Kittery recreation for all; vote Nov. 5
Oct. 24 − To the Editor:
Kittery voters have two bond Issues to consider, but it’s not simply a pick and choose between two development projects because each one has the potential to significantly enhance our community’s recreational facilities and our overall quality of life, for young and old alike.
Yes, there is a cost to change, but we will all pay an even higher price for any of the proposals if we wait. The cost of everything will undoubtedly go up over the next few years if we keep putting off what we have already delayed acting upon over previous years. Everyone recognizes that thriving communities always have a plan for the future. Unfortunately, “planning” can be a dirty word in some communities, especially in small towns and rural areas, because of the concern for increased taxes. In some places, this results from today’s highly polarized political culture. In other places, it results from misunderstanding planning and its value.
An even more significant concern for me is the misunderstood and incorrect information that is often populated in the community and taken as solid truths by many; when the actual truth is that failing to plan means planning to fail. It isn’t easy to name any successful individual, organization, corporation, or community that doesn’t plan for the future.
As much as many do not like change, change will happen! We should all become productive participants in the changes coming to Kittery. Your questions and concerns about these bonds are important, and you can access the information on the Town website under Recreation for All. We are committed to providing you with accurate and transparent information.
So, I want to leave you all with a question only you can answer for yourselves: Do you want to grow by choice or chance? I firmly support a YES on both bond issues, as I wish to grow by choice! Your voice matters in this decision, and I encourage you to use it to shape the future of Kittery.
Celestyne Bragg
Kittery Town Councilor, KCC Board of Directors
We need solutions – not trash talk
Oct. 24 — To the Editor:
If you’re a Facebook user, you may know that there are two groups associated with things going on in Dover. One group, “City Of Dover NH Community Connections”, is a group that provides helpful information on businesses, road closures, public events, historical tidbits, etc. A second group, “What’s Happening In (or to) Dover NH”, could potentially be considered a hate group as some members continually complain amongst themselves about anything bad that happens in Dover and regularly focus on those who are homeless, suffering from substance misuse and/or have mental health issues. Comments such as “deport them”, “toss them in jail”, “three strikes and you’re out” (referring to not reviving an overdose victim after they have been revived after three previous overdoses), “run them out of town” (referring to SOS Recovery Services).
While free speech is important to our nation so that all opinions and voices can be heard, free speech should have the goal of contributing to the betterment of our community through constructive discussion and collaborative solutions. Backroom derogatory and dehumanizing chatter is non-productive as it only stirs up additional animosity between the people who need help and those who view them as “junkies”, “frequent flyers” or just human trash.
It will serve the community better if people communicate openly, set aside pre-conceived notions and listen respectfully to each other so that both points of view are understood and result in the creation of effective solutions that enable multiple avenues to success for those in need.
Lawrence Holman
Dover
Vote Nov. 5 to stop authoritarian Trump
Oct. 24 − To the Editor:
Former President Trump’s way of amusing people often distracts from his speeches on the “enemy from within” and thoughts of using the military against US citizens. This the speech of an authoritarian government with the risk of sliding into dictatorship.
Please take his speech seriously. The Supreme Court has removed guardrails giving unprecedented power (immunity) to the president for acts considered official. The Supreme Court heard Trump’s lawyer answer yes to a judge’s question if giving orders to the military to execute political adversaries would be an official act.
Democracy doesn’t work without you. Please vote November 5th and choose freedom for us all! Please check out current authoritative regimes (Russia’s Putin, is a great example) where voting is meaningless/ people disappear/ fall out of windows/ sent to camps or executed after sham trials.
(Authoritarian governments are characterized by highly concentrated and centralized government power maintained by political repression and the exclusion of potential or supposed challengers by armed force. It uses political parties and mass organizations to mobilize people around the goals)
Amy Feitelson, MD
Rye
Rep. Kate Murray: I’m working to ensure public dollars go to public schools
Oct. 23 − To the Editor:
As a Democratic state representative on division 2 of the Finance committee, I am proud to have been endorsed by the National Education Association of New Hampshire. Division 2 is responsible for the Department of Education’s budget as well as the budgets of the Department of Transportation, Department of Safety, Police Standards and Training, and Fish and Game.
As many of you know, Republicans created a voucher system, taking public tax payer money away from public education and sending that money to private schools and to parents who homeschool. I have no issue with either private education or homeschoolers, but I believe strongly that public tax payer money should go to public education.
We all want to provide the best education for all students in NH and we want a system of education funding that is fair to all. However this Republican-supported voucher program runs afoul of this belief.
This voucher system is rife with problems and has unnecessarily increased the challenges we face as we try to fund education. Vouchers are paid out of your tax dollars through the State Wide Education Property Tax, referred to as SWEPT. By the end of this year, about $45 million dollars will have been diverted from public education funding to this voucher program. Poorer school districts who rely on state adequacy funding have to make up that difference for their schools by raising their property taxes. For towns with excess SWEPT, the burden of filling that gap falls on state-wide taxes. I find the inequity of this to be more than challenging.
The voucher program enacted by the Republicans is the only state or federal program that lacks any guardrails to rein in spending. Originally we were told that the program was to help families who do not have the means to send their children to a private school. In fact, approximately 95% of the students receiving these vouchers were never in the public school system to begin with. This past year the Republicans tried to eliminate all financial limits on who is eligible for the program. Democrats were able to stop this effort but it will be back again next year.
Further families only have to apply to the program once regardless of how their financial situation changes over time. They can enroll their child as a kindergartener, and over the next few years see their earnings grow to a high six figure amount and yet continue to receive this money until their child graduates from high school.
