Vote at Town Meeting, especially Croydon

Every vote counts! We’ve heard this time and time again, please get to the polls this year! Every New Hampshire town will be holding their town elections this month — participating with your vote for school and town representation is just as important as a national election. These people running for election are your neighbors, people you should get to know and trust. Have a question about who’s running in your town election? Call your town hall and ask for a sample ballot, get the names of those running and reach out to them!

I live in the small town of Croydon; we have learned the lesson of letting elected positions go unopposed and found ourselves in a predicament with people who we never thought would abuse the power to impose their thoughts and beliefs instead of supporting what the entire town wants. Not listening to or supporting what the majority wants will not happen again in Croydon, I can promise you that! I questioned Jody Underwood, School Board chair and member of the Free State Project, at the School Board budget hearing in January, if she would support the budget that she developed, accepted, and supported at that meeting, at the March 18 meeting. She did not guarantee her support, so we need our Town Meeting to be packed. We cannot let a motion from the floor derail our students or community again.

We will elect the people we all trust going forward, we will show up to meetings in droves, we will not let neighbors go uninformed, we will communicate, we will discuss topics of concerned citizens, we will run for and hold local government seats in the town, we will be involved, we will not let a small population of our town citizens try to take over or force their small-minded ways on us. We will keep showing up and voting to support our towns and schools!

I encourage you to get to know whom you are voting for, ask the questions, be in the know, love where you live, exercise your right to vote, and be involved.

Amy Campbell

Croydon

We Stand Up For Croydon

Cornish could use a heart transplant

A library is the heart of a town. It’s a place for all ages, young, teen, middle age, and old. It’s where everyone can gather to spend time together.

At present our library in Cornish is on life support and is not able to offer itself to everyone. There’s no water or sewer. There is no accessibility for those who can’t manage steep stairs into the existing building and down its stairs to the basement. There’s no room for people to gather without blocking others from searching for books. And there’s inadequate parking.

At our town meeting on March 18, we can make the choice to give our library a complete heart transplant or let the Stowell library continue to beat along on life support. The former Cornish Store is the heart transplant our library needs. It’s being offered with no price tag to the town: a gift of a renovated Library and Community Center. In contrast to the Stowell library, it will have room for more books, bathrooms, meeting spaces, a complete kitchen, computers, sufficient parking and a green space for outdoors activities. It will be visible, spacious and inviting. A new, healthy heart for Cornish.

If we don’t vote yes to accept this heart transplant, the town will have to foot the bill to try to save the Stowell. Who knows when that will happen and at what cost? The challenges of updating a 1910 structure to 21st century standards are formidable.

Vote yes for the new Cornish Library and Community Center. Give new life to the heart of our town.

Marcia Brown

Cornish

Join the salamander squad

Spring will be here before we know it and for so long, I have felt a strong desire to gather a group of folks/families in Hanover and our surrounding area, that have an interest in protecting our salamander populations, during their spring migrations.

Did you know that wood frogs freeze solid all winter long? Did you know that eastern red-backed salamanders are the most common vertebrate in the whole forest? Each spring, these beautiful and colorful amphibians migrate by the millions from upland forests to wetland breeding grounds, often crossing roadways at their peril.

I am interested in starting a local “Salamander Brigade”/ Amphibian Road Crossing program. The only requirement is an eagerness to enjoy and protect our local amphibians! A pre-migration meeting will train volunteers to survey migration sites where we will help the amphibians safely cross our roads. Over the last five years, volunteers have conducted 900 surveys and documented 17,000 amphibians at 193 crossing sites across our region.

We have a short Zoom program for all members of the family to learn about the Amphibian Road Crossing program, and to find out how you can help your local frogs and salamanders safely cross the road during their annual spring movements.

The Hartford Salamander Team and North Branch Nature Center will be hosting this meeting on March 13 from 7-8pm. Here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82388466159. This project will accommodate volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Join our meeting to learn more about these fascinating amphibians, and opportunities to aid in their conservation. Please email me, Linde McNamara, at linde@lindemac.com if you are interested in attending the zoom meeting and helping our amphibians make their migrations safe ones.

