism is the correct term. Calvinism is a reaction formation to cultural trauma, the Reformation and religious wars. It is harsh and has a punitive superego, original sin and most people go to hell. It leads to all kinds of scapegoating.

Christianity is manifested by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which results in all people’s needs being met. This is not a concern for Calvinistic Nationalism. Calvinism is about maintaining the defensive system against the trauma of his time. (Calvin burned people at the stake for not believing as he did.) It is very similar to an individual’s trauma dissociative reaction lasting through time.

Now this defensive system is running the Supreme Court, and could win the White House. A dissociated trauma-based political party would be in charge of our military in the name of God. Think about it. We will do all kinds of things in the name of God. And have done so, e.g. Manifest Destiny. Please in the future do not call this emerging cultural dominant force Christian Nationalism. Call it for what it is Calvinistic Nationalism.

Rev. Dr. Gregory Wilson

Vershire