There is an audit underway to look at oversight of this program. However Commissioner Edelblut refuses to provide any information regarding how the DOE is managing that oversight. The program is administered by an out-of-state 3rd party company which is allowed to take 10% of each voucher for themselves. While Edelblut has not provided any transparency with regards to the voucher program, there is some evidence that people outside of NH are receiving NH voucher money. Also, a sample audit indicated that at least 25% of the students who receive vouchers may not in fact qualify for them.
Although I would be very glad to see this program disappear entirely, I fear this horse has left the barn. That said, we must enact appropriate guardrails addressing eligibility, going back to the Republican’s original purpose to help students who need financial aid. Also, families should have to resubmit each year to ascertain that they are still eligible as they do with every other social support program. Further, there needs to be a cap on the maximum amount allotted in each year. At this time, there is no such cap.
I hope to continue my work in Concord on the Finance Committee, making sure that public tax dollars go to public education, protecting local control, preventing Republicans from enacting laws that downshift the state’s responsibility to local communities resulting in higher property taxes, protecting a woman’s right to make her own health care and reproductive decisions. I ask for your vote in order that I may do that, and to have the continued honor of representing your interests in Concord.
Kate Murray
New Castle
Support Michele Meyer for Maine House District 150 Representative
Oct. 24 − To the Editor:
As a concerned citizen, I am writing to express my strong support for Representative Michele Meyer in the upcoming election. Her deep experience, unwavering integrity, and genuine connection with her constituents make her an invaluable voice for our communities.
Michele Meyer not only understands the unique needs of the people she serves but actively works to address them. She exemplifies the values I hold dear—support for public education, reproductive freedom, ensuring communities are safe from gun violence, and a belief in addressing climate change. These Democratic values align with my own, and Rep. Meyer has consistently sponsored and voted for legislation that improves the lives of the people in our district.
I have urged several people experiencing challenges to reach out to Michele for help. And she helped each and every one of them. At a time when we need leaders who not only listen but act, Michele Meyer is the representative we can trust to continue standing up for the issues that matter most to us. I encourage others to join me in supporting her re-election.
Nicole St. Pierre
South Berwick, Maine
We are definitely better off under Biden than we were with Trump
Oct. 24 − To the Editor:
Are you better off than you were four years ago? Absolutely! Then, we were spinning through a treacherous pandemic, with the entire world population vulnerable, death rates escalating and a vaccine just introduced.
The world economy was paralyzed and economic infrastructures were reeling from supply chain and population lockdowns, with people avoiding contagion and infection.
Navigating through the turbulence of COVID was challenging as the Trump administration’s leadership remained rudderless and incompetent. As Biden accepted the handoff of leadership, he assembled experts in medicine and economics to right the ship. Democrats in Congress and the President created legislation to protect businesses, and provide relief for those who were left wageless. As medical science contained COVID, life was able to returning to normal.
Inflation is a natural consequence of economies restarting as supply chain shortages escalated prices. America’s economy bounced back first in the world and now is again leading the world in renewed prosperity. Our economy is now experiencing a soft landing, successfully avoiding an economic recession, and prices are lowering as normalcy returns.
Economic challenges still remain, including monopolistic price gouging, housing shortages and wealth sequestration by the upper 1%. The real question is, are your better off with corrupt crony capitalism or fair and honest capitalism?
Kenneth Cohen
Kensington
I’ll be non-partisan and solve real problems facing Seabrook and Hampton
Oct. 24 − To the Editor:
My thanks to Seacoastonline for publishing these letters. I appreciate the opportunity to ask my neighbors to vote for me on November 5 to represent Seabrook and Hampton in the NH House of Representatives.
This is my first time running for public office. If I am elected, I plan to bring my experience as a homeowner, parent, small business owner, and long-time Seacoast resident to the NH House. I moved my family and my business to the NH Seacoast twenty-three years ago. My daughter grew up here, I retired here, and we are very fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends in this beautiful part of New Hampshire.
In discussions with my neighbors, I keep hearing some consistent threads. One is that people are sick and tired of the partisan name-calling and culture wars in today’s politics. Our friends are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Regardless of party affiliation, most people just want to live reasonable lives, and be able to talk with their neighbors.
Another thread is the concern with local issues, that matter to people living and working here. The issues that come up most often are property taxes, public education, affordable childcare, healthcare protections, and housing. Those are the issues that I plan to work on, if I am sent to Concord. I plan to find like-minded Representatives, regardless of party, that I can work with.
It would be my honor to represent our area in the NH House. Thank you for considering me.
John Patrick Carty
Candidate, NH House of Representatives
Rockingham District 40, Seabrook and Hampton
Sununu is wrong, voters do care about Trump’s threats and misdeeds
Oct. 25 − To the Editor:
Chris Sununu said “I think one of the mistakes is if Kamala Harris thinks that they’re just repeating the crazy things Trump says is going to garner her those swing voters, that’s not what they’re going to the polls on.“ Well, this former Republican, who voted for Sununu and Ayotte in the past, sees Trump’s comments and the likelihood he’ll do what he says if elected as the top issue in this campaign. As I wrote publicly here, “I will never vote for anyone who supports Trump for President in 2024.” So yeah, I absolutely care about what Trump says, and that applies not only for President, but for every race on this year’s ballot, and in future elections. I don’t agree with much of the Democratic party positions, but that is trumped (pun intended) by rejection of the party that nominates a convicted felon who tried to overturn the 2020 election.
David Emery
Dover
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