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This goes out to all you camp swim class drop-outs

read more…: This goes out to all you camp swim class drop-outs

I admit that I learned to swim when I was 50. Yes, I had gone to numerous day and overnight camps during my youth, each summer entering the programs already apprehensive about swimming classes where it wasn’t “free swim” but, gasp, swimming lessons. After all those years, I never “graduated” out of the beginner’s class. Never. Did you hear me? NEVER! Kicking? Okay. Arms rotating in the water? Okay. Head underwater? No way! I had my eyes closed tight not able to see anything and that’s as far as it went. Deep water over my head so I couldn’t stand up?  I’d rather jump off a mountain — with my eyes wide open.

The Soapbox: Regarding HB 1205, all children deserve protection from adults who intend to harm them

read more…: The Soapbox: Regarding HB 1205, all children deserve protection from adults who intend to harm them

I was a teacher for 15 years. I taught thousands of students on three continents. Until 2019, I had never met a “transgender” child. Ten years ago, no one would have told a child they can change their biological sex with blockers, opposite-sex hormones, and surgeries. Now, anyone who challenges that idea is subjected to ridicule, called a bigot, transphobe or worse.

The Soapbox: You can’t divide us – transgender athletes have a right to play

read more…: The Soapbox: You can’t divide us – transgender athletes have a right to play

HB 1205 is a transgender-exclusionary sports ban that would prohibit trans athletes in grades 5 through 12 from playing sports in New Hampshire public schools and clubs despite the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association saying “that it would be fundamentally unjust” to ban trans athletes from participating.

More retail for an even greater downtown Manchester

read more…: More retail for an even greater downtown Manchester

Although we love the city and the Downtown area, there is one thing that we would like to see more of…retail. Downtown Manchester has a good array of eateries and bars, but it is lacking retail. There is of course some retail but not a lot. Downtown Manchester was once a mecca of retail (as a planned city much of the retail, restaurants, and banks were on Elm Street to accommodate the workers of the nearby Amoskeag mills). But as we know, many retailers moved to malls or the areas near malls (like South Willow Street) as the automobile became more accessible and people were willing and able to travel for goods. 

Darkness Visible

read more…: Darkness Visible

I’m 71 years young but got a PTSD diagnosis only a decade ago after a month of troubling dreams and awake auras. I’m here to tell you that repressed memories are a real thing. My seminal events of abuse occurred when I was 6 years old. I was diagnosed with OCD/depression when I was 19, a typical age for the onset of mental illness. I learned only recently that about two-thirds of people who have PTSD also have some level of OCD.

Yard work and a communist manifesto

read more…: Yard work and a communist manifesto

My stomach sunk as I remembered. I remembered committing to rake the stupid refuse in our stupid yard and pack it in the stupid lawn bags then mow the stupid lawn. I remembered agreeing to help sweep our stupid patio and pull the stupid weeds growing in the stupid cracks between the stupid bricks.

The Soapbox: New Hampshire, it’s time to acknowledge the YDC stories of suffering

read more…: The Soapbox: New Hampshire, it’s time to acknowledge the YDC stories of suffering

I was a child protection service worker (CPSW) at the Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) back in the 1990s. I’m now a farmer at the Manchester Food Bank’s one-acre garden located on the grounds of the Youth Development Center, colloquially known as the Youth Detention Center.

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