Opinion: Black sites are us

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.

Opinion: Not in my country

By JOHN BUTTRICK

John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

Opinion: DOGE's reckless cuts imperil our national parks, forests and wildlife refuges

By JOHN PLONSKI

John Plonski was a finalist for the 2023 Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize for the Promotion of Conservation. He is a former executive of Pennsylvania’s state park and forest systems. While a student at Franklin Pierce University, he served as an assistant to the superintendents at two New Hampshire state parks.

Opinion: Reconsider House Bill 352, forbidding firearms at polling places

By JOHN D. BUTTRICK

Rev. John D. Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

Opinion: Bad plan, wrong place

By NANCY MORRISON

Nancy Carbonneau Morrison resides in Mont Vernon and Whitefield. She believes we all rise or fall at the protection or peril of one another.

Opinion: Gov. Ayotte should veto anti-trans bills

By BRUCE LARSON

Bruce Larson lives in Albany.

Opinion: School board members implore: Don’t expand EFAs

By WENDY REGA, ANDREA SHEPARD, MOLLY ST. JEANNE, CANDICE O’NEIL and SARAH ELLIOTT

Wendy Rega, Andrea Shepard, Molly St. Jeanne, Candice O’Neil and Sarah Elliott are members of the SAU90 (Hampton) School Board, which voted unanimously to submit a letter, reprinted here, in opposition to House Bill 115. Their letter is co-signed by members of the SAU 50 (Rye) School Board.

Opinion: Stillness

By JEAN STIMMELL

Jean Stimmell is a retired stone mason and psychotherapist living in Northwood. He blogs at jeanstimmell.blogspot.com and jstim.substack.com.

Opinion: The attack on federal workers

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.

Opinion: An attack on the legal profession is an attack on us all

By JOSEPH D. STEINFIELD

Attorney Joseph D. Steinfield lives in Keene and Jaffrey. He can be reached at joe@joesteinfield.com.

Opinion: Delivering terror by email

By RICHARD MINARD

Richard Minard is executive director of Building Community in New Hampshire, a nonprofit organization based in Manchester that works statewide to help refugees and other immigrants navigate their way to safe, healthy, prosperous, and productive lives in New Hampshire.

Opinion: HealthTrust's decision to drop anti-obesity medications is a step back in the fight against a chronic disease

By JOSEPH ZUCCHI

Joseph Zucchi is a physician assistant and clinical supervisor at Transition Medical Weight Loss in Salem.

Letter: Legislators support animal torture

On March 11, the New Hampshire House Environment and Agriculture Committee voted to kill HB 152, which would have prohibited the sale and use of adhesive-based rodent traps, commonly called glue traps. The committee disregarded the hundreds of citizens who urged them to pass this bill. They didn’t care about the obscene cruelty of these traps, that the animals stuck in the glue die slowly, in agonizing pain, from starvation dehydration or suffocation. They dismissed the many more humane, non-chemical options available for rodent control. They ignored the advice of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department that glue traps should be avoided. They disregarded testimony from wildlife rehabilitation professionals about the non-target animals often captured in glue traps, including squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, skunks, bats, songbirds, snakes, salamanders, toads, turtles, frogs and even kittens and puppies. They scoffed at the many New Hampshire Statutes and Administrative rules that contradict the use of glue traps, such as RSA 206-19:B, which states that any person who causes a wild animal, fish or wild bird to be tortured or mutilated, either purposely or negligently, is guilty of a Class B felony or a misdemeanor respectively. The members of the committee who voted against HB 152 are: Representatives Judy Aron, Barbara Comtois, Catherine Kenny, Seth King, Laurence Miner, Kevin Scully, Kelley Potenza, Liz Barbour and Lisa Freeman. If you care about animals, please contact these legislators and tell them that torturing and mutilating animals is not acceptable in our state.

Letter: The sellout of Ukraine

Three decades ago, the newly independent country of Ukraine was briefly the third-largest nuclear power in the world. Thousands of nuclear arms had been left in Ukraine by Moscow after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Eventually, Ukraine made the decision to completely denuclearize. In exchange, the U.S., the U.K. and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine was told at the time that the Western powers — certainly at least the United States and Great Britain — take their political commitments very seriously. This was a document signed at the highest level by the heads of state. The implication was Ukraine would not be left to stand alone to face a threat should it come under one. But treaties, agreements, promises, handshakes mean nothing to #47 (who never served): Those are for losers and suckers, even if their violation means destroying the underpinnings of an albeit imperfect world order that kept a modicum of peace, at least in the West. And we can always argue about who really started the war in Ukraine! Instead of a shining city on a hill for all the world to see, America is revealed as a fair-weather friend, never to be trusted again. Oh, and even if you think we’ve sacrificed enough of our “blood and treasure” for a bunch of ingrates, why would any country or state now engage in nuclear disarmament or not want to become a nuclear power?

