Did you know the old bridge between Lyme and Thetford will be closed for 18 months starting next spring so the NH Department of Transportation can build an equally dangerous “new” bridge? The DOT has decided to replace the narrow old bridge, which has no room for walkers and bicyclists, with a span that has the same problem, instead of building a safer bridge with a new design.
On top of that, there are no plans to provide a temporary bridge for the thousands who cross the river each day for work, school, grocery shopping and other travel. They will have to make a substantial (24-mile roundtrip) detour for at least a year and a half.
The NHDOT says it’s too late to make any changes. A group of people from both sides of the Connecticut River is challenging that assumption. We simply don’t believe we must choose between these two equally unfortunate options:
1) building a bad bridge while the current bridge is closed for 18 months
2) waiting for the next 10-year planning process to design and fund a new bridge
Construction has not yet begun. The state can build a safe bridge and avoid a long closure. For details and a link to a letter of support, go to https://lymebridge.wixsite.com/nh-dot-scheduled-rec
Please talk to your representatives. Sign our letter. Write your own letter. Do it all. We need to protect the federal money set aside for this project and build a safer bridge now.
Liz Ryan Cole, Dana Grossman, Alexis Jetter, O. Ross McIntyre, Krista Meyerhoff, Melinda Meyerhoff, JJ Pippin, Hebe Quinton, Amelia Santos, Eric Tadlock, Jan Williams, Helen Whyte, Ke Wu
Lyme and Thetford
Candidate for House
from Lebanon
I am Tom Cormen, and I am running for the New Hampshire House in Ward 3 of Lebanon. Having lived in Ward 3 for 29 years, I have come to know and love our little city — its neighborhoods, businesses and natural areas. Those who have been in Lebanon for a few years might remember my wife, Nicole Cormen, who served for seven years on the City Council before cancer took her in 2015. Nicole’s dedication to our city inspires me to serve.
I am an emeritus professor of computer science at Dartmouth, having recently retired after over 29 years on the faculty. I’m best known as the lead author of the textbook Introduction to Algorithms. The book and I were even a clue on Jeopardy! back in February.
If elected, I will be a strong advocate for full reproductive rights for women, for a system that strengthens public education and funds it fairly, for renewable and sustainable energy, and for responsible gun ownership. I will also promote electric vehicle charging in places where people will want to leave their cars, so that tourists with EVs know that once they get to New Hampshire, they can also get home. A more complete discussion of the issues appears on my website, CormenForNH.com.
Republicans have implemented policies that are hurting the state. Our high electric rates result from failure to invest in a mix of energy sources. Abortion restrictions and the “divisive concepts” law — which is itself divisive — were lumped into the state budget by Republicans in the legislature, who shrewdly assumed that Gov. Sununu would be afraid to veto it. Free Staters are attempting to defund public education, at least when they’re not advocating for New Hampshire to secede from the US. I will be happy to work with legislators from any party to work out reasonable solutions to the problems facing our state, but I will also stand up against ideas that weaken us.
To everyone: Please vote on Nov. 8. To voters in Ward 3: I would appreciate your vote. Feel free to contact me at thcormen@gmail.com.
Tom Cormen
Lebanon
Democrats are destructive
The current Democratic administration has been an economic disaster and their New Hampshire candidates — Maggie Hassan for Senate and Annie Kuster for Congress — have voted lock step with Biden and his destructive policies.
Inflation is roaring along at 8.2%. You notice this when you pay for groceries, gas, heating and electricity. Average hourly earnings are up 3.8% but you are a loser in this economy. Retirees will get an 8.7% raise in 2023. Our children and grandchildren will be saddled with this bill. Mortgage rates are now 6 to 7%
Bloomberg Economics predicts a 100% chance we will see a recession in the next 12 months. What would you expect when we heedlessly print trillions of dollars and throw it into the economy?
The Biden war on fossil fuels when we were energy independent has meant he has to go begging for low grade fuel from Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia told him they plan to cut production. Now he has again raided our emergency fuel supply to hopefully buy votes by injecting it into the economy.
There is no southern border security. Illegal immigrants are pouring into our country and terrorists and criminals come with them along with lethal doses of fentanyl. Residents in small cities along the border fear for their safety.
Crime is surging across the country as “no bail” policies turn loose criminals who soon repeat more crimes.
Traditional family values are scoffed at and what many of us consider pornography is available in school libraries to encourage the queer culture.
The proposal to cancel billions of dollars of student debt will only worsen the inflation menace. Those of us who worked our way through college and diligently repaid our debt are now asked to fund these deadbeats who are termed “victims. They got themselves into a bad decision and now should suffer the consequences.
The list goes on and on and if we allow the same Democrats to continue in office we are begging to bankrupt our economy and traditional values. Hopefully many Independent voters will vote Republican to help right the ship!
Dave Cioffi
Etna
Freedom and abortion
Today, in Hanover, I saw a huge sign on a lawn: “Reproductive Freedom is on The Ballot.” Does the sign mean, “Freedom is aborting innocent babies”? Does the sign signify it is considered Freedom to not take responsibility for one’s actions? Does the Constitution give some people more freedom than others?
Marcella Logue
Enfield
Own it, Republicans
For the upcoming elections, Republicans sure made it easy for this independent voter.
They’ve actively undermined democracy and the U.S. Constitution. They’ve forced traumatic and sometimes absurd decisions on pregnant women. They’ve been MIA on climate change and health care and have undermined our public schools.
