Opinion
A Yankee Notebook: People look up and see what they want to see
By WILLEM LANGE
The sky has always been a source of wonder for us earthbound folks. For some of us who are, shall we say, more earthbound, it’s a source of portents, omens, and myths. What we call thunderstorms and explain as electrically charged clouds used to be...
Editorial: Gambling tarnishes America’s sporting life
Hey, Major League Baseball, does the name Pete Rose ring a bell? Remember him, “Charlie Hustle”? One of the game’s greatest players, whom you banned for life in 1989 because he bet on baseball games?We ask because you have on your hands another...
Forum for April 6, 2024: Holocaust remembrance
Between faith and evilJoseph Polak was a Jewish toddler living in the Netherlands when, in 1943, he and his mother were transported to the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Incredibly, unlike 99% of the Jewish children whom the Nazis deported to the death...
Book excerpt: ‘Politics and Literature at the Dawn of World War II’
Editor’s note: In the interest of bringing more Upper Valley authors to the attention of readers, the Perspectives page is publishing excerpts from recent books. The first of these is from the first chapter of James Heffernan’s “Politics and...
By the Way: A white nationalist’s many mistruths
By RANDALL BALMER
Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a Religious Right organization, has a history of involvement with the Ku Klux Klan in his home state of Louisiana. In 1996, while running the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of his friend and...
College ball isn’t a jobI believe I am as qualified as anyone in the Upper Valley to speak on the subject of playing D-1 basketball. Growing up in Claremont, I went to Stevens and dreamed of playing basketball in college. As it turned out, I was...
Column: The age-old question of what to read
By JONATHAN STABLEFORD
How many times have I heard someone say, “Books are dead, no one reads anymore”? It may be true that reading habits have changed (I’d argue that young people who spend a lot of time online are actually reading a lot.) and that there has been a steady...
Column: Act 250 update would preserve Vermont landscape
By LARRY SATCOWITZ
Act 250, Vermont’s visionary development statute, is over 50 years old. It is often credited as one of the primary reasons that our landscape looks the way it does. The law has been changed here and there over the years but is long overdue for a more...
Forum for April 5, 2024: Interstate traffic
Slow down where interstates meetDuring a recent morning rush hour, I had a terrible scare. I was preparing to merge from 91 North onto 89 South, an onramp that has for many months been under construction. As I slowed down to view the traffic on my...
Column: NH plans to rewrite rules for public schools
By SUSAN HOLCOMBE
Do you think that policy governing how New Hampshire schools run is made by local, elected school boards and perhaps by the Legislature? Think again. We are about to see some radical changes in rules for public schools. These are changes that will...
Forum for April 4, 2024: Occom Pond ice
Occum Pond ice sets record A 100-year-old record was set March 7 when the ice went out on Occom Pond in Hanover. Records have been kept since 1914. March 25 was the previous early ice-out record, set in 1919 and 1921. April 10 is the average. When...
A Yankee Notebook: A trip out West expands the mind and heart
By WILLEM LANGE
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s...
Column: Misinformation mars discussion of transgender youth
By FRANCES B. LIM LIBERTY, KEITH J. LOUD and JESSICA A. SMITH
Across the country, politicized misinformation and disinformation is being used to misrepresent transgender and gender-nonconforming youth. For example, the term “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD) is being used in social and traditional media to...
Forum for April 2, 2024: NH House misuses sports
NH House misuses sportsSo the New Hampshire House has voted to ban transgender girls from sports (Valley News, March 23). If we’re generous and assume lawmakers aren’t baldly bigoted, then they must think trans girls have an edge that is somehow...
Forum for April 1, 2024: Farm bill
A law you can eatThe Farm Bill is usually re-authorized every five years. It was to be finalized in 2023, but a new bill has not been formally enacted, so the 2018 bill is being extended until an update is complete. The Farm Bill affects everyone who...
Column: Vermont Republicans lay out their agenda
By BILL HUFF
Our state is facing multiple crises, mostly self-inflicted, the result of policies enacted by a Democratic supermajority made up of activists who are either out of touch with the real needs of Vermonters or too wrapped up in their own ideology to...
The non-valedictorian: The walk toward knowledge begins with a single step
By MIKE SKINNER
When my friends recently turned-on “Jeopardy” to test their academic skills, I felt so embarrassed when I couldn’t come up with any correct questions; it’s like the shame I felt in high school after being threatened with a sonic wedgie in gym class....
Forum for March 30, 2024: DHMC nurses
DHMC nurses are better off without a unionDartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center nurses do not need a union. We already enjoy many of the benefits that RNs in unions have, if not more and better. According to Zip Recruiter, RNs in Massachusetts earn an...
Column: Why I support Lebanon’s new fire station
By DOUG WHITTLESEY
The new fire station project in downtown Lebanon is a long time coming and the city has been discussing the need to replace the 70 year-old building since 2019. The current station was originally built in 1954 and is severely in need of modernization...
Editorial: Transparency wins in NH Supreme Court ruling
It’s hard to think of a better argument for disclosure of police disciplinary records than the case of Jonathan Stone, ex-cop, former city councilor and for the present, a New Hampshire state representative.The New Hampshire Supreme Court earlier this...
