The kids are all right, to vote

If you are losing sleep in anticipation of the 2024 election, there is something you can do right now. Encourage the high school graduates in your life to register to vote.

In New Hampshire, 17 year olds can register to vote if they will be 18 by the next election.

Have conversations with your children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, friends and neighbors to find out what issues are important to the graduates and their friends. Voter registration and turnout are lowest among those ages 18 to 29.

It is understandable that many might feel powerless or hopeless. Yet look for seeds of determination that democracy can continue and tell the young that their input is needed and vital.

Vivian Dolkart

Grantham

Too much Trump

We don’t need so many Trump images. On June 3 you published three images of Donald Trump (one being the cartoon) with his blue suit, red tie and American flags. One a week would be more than enough.

Jed Williamson

Hanover

‘Genocide’ is
the wrong word

The word “genocide” is being grossly misused in the media today, including in the Valley News.

“Genocide” is the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Israel is not doing this in Gaza. It is not attacking all Palestinians. Instead, it is trying to destroy the ability of Hamas to govern and fight. And in the process, it is taking quite unusual measures to minimize civilian casualties, such as delaying and limiting attacks, using precision weapons, warning civilians in advance and creating safe zones. What other army has done as much? Certainly not the U.S. in Vietnam and Afghanistan, nor Russia today in Ukraine, nor terrorist groups most everywhere.

Unfortunately, despite such measures, civilians are suffering in significant numbers, which of course is terrible. But a major reason is the way Hamas fights. It deliberately puts civilians in danger. It builds and shoots from hundreds of miles of military tunnels, from apartment buildings and in and under hospitals and schools.

In fact, it can be argued that Hamas has caused greater misery to its people than has Israel. It started the war. It preaches the killing of Jews and the destruction of Israel. It has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building tunnels and acquiring weapons, while neglecting the needs of its people, leaving them among the poorest in the world.

And a final point. Over 20%, 1.9 million, of Israel’s population are Palestinians. They are not being harassed. They are not leaving. They are living decently and in peace in Israel.

Raymond Malley

Hanover

Story could have
been better

Steve Taylor’s piece on the 1964 Lebanon fire (“A Look Back: Witnesses recall fire that transformed city”; June 3) is well reported, with close to a dozen sources cited and described. Still, the story begs the question: why is there not a single first-person account? Why no quotes in the story? And then to learn, at the end, that Taylor himself was on the scene, or close to it, as part of the same National Guard unit he describes— why is his own take on the events of that day not a part of the piece?

The details are all there, but the immediacy is lacking —the difference between seeing something from a yard away or from a mile.

None of this is news to any reporter or editor. Which leaves me with the final question: Why did no one on the news desk send Taylor back to personalize the story?

Again, a well-reported account. But it could have been so much better.

Geoffrey Douglas

West Lebanon