Local voices chime in on a variety of topics.
For some musicians, I suppose, this dangerously long period of time off playing live due to COVID has led them down some strange avenues.
I am writing to make you aware of the COVID-19 heroes in your community. For nine months now, I have had the good fortune of working with these professionals and incredibly giving people as we collaborated to secure scarce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for VA healthcare workers and the Veterans they care for.
This is very tough as a young father trying to figure out how to co-parent in the pandemic. At first, it felt like the country would band together in a “We Americans vs the World” type of mentality, but all it has been is “America vs America.”
While decorating the house, they would blast Christmas music—I’m currently considering legal action against Mariah Carey—then spend the rest of the day watching the abject inanity of Christmas movies on The Hallmark Channel, which recycles the same essential plot from November until New Year’s Eve with myriad arrays of three-dimensional characters.
Cats in cahoots as they analyze the tomato harvest this Thanksgiving.
The pandemic has turned things upside down – forcing us to make countless adjustments – big and small, in every aspect of our lives. For many of us, it means that to keep our family and community safe, we are foregoing many of our Thanksgiving traditions this year. But while you and your family are doing everything that you can to stay safe, I hope you are also finding new ways to enjoy this special time of year.
The biggest factor in my success is the support system that I have, and my hope is that people who are being released back into society have a similar support system. This is monumental in making the crossover into a pro-social and crime-free life.
The following is a letter to New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, re-published with permission.
I know. Every family has its idiosyncrasies. Everyone has the strange relative who shows up to dinner with a boa constrictor wound around their neck, or the red-eyed drunken uncle who has been looking for discarded Donald Trump ballots in the streams and dumpsters of Pennsylvania. But here’s my family’s strange contribution.
No matter how much compassion is shown by volunteers, no matter how often police officers report to a call, no matter how many shelter beds are open, unless the fundamental problems surrounding poverty and homelessness change, things aren’t going to improve. Fatality prevention just isn’t enough.
Frank Edelblut is Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education.
With all of New Hampshire a COVID-19 hotspot, and with the seven-day totals of confirmed cases continuing to rise at a crazy pace, I’ve made the personally devastating decision to celebrate Thanksgiving at home, with no guests.
At least that’s what the bands paying tribute to AC/DC this Saturday at the Rex Theatre hope to witness from the stage. The Jonny Friday Band will join forces with The Graniteers for a slew of deep cuts and hits from each era of the band. Songs like “Shoot To Thrill,” “Thunderstruck” and “Whole Lotta A Rosie” are on the docket to be played.
Over the past two days, nearly 100 community members across the state of New Hampshire have come together to stand in solidarity to protect and conserve the rights and property of the homeless people who live in the encampment at 300 Chestnut St in Manchester, NH. We have been able to prevent the illegal eviction of the community living here for over two days.
Property taxes are like a “Shoe Tax” (every year you must pay taxes AGAIN for every pair of footwear), or a Fridge Tax (ditto). Why don’t we pay tax every 12 months on EVERYTHING we own? A Pants Tax! Heck, why don’t the Dem-publicans and Sununu go all the way and give us an Elbow Tax or Eyeball Tax, which we’d pay every year for the privilege of having two eyes!
There are lots of industrial buildings for sale around the state right now because, hey, times have been rough. Some of them seem ideal for a longer-term solution to stabilizing the unsheltered. In advance, I want to say that I’m working off a commercial properties Real Estate listing site called LoopNet, and maybe some of these properties are already in negotiation or spoken for. These are just some obvious examples.
There are the weak, the weary, the beset, the impaired, and the just plain poor, all struggling to even hope; there is very rarely the one who can but won’t. Most often there are reasons for homelessness, variables and factors which are personal, interpersonal, and systemic. Who chooses homelessness? Who would choose that as a way of life? Let us be reasonable.
Now these bums are being shoved in our faces, camping out in our beautiful parks and hurting our businesses in the downtown area. So you pay over $100 a night at a new hotel to look at a disgusting homeless camp, complete with people defecating in plain view? Have our city leaders lost sight of what’s best for our city, of what’s best for our hard-working people who pay taxes and make our downtown a place to shop, eat, and walk safely?
We can take an important step forward in honoring the sacrifices of service members and veterans, and bring people together, by building a Global War on Terrorism Memorial on the National Mall.
