Point of View - Manchester Ink Link

Manchganistan vs Manchvegas: Where do you live?

Thursday, February 5, 2026

I could tell a hundred stories like this, but you get the point. Manchester isn’t a scary place. Unless, maybe you scare easily. I make an effort to talk to everyone that approaches me, and not everyone wants to do that. I accepted money from a drunk woman when she saw me walking home with the cat I’d just rescued in a rainstorm. I learned French behind Cat Alley from a Congolese man on my lunch break. Maybe doing those things are risky behaviors. I think they are the bare minimum of accepting socialization when it offers itself to you.

The Soapbox: ‘This is not about public safety or deporting criminals’

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

The documents released yesterday by the ACLU of New Hampshire confirm what many of us have feared: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been actively planning to build a detention facility in Merrimack while avoiding transparency and public input.

Oh Groundhog, My Groundhog

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

The home of Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania is not easy to get to, either, not being on the way to someplace or other. You have to want to go there. And yes, about 10,000 souls descended on Punxsutawney yesterday, as they annually do, to bear witness to Phil the groundhog’s winter predictions.

Pedals & Pathways: No to $50 per bike, Racing in Berlin (Germany)

Monday, February 2, 2026

House Bill 1703 seemed to suffer a setback, but it may rear its head again, possibly in some revised form.

The Soapbox: Ballroom boondoggle

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Trump wants a ballroom citing national security and a simple argument: ballrooms are protected play spaces. The ballroom resembles a fenced sandbox. A $400,000 sandbox, but a sandbox, nonetheless. Guests can safely play. Trump exiled respectable reporters from the White House, so he’ll get positive coverage of his ballroom playdates. Is it necessary?

The Soapbox: Annual car inspections?

Saturday, January 31, 2026

The purpose of our NH car inspection system is safety – it is not a question of whether we should have an inspection system, but what kind of inspection system. It needs updating, not tossing out. I believe the newly proposed system includes a 3 year grace period for new cars where no inspections are necessary. Sounds very reasonable. Other such changes should be discussed.

An Existential Pug contemplates blind obedience

Thursday, January 29, 2026

The towel, I’m going to assume, fell from the rack this morning as The Blonde Woman and The Gray-Haired Man were hurrying to get ready for work—harrowed as they often are at 6:30 a.m. while I snooze on their bed—and failed to notice the towel on the tiled floor.

Bob Kerrigan

‘I’ on Sports: Spotlight on Bob Kerrigan, Part 1

Monday, January 26, 2026

Of equal importance is the fact that, the more we talked, the more we reminisced. The more we reminisced, the more information we shared. The more information we shared, the more things I realized that we had in common.

The Soapbox: Bob Baines and the quiet art of leading a city

Monday, January 26, 2026

Bob Baines’s greatest skill as mayor was to transform the daily details of running a city into something if not poetic then at least into something that transcended the smoke-filled backroom dealing city government is often associated with.

The Sun Still Rises: Immigration, civil rights, and Dr. King’s unfinished work

Monday, January 26, 2026

My journey from the Congo to the United States could only be possible here. Only in this country could someone arrive with little more than hope, determination, and faith in opportunity and begin to build a life. America made my story possible not because it is perfect, but because its promise insists that opportunity belongs to everyone.

That promise aligns deeply with the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Soapbox: NH voters – help reduce polarization by supporting these bills

Monday, January 26, 2026Monday, January 26, 2026

If there’s one thing most people will agree on it is that we are a polarized country. And the same is true for NH. For those who still believe there is hope (and I am one of those), there are some bills coming up in the legislature designed to diminish polarization and enfranchise voters – particularly Undeclared voters (about 40%, at this time). The bills are about replacing a two-party ballot system and moving to a single ballot (for the primary election).

Remembering a decent man

Sunday, January 25, 2026

I’m usually not one to wax philosophical about politicians, but there is one who stands out and played a pretty important role at a key moment in my life.

Manchester’s Bob Baines passed away Friday. He was the city’s mayor from 2000-2006.

Learning hurts

Saturday, January 24, 2026

I can see clearly through text that many of my classmates are using AI to write their answers. It has a distinct voice that you can spot from a mile away once you learn how to notice it. Repeated phrases with this fake-deep intensity that isn’t necessarily inappropriate, but a little weird for a 5-point response to a participation grade.

The Urban Hippie: Thanks to Bob Weir the music never stopped

Saturday, January 24, 2026

I had planned to write this column a few months from now but real life happens and a moment presents itself. Bobby Weirs’ recent passing made me want to write this sooner rather than later.

Writing a book is an act of insanity

Saturday, January 24, 2026Thursday, January 22, 2026

I have a new excuse not to start the novel I’m planning to write: The Pats won, and I won a few bets on DraftKings. I can’t write today, I need to celebrate.

The Soapbox: NAACP’s mission includes ensuring equality of all; segregated schools of any sort have never done that

Thursday, January 22, 2026Wednesday, January 21, 2026

With this in mind, we invite the state representatives who made what many believe are discriminatory statements to a meeting to discuss their motivations and intent with their comments and how they align, or not, with the ideals for which this nation was founded and how they serve, or not, to eliminate the inequities that exist in our society.

The Soapbox: Improving public comment at meetings through clear communication

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

While Rule 3 gives residents the opportunity to address the Board, once public comment concludes there is no structured opportunity for the Mayor or Aldermen to respond until much later in the meeting, often under New Business, if it happens at all.

The Soapbox: Support NH HB 1831 to correct ‘deeply inequitable’ policy targeting Manchester schools

Monday, January 19, 2026

Manchester is New Hampshire’s largest school district and serves many of the State’s most disadvantaged, and most vulnerable children. HB 1831 removes the cap on the State’s education aid – a cap that applies ONLY to Manchester. Under current law, this cap will strip at least $10 million annually in anticipated and fully warranted funding from our district beginning next year.

The Soapbox: On MLK Day, New Hampshire must defend the role of public schools in our democracy

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Republican leadership in New Hampshire, including the Governor, must decide whether it is appropriate for someone who has expressed support for segregating students for any reason to be the leading voice on education in the State House. That is not a rhetorical question. It goes to the heart of what public education is meant to be.

The Soapbox: New Hampshire is normalizing the unthinkable

Monday, January 19, 2026Sunday, January 18, 2026

A year into Donald Trump’s second term, friends who live outside the United States still reach out in disbelief. Is it really that bad? Are you safe? I usually answer with a shrug. Not because things are fine — but because, like so many Americans, I’ve learned how quickly the unacceptable becomes routine.

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