Time for change in Vermont

We need some new mechanics in Montpelier. The current ones aren’t fixing what’s broken yet keep charging more. The higher energy costs imposed on us aren’t moving the needle on climate change but they are deeply hurting Vermonters trying to heat their homes. Consider that the average American produces 16 tons of CO2 per year. Yet, a superyacht kept on standby generates 7,000 tons of CO2 a year. The world’s top 12 billionaires emit CO2 emissions equivalent to 2.1 million homes. There are no superyachts on standby in Windsor County. Nor are any of us emitting the equivalent in emissions to over 2 million homes. In addition, our education funding system is also broken. And voila, taxes are raised. We hear a bunch about housing costs but little about the myriad of regulations, taxes and laws which contribute to the skyrocketing costs. Let’s try someone new. Someone who Gov. Scott endorses. Someone who is a pragmatist with an expertise in the oil and energy field for the development of sustainable, common sense energy solutions. Someone who understands the value of investing in tech rather than reacting with more taxes. Please consider Jonathan Gleason for Windsor County Senate this election year.

Susan Manley

Wilder

Vote Ramsey
for NH House

I admire many of Margaret Drye’s qualities and am grateful that she lives in my town as she is an outstanding community member. But I do not want Margaret casting the deciding vote in Concord on women’s health and reproductive rights, public funding of education or a number of other issues that we see quite differently. Given how closely divided the New Hampshire Legislature is, every vote matters!

Jenny Ramsey supports broad access to health care and child care, is a staunch supporter of public education and favors proactive steps to combat climate change. She too has made significant contributions to our community and has the smarts, ability and integrity to represent us well in Concord. Please vote for Jenny to become our state representative.

Susan Williams

Plainfield

Keep Tanner
in Concord

As a school board member, I want to make clear that what follows is my personal opinion and not that of the school board or any other organization of which I am a member. Linda Tanner has devoted her adult life in service to our community. She is a retired teacher and coach, as well as an adjunct professor. Since her retirement she has been elected and reelected five times to the New Hampshire House. During her time working on our behalf, she has been active in protecting citizens’ rights. Particularly, she has been especially involved in health care, individual rights, reproductive rights, public education and keeping taxes reasonable and distributed equitably among those most burdened in these difficult economic times.

Rep. Tanner is against all government interference in reproductive health care. In her advocacy for individual rights, she is 180 degrees opposite her opponent who is against all abortion and, presumably, would want to impose other government restrictions on individual rights. Another contrast between Linda and her opponent is school funding, which she believes should be based on student outcome. She wants to alleviate the need for local boards of education asking for increased taxes from their communities. This is caused by having money taken from public schools to send students to private and religious schools. And Tanner will work to decrease taxes is by shifting costs of state retirement benefits from local responsibility back to the state, where it belongs.

Linda also will try to aid local taxpayers by correcting the imbalance between inadequate state funding for public education and unfair increased local taxation. Again speaking only for myself, I want to share my frustration when our local school board is trying to keep budget costs to a minimum while we face additional costs imposed upon us by the current state administration. This is done without the state’s taking responsibility for the added costs required, putting additional burden locally on our school board budget.

Arthur Bobruff

Springfield, N.H.

Sue Prentiss
for state Senate

I have had the pleasure of knowing Sue Prentiss in various capacities for nearly 30 years. Throughout that time she has proven to be a tireless advocate for public safety, a nationally recognized leader in the Emergency Medical Services community and a dedicated public servant. Beyond her extensive career in public safety, Sue has over 15 years of public service experience including serving on the Lebanon City Council, as mayor of Lebanon, and as our two-time state senator for District 5. As you are aware our state senate district is very socioeconomically diverse and coming to a consensus on any given issue is often fraught with difficulties. In such tumultuous political times, Sue does an incredible job at ensuring that all members of our shared political community feel well-represented despite our differences in demographics and economic priorities. I encourage all district voters to make a quick scan through her seven priorities and track record of legislation on her website to see how she has found ways to effect change at the state level for the good of all constituents in our region. While John Mcintyre is a brilliant and respected physician in our community, Sue’s years of experience and legislative achievements are the differences that will motivate me to cast my vote for Sue Prentiss for a third term as our state senator.

Matthew Guy

New London

Ramsey’s priorities

Rep. Margaret Drye and Jenny Ramsey are running to represent Charlestown, Cornish, Newport, Plainfield and Unity in the New Hampshire House. Both candidates have exemplary records of community service, but they have very different legislative priorities rooted in different values.

