I am a Community College of Vermont student and huge advocate for green burials in the Upper Valley. Recently, Lebanon has been discussing green burials in its graveyards. I would love that to become reality.
Green burials are cost effective and environmentally friendly, while keeping respect for the dead and the planet. If they become more easily accessible, more people will be aware of their options. While public opinion matters, what sets things into motion is city councils and mayors doing their part to help push for green burials so they can be implemented or known about. Listening to what people are saying is also important.
I hope this letter and others continue to spread information about green burials, even if many choose not to use them for their own circumstances.
At the Nov. 20, Lebanon School Board meeting, the board decided to reduce the proposed 2022-23 budget by $150,000, and leave it up to the administration to decide where to pull those funds from.
The budget includes the “school resource officer” position. It also includes a new social worker position, introduced to address the escalating mental health crisis facing children during the pandemic. So, where to take that $150,000 from? Only School Board member Lisa Vallejo Sorenson was brave enough to voice the obvious answer: End the “school resource officer” position, once and for all.
The removal of armed police from schools has been demanded by many community members, experts, and affected individuals: The Lebanon Students of Color Collective bravely issued a statement demanding the removal of police from schools, which was ratified by more than 100 students at LHS. The teachers union has been against the school resource officer position since it was first introduced in the 1990s and early 2000s (“Schools are no place for armed police,” May 9). Lebanon voters also rejected the position in a citywide vote (“Lebanon voters reject school resource officer,” March 10). The School Board has listened to hours of community testimony calling for the removal of the school resource officer position.
Despite all of this, the School Board has continued to evade decision-making on the issue. In May, the board punted the decision in favor of performing an “equity assessment.” It was promptly revealed that the assessment wouldn’t even gather any information relevant to the decision (“Lebanon superintendent says board’s delay on school officer won’t lead to more information,” May 18).
Unsurprisingly, the School Board is punting again –– back to the administration. It’s time for the superintendent to make the courageous choice that the School Board has failed to make. Stop wasting education funds on armed police officers, and instead invest in much needed mental health resources for students.
You can tell a lot about a newspaper by its headlines. The Dec. 2 Valley News read: “Supreme Court justices sound ready to restrict the right to abortion.”
It could have read “Supreme Court justices sound ready to save millions of lives annually,” or “Supreme Court justices sound ready to agree with many legal scholars and declare Roe v Wade bad law.” Instead they chose to defend murder.
I wonder why?
Every faith tradition affirms that whatever dehumanizes any of us hurts us all in our efforts to build the beloved community of our shared humanity. I’ve felt that deeply as a member of New Hampshire’s statewide immigrant solidarity network that includes people from many different faith backgrounds. Together, we raise our voices for full dignity and rights for all immigrants, including a pathway to citizenship. If the COVID-19 crisis has taught us anything, it’s that many of the people our lawmakers have denied a pathway to citizenship have been the “essential workers” whose labor has been critical to our mutual well-being.
I recently traveled to Washington to join faith leaders and immigration advocates, including many still seeking documentation, to demand our representatives and senators act assertively to pass the strongest immigration protections in the Build Back Better budget package. We called on Vice President Kamala Harris to use her power to support long overdue legislation granting citizenship to the hardworking undocumented immigrants who gather and prepare the food we eat, perform vital jobs in healthcare and caregiving, the Dreamers for whom the U.S. has always been home, and the temporary protected status holders who cannot return to their countries of origin because of natural disasters. We were a beautiful tapestry of humanity gathered for the moral imperative of ending the inhumanity and cruelty of an immigration system that exploits the willingness of undocumented immigrants to work harder and harder without granting them the stability and peace of mind only a pathway to citizenship can provide.
The House managed to pass the bill with temporary work permits and protection from deportation intact. Now, we need Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen to work with their fellow senators to add a pathway to citizenship by simply overruling the Senate parliamentarian. It’s time for them to publicly speak out, and commit to ensuring thousands of New Hampshire immigrants a chance to breathe free. Our immigrant friends and neighbors have trusted us with their lives, and invested those lives in the well-being of us all — how can we possibly do any less in return?
I hope everyone knows how lucky we are to have two great hospitals in the Upper Valley. Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital has always been my home hospital, but this week I needed an emergent transfer to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for a serious dental infection (was waiting for a root canal).
Since I needed the ear, nose and throat department and might have needed surgery, DHMC was where I needed to be. The transfer was seamless, straight to ICU and my care was exceptional. I appreciate all that was done to get me home and on the mend so quickly. It takes a village and sometimes two hospitals.
Thank you to all the caring medical folks at both facilities. I must give a special shout out to the chaplain who visited me and helped so much with my emotional and spiritual well-being. You will all forever remain my heroes.