Local voices chime in on a variety of topics.
After the Revolutionary War and the establishment of this country, only a very few wealthy white men enjoyed the right to vote and own property. Has the Union Leader forgotten the Civil War, the civil rights movement, and women rallying for the right to vote? If “all men” always meant “all people” as the Union Leader suggests, why were these movements necessary?
The following is a letter to the editor from State Representative Heidi Hamer (D-Hillsborough 17)
As business leaders who want to see Manchester bounce back stronger from the impacts of the pandemic, we are encouraged that the proposed plan allocates funds both strategically and in a targeted manner to key areas of opportunity and investment.
I’m talking about letting the Led out, a full day filled with sundry substances and the music of the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin cranked up real loud.
With summer here, Manchester residents are spending more time outside, walking city streets or biking through their neighborhoods. Unfortunately, more needs to be done to make sure people across the city can safely enjoy this time outside their homes.
We are in crisis. It has become nearly impossible to find paid caregivers. Every day people with disabilities and older adults across our state are stuck in their beds or chairs, are left to go hungry or in their own filth because those who might help them just can’t afford to.
But, alas, the heatwave and June are behind us, and as now we prepare to celebrate ‘Merica by grilling animal flesh, drinking our body weight in booze and blowing stuff up, here is this month’s homage to great Providence Journal former-columnist Bill Reynolds.
My daughter has found a lucky rock.
It is breathtaking to me to hear the neighbors talk about what it will mean to their suburban “whites only” utopia, from loss of property value to “bringing hoards of colored people” to the area, to the fear that their children will “have to marry n—–s.”
Why has this happened? I guess I can accept my wife’s statement about fashion being cyclical, but as a human species, we also need to learn from history and not repeat our most egregious mistakes.
I hope that these ideas start discussions that will lead to great things happening in our city. I believe that with the right partnerships, with citizen involvement, and with support and action from our elected officials, these ideas – and more – can become reality.
My fatherhood experience is both grueling and beautiful. It’s both a learning and teaching experience. It’s pain and love. My deepest fears and insecurities arise as I look at our vulnerability in what can be an ugly society at times. This isn’t 1950 Mississippi, but we are a family of color in New Hampshire. Although Manchester is pretty diverse, I would still feel out of place venturing into territories that may have hostility towards us
My family and I fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998 when I was 8 years old. The country was in the midst of a civil war and there was widespread violence. My father was assassinated and my mother, fearing for her life, escaped with nothing but her four sons. We lived in a refugee camp in the country of Benin, in West Africa, for the next two years. Benin also happens to have been a major hub in the transatlantic slave trade. For many Africans, their last sight of Africa was the Benin shore from the confines of a slave ship. My own journey to America was a miracle. It was a second chance at life for my family.
As a longtime public school English teacher, I have a vested interest in whether this bill becomes a law. As someone trained in the law, I have profound reservations about its constitutionality. And as an active citizen in my community, I fear the bill will be used for nefarious partisan purposes that will have a significant chilling effect on the open exchange of ideas that is so critical to cultivating the next generation of active citizens, an outcome that I suspect is actually an objective of the bill’s sponsors.
The following is a letter to the editor.
The fact that low-income and minority people are concentrated into environmentally burdened communities shouldn’t be a surprise. Decades of federal, state, and local policies like neighborhood redlining and transportation disinvestment, combined with a lack of interest to act from those in power, have led us to where we are today. But just because that is the way things worked in the past does not mean it has to be our future.
Manchester Memorial High School’s Class of 2021 valedictorian is brilliant and beautiful, and witty and wonderful. Oh, and she’s my daughter.
Of the approximately 20 residents of the Bucket, we helped about 16 of them move somewhere else in the woods, three of them still have no idea where they’re going, and one of them took a shelter bed with special conditions. If the city’s goal was to move these residents into a shelter, and only 5 percent of them did so, I’d say the city failed. If the city’s goal was to make the lives harder for 19 residents, I’d say they succeeded. As a consequentialist, the city’s intent doesn’t matter to me, only the results, which was more pain and suffering.
In keeping with my monthly homage — or as long as my gnat-like attention span will maintain it — to a literary icon and one of my idols, retired Providence Journal columnist Bill Reynolds, here are some things to ponder as we swing into the summer season and, hopefully, a full return to normalcy soon.
How were we to know that Jade would become our true test of mindfulness, a workshop in patience and an example of the self as a wholly contained entity existing outside the reciprocity of connection. In other words, loving Jade, for my daughter, has become unrequited, and we’ve all had to learn to live with that.