NH residents and voters are beginning to understand the insidious influence of the Free State movement. In the town of Croydon, a special meeting was held to re-instate the school budget after a group of Free Staters cut it by more than 50%. In Grafton they defunded the library and police. In Belknap County there is a movement to privatize the county home eliminating an affordable option for many seniors and their families. The FS movement was behind the effort to privatize the profitable Gunstock Ski Area which was reducing the local tax burden. Gunstock was a wake up call for Belknap County, but all New Hampshire residents should pay attention.
In the guise of, and with, the Republican party, they introduced restrictive laws on reproductive rights, public school funding and curriculum and interference between doctor/client privacy. Recently, the FS’s published a list of churches they identified as “woke.” Merriam Webster defines this as “actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” This will inevitably lead to more partisan extremism.The Free Staters forced a vote in Concord to secede from the U.S. A small, strident group with their own agenda can dictate what our state and personal lives will be like only if we allow it. Voters need to learn what candidates in their districts are espousing and vote in the primary and on election day for what is best for our communities.
Lucy Wyman
Lancaster