Through Charlottesville, Lafayette Square, the Jan. 6 insurrection, and threatened election workers, they’ve let us know that violence and intimidation are part of their game plan. They use violent rhetoric and worship guns. Led by a mean-spirited demagogue, they’ve shown contempt for the rule of law (including obstruction) and protection of national security documents. They have become the lawless and disorder party. Own it, Republicans!
The American people spoke decisively in the 2020 Presidential election, but Republicans chose to support a world-class sore loser’s Big Lie. The only person who attempted to steal the election was Donald Trump. They’ve used lies about election fraud to pass voter suppression laws to steal future elections. Own it, Republicans.
What about Donald Trump as a role model for our youth: prolific liar, bully, troll, draft dodger, adulterer, and crotch-grabbing sexual predator. He’s divisive, self-serving, reckless, thin-skinned, petty, vindictive, and incapable of self-reflection, empathy, or apology. He has no moral compass, no sense of decency, and has steadfastly avoided accountability with Republican help (so much for checks and balances). He thinks military personnel and public servants are chumps. He’s a magnet for white supremacists. Own him, Republicans!
The GOP has lost its soul; Republicans do not deserve your vote.
Allan R. MacDonald
New London
Bolduc is unfit to lead
Retired General Don Bolduc is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from New Hampshire. He is not fit for the job. Despite his distinguished military record, he lacks the qualities of honesty and courage which a good senator needs.
He used to be loud and clear in his support for Donald Trump’s Big Lie that Democrats had stolen the Presidency from him; that he, Trump, was the real winner of the 2020 election. Bolduc signed an improper letter with 120 other retired military officers affirming that lie, and as of Aug. 14 he stood by it. Just a few days later, when the lie was proving unpopular in New Hampshire he backed off and declared “the election was not stolen.” Even so, Bolduc has never denounced the illegal attempts to overturn the election result or the bloody Jan. 6 mob assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
What a contrast to the clarity and courage of another conservative Republican, Representative Elizabeth Cheney! She puts defending democracy and the Constitution ahead of her political advantage. Don Bolduc does not.
Current U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan should be overwhelmingly reelected. Please help!
John Lamperti
Norwich
Time to aid public education
It seems that there are forces at work in New Hampshire determined to destroy a public education that used to be the pride and very foundation to foster learning, civic engagement and a broadening of young minds. And that is precisely what is needed in an ever more complex world to broaden the minds of those who will have to tackle and determine the future.
There are thousands of dedicated professionals who will do their utmost to ensure that that is so. But it seems they find themselves increasingly having their hands tied. People who have no idea what happens in classrooms, who haven’t read the books they’d like to see stricken from curricula and who pour oil in the flames of misinformation, are loudly clamoring for a share in a discussion for base political gains. Make no mistake: the stifling of the civil, free give and take of ideas destroys democracies. Don’t Russia’s and China’s example show us where this can lead?
And to all of those who think they know better than teachers what their children ought to be taught, actually, you don’t. You love your children and you know their emotional and physical needs, I am convinced. But you certainly aren’t qualified to know their intellectual needs. Would you stand in an operating room and instruct the surgeon how she has to use the scalpel? I don’t think so.
Ulrike Rainer
Hanover
GOP plays both sides
on crime
Republican candidates in the imminent mid-term election have been strenuously beating the drum about curbing crime in the U.S., summoning up images of violent street crime, with the intent of convincing voters that crime is surging and dangerous criminals are being coddled by Democrats (neither of which are true).
These same Republicans actually abet crime by refusing to adopt sensible measures to restrict guns, particularly assault rifles used by many mass shooters, denying the strong evidence that more guns leads to more mayhem, not greater security. (A prime example of this correlation is the very rare incidence of gun crimes in Japan where gun ownership is tightly controlled.)
While claiming to support law and order, a sizable majority of Republicans downplay and even deny or condone the various crimes perpetrated by their cult leader Donald Trump, ranging from fraud to illegal document retention to inciting a violent insurrection to overturn a presidential election, not to mention the many crimes carried out by various associates and officials during his four years of misrule. They also overlook the many crimes committed by the deluded MAGA partisans, ranging from illegally invading the Capitol to assaulting protestors to the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
Finally, Republicans in their retrograde world view appear intent on creating an entirely new crime wave by passing legislation that limits and penalizes women in exercising their previously recognized reproductive rights, much as temperance zealots created a massive crime wave by imposing Prohibition a century ago.
Crime will continue regardless of which party wins, but at least the Democrats consider evidence and rational approaches rather than knee-jerk bias in framing policies and protocols aimed at reducing it.
Jerry Roth
Enfield
Vote for Joe Benning
One of the things that I am proud of in Vermont is that voters don’t vote party line, they vote for the best candidate. I consider myself a Democrat and was elected to the Woodstock Selectboard as such. However, I support Republican Joe Benning for lieutenant governor and urge you to as well.
Joe and I were at Vermont Law School at the same time. I found him to be smart, thoughtful and considerate, characteristics that he has maintained in his almost 40 years in Vermont since graduation, as an attorney and in public service as a State Senator.
At this time, we need a lieutenant governor committed to working with the entire legislature and the administration. Joe is a moderate Republican and shares the same values as most Vermonters such as reproductive freedom and fiscal responsibility. He is committed to being lieutenant governor, not using the office as a stepping stone to higher office. He also understands that being lieutenant governor is not about your own political agenda but serving the role of that office: to moderate the Senate, have a role in appointing Senate committees and to step in when the governor cannot serve. As a senator for 12 years, Joe Benning is more than qualified for this role.
Joe’s intelligence, moderation and thoughtfulness that I first observed in law school will serve Vermont well and I urge you to join me in voting for him.
Susan Boyle Ford
South Woodstock