Linde McNamara

Hanover

Balint won with dark money

This just in from Lola Duffort of the VTDigger: Becca Balint’s primary win over Molly Gray was bought by dark money from the notorious FTX cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

During the late phases of the recent election, we were ruthlessly bombarded with pro-Balint ads around the clock. While I saw a few ads per week from the Molly Gray campaign, the Balint ads would show up over 20 times per day on my various devices. Every time I watched a video on YouTube in the final month of the campaign, I would inevitably hear “Vermont needs Becca Balint,” causing me to slap my forehead and groan, “Please make it stop.”

I hope Vermont voters will remember this when she comes up for reelection. I know I will.

Ed Eastridge

Thetford Center

A question of campaign finance reform

Regarding “Becca Balint’s $1 million crypto benefactor pleads guilty to campaign finance fraud” (Page A2, March 2), are we really supposed to believe that now-Congresswoman Becca Balint did not know the true identity of the cryptocurrency fraudster who made a $1 million contribution to her primary campaign? Or that she didn’t know the donor expected something in return?

Can we now expect Ms. Balint to sponsor legislation that would prohibit large, secret campaign gifts like the one that was possibly decisive in her election?

We are watching and waiting.

Stephen Dycus

Strafford

‘Wokeness’ attacking religious political expression

I was alternately amazed and amused by David Allen’s recent Forum submission (“What’s So Bad About Being ‘Woke,’ ” Feb. 18)? In his words, “being woke means being respectful to those who have different backgrounds or orientations.” While that may seem benign in theory. what often happens in practice is that efforts are made by those claiming “wokeness” to discredit, “deplatform,” silence, or cancel those who disagree with any view that they currently consider to be in vogue.

An example would be a proposed bill (HB 113) introduced by two southern Vermont legislators Jan. 27, which would revoke the property tax exemption of any church or charitable organization engaged in on-premises “political activity.” Aside from First Amendment implications which would render this bad law subject to challenge in federal court, there is the strong likelihood of “selective enforcement” against churches and organizations opposing practices they consider morally reprehensible. As a recent article said, the Catholic church makes a distinction between sin and crime. You don’t have to criminalize “undesirable” behavior to discourage it, but this could have a proverbial “chilling effect” on free speech and free exercise of religion in Vermont.

There is an equally strong likelihood that favoritism will be shown to churches and organizations embracing LGBTQ+ practices and enhanced access to abortion while cracking down on those who sincerely believe they have a Biblical obligation to oppose the most extreme expressions of those positions, and legitimate sermons could be misconstrued as “political activity.” Churches speaking out now against this law could be subject to reprisals if, and most likely when, the bill passes. Jesus said it was inevitable that persecution would come upon His disciples, and it appears that Vermont may take the lead in adopting this draconian “solution.” We must question if this is “the Vermont way.”

William A. Wittik

Hartford

William A. Wittik is a pastor at the Upper Valley Assembly of God.

The truth about truth

Truth is dead. There are no news sources anymore, only ideology-infused entertainment platforms. Fox News and Tucker Carlson are simply extreme examples of the principle. It’s clear now that Carlson knew that Trump’s claims of election fraud were outright lies (Trump had been making such claims since 2015, just in case he lost to Hillary Clinton), but in the name of ideological entertainment he went along with, nay upsold, the ruse.

We live in a world in which ideology sells — the more vitriol and indignation expressed, the more successful the product. Of course, in a world full of people who cannot recognize when they are being played for fools, ideology-infused entertainment is a hit! Too bad it destroys the very fabric of society. Oh well. You can all go back to your devices and TV screens now and turn on your favorite entertainer again. Just know, he’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Dan Weintraub

Quechee/Boston

Tax changes

I am a 74-year-old who is still working part time. I was sorry to see that the Earned Income Credit is no longer being offered to seniors. My tax preparer urged me to write to my U.S. Senators. Sure will!

A $300 deduction for charitable contributions is also no longer available.

Write to your senators if you lament these changes.

Melinda Meyerhoff

Thetford Center

Outfoxed

After six years of murder and mayhem in the henhouse, the foxes have now developed a taste for Fox. Let’s watch the fun.

Paul Bogosian

Windsor

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