Letter: So many issues

Since the circus came to the White House, there are so many things happening I can’t keep track. A car show in the front driveway with only one vendor there. I wonder what the other car manufacturers thought about being left out. They’ve been engineering cars and trucks, retooling factories and building battery manufacturing facilities. Why were they left out? Aren’t they also great companies with smart people? I guess not. One question that keeps coming back to me and hasn’t been in the news recently is: What happened to TikTok? Both branches of the legislature passed bi-partisan legislation calling for TikTok to be shut down due to national security concerns. TikTok fought it all the way to the Supreme Court and the court upheld the law agreeing it was in the national interest to remove TikTok. In February, for about 6-8 hours, TikTok went dark. However, through an executive order, it was brought back for 30 days so the “smartest man” on the planet could find a buyer. I haven’t heard if there’s a buyer or even an interested party. 30 days have passed — shouldn’t the law be upheld? This is another example of President Trump thumbing his nose at the other co-equal branches of our government.

Letter: Welcome to Trump’s America

Welcome to Trump’s Amerikkka: Experience racism, inequality, hate and violence at your leisure. Fascism is not being called for what it is, but you, too, will have a chance to experience it firsthand. Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for you, your children, your grandchildren and generations to come. The question becomes what we would like to see rise from the ashes.

Letter: Medicaid is critical for families like mine

It’s easy to overlook the importance of Medicaid until you or someone you love needs it. For our family, Medicaid is essential for our physical, emotional and financial well-being. One of our twin sons was diagnosed in utero with a congenital heart defect, which has led to numerous medical and developmental challenges. Without Medicaid, he would be severely limited in the amount of speech, occupational and physical therapy he could receive. Private insurance only covers a fraction of what he needs. Medicaid ensures that he can see all 14 of his specialists at Boston Children’s Hospital without us having to worry about sacrificing the best care for financial reasons. It covers necessary testing, surgeries and procedures that help keep him stable. Recently, the company I had been working at for over 10 years closed, leaving us reliant on my husband’s insurance. As his employer is a small company with limited coverage options, the costs are unaffordable. I have been searching for work, but it is nearly impossible to find a job that allows me to care for our one child’s medical and developmental needs. If we lost Medicaid for our medically complex child, we would be financially devastated — or worse, forced to sacrifice his health. Families like ours should not have to fight to keep the care that allows our children to survive and thrive. I urge policymakers to protect Medicaid and recognize its life-changing impact.

Letter: This has to stop

Stop, stop, stop — this has to stop! The president is trying to dumb down the nation by essentially blackmailing educational institutions at all levels if they do not comply with his orders. His latest targets are the Department of Education and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The benefit of cutting programs is nil, nada, nothing. In New Hampshire, the IMLS survives with federal funding for the InterLibraryLoan services. We need this program to educate readers all over the state. Programs for the blind and disabled are being targeted. We are not a nation of white Christian men and their dependents. The United States is a multi-ethnic, multicultural country that thrives on diversity and welcomes all peoples. The courts, Congress and the legislature need to uphold our freedoms. And the people must speak out and protest!

Letter: Only one mom goes to jail

As the State House crawls with controversy over parental rights, I, a state representative, am going to be faced with a vote that you might help me with: Which mom goes to jail for egregious child abuse? Here are two real-time scenarios going on in this country, with details slightly altered to protect the innocent. One mother decides that her two sons, ages 4 and 1, are actually daughters and begins to display them as daughters. As she’s a lawyer, and as the young men grow to adapt to the role the mother assigned and to become the best young women they can be, she forces the district to acknowledge her choice as “current science and mandated practice.” The other mother is told by her concerned neighbor that her fourteen-year-old daughter “identifies” as a boy. When asked, the daughter says she’s gone confused to counselors and health teachers at school who taught her that this was normal and that she could be whatever she chose. The mother called the school to complain that her daughter had been “groomed” and to ask why no one had called her. She prepared to find a lawyer to pursue a lawsuit. The lawyer whose two sons were daughters refused to take the case. Is either mom in this scenario an abuser worthy of loss of custody and imprisonment? You decide. Thank you in advance. And, if it really matters anymore, predict each child’s future. This is the 21st century.

Letter: Cancer treatment plans should be unique