Ramsey’s website mentions supporting public education, environment and climate, reproductive freedom, restoring democracy and healthy communities. Drye’s website mentions small businesses, support for alternatives to public education and the opioid crisis, but does not mention some of her priorities that may be inferred from her voting record.

Candidate Drye’s record, available through the Legislature’s website, gencourt.state.nh.us, includes voting against measures to protect reproductive freedom, voting to expand eligibility for school vouchers and reducing school compliance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws, opposing a bill that would make it a criminal offense to possess or discharge a firearm in a safe school zone and voting nay on multiple bills addressing climate change. From our conversations with Jenny, we are confident she would have voted differently on most and likely all of these bills.

We will be voting for Jenny Ramsey and urge others to do the same.

Betsy and Lee Rybeck Lynd

Meriden

A crucial vote

Both sides in this presidential race claim this is the most crucial election of our lifetime.

Let’s cut through the emotion, political smears and lies, and vote on substance, issues and records. What’s most important: a president’s job performance or personal life. If you want it both ways, sorry, real life isn’t Disney World. People and our politicians are not perfect, as much as we would like them to be. We may wish government leaders live up to our moral code, but personal character flaws are not the most important factors to consider. In choosing a heart surgeon, do you care most about the surgeon’s skills or character flaws? Ask yourself two primary questions:

Are you safer now with two world wars waging, China looming, and an open border than you were four years ago? And is your family better off financially with the cost of food, gasoline, utilities, housing, etc., than they were four years ago?

In politics, as in life, you don’t always get everything you want. Vote anyway. This election is truly the most consequential in our, and possibly our children’s lifetime.

Larry Greenwood

Plainfield

Democracy is
on the ballot

The biggest issue looming over the 2024 presidential election is the survival of American democracy. The importance of policy differences between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump pales in comparison. Bluntly put, Trump wants to wreck our democracy. The evidence is crystal clear.

Trump has no regard for the rule of law or the Constitution. He stands convicted of 34 felonies and is under indictment for several more. He tried to overturn the 2020 election by strong-arming governors and election officials in several states, notably Georgia, to reverse the election results. He pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to disregard his Constitutional duty of certifying the electoral ballots. When that failed, Trump incited the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to stop certification of those ballots. This was the only time in U.S. history that a president refused to peacefully concede power. He still refuses to accept that loss.

Trump’s chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, and Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, call Trump a fascist and a grave danger to American democracy. So do prominent Republicans, including former vice presidents Pence and Dick Cheney, former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and many more who have endorsed Harris for president. When the Cheneys and progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders unite in opposition to Trump, they must be very worried about our democracy. So am I. The fate of democracy sits atop the ballot in November. Please vote wisely.

John L. Campbell

Lyme

The writer is the author of “Institutions Under Siege: Donald Trump’s Attack on the Deep State.”

Harris is
ready to lead

In a recent Forum letter (“Why Harris?” Oct. 23) the writer lists all the scary reasons why he questions voters who support Kamala Harris. Many of his concerns fall into two categories: fear of minorities and the poor, and fear of people who don’t adhere to the expected binary gender roles of a 1950s TV show.

So, what does the Democratic base want? For starters, we want a safe, clean planet where our children (yes, Democrats actually do have children) can thrive. We want a government with a fair, progressive tax system in which the ultra rich contribute a larger share instead of stashing their assets in questionable tax shelters and foreign businesses. (That would be real border security.) We want a country where equal work yields equal pay and where, to quote Martin Luther King, Jr., people are not “judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” — no matter where they came from.

The writer says he knows how to define a woman. Based on what? Physical things, like having XX chromosomes? Or social things, like believing we’re secondary to people with XY chromosomes?

For people who’d find it hard to vote for a woman president, I suggest recalling a little history to get comfortable with it. Consider international leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and recently elected Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. Kamala Harris can and should be on this list.

Rebecca Kvam Paquette

Hanover

A chaos candidate

More than a half century ago I left Uganda when self-dealing leaders were messing the country up. Eventually it led to the rule of Idi Amin, to a genocidal chaos. In a few days this country of my adoption will decide if Doland Trunk, a twice impeached president, traitor of Jan. 6, and a convicted felon will lead this great nation. If he comes into power again, while making that obscene salutation of a gigolo he does by pumping his fist, some ‘Idi’ will emerge to take this nation to its ruin.

Harjit Rakhra

Norwich