As a New Hampshire native, longtime Concord resident and former Monitor editor, I’m writing to implore assignment editors and reporters at the Monitor and its sister papers to look hard at national political headlines, distill them to the local level and do their duty to connect the dots for readers. The recent article in the Valley News on cuts to federal National Institutes of Health grants and their impact on local institutions like Dartmouth College and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Environmental Laboratory is a good start — but what does it mean for your everyday reader? Why should they care?

Readers can Google United For Medical Research’s “NIH in Your State” interactive map to see that more than a half-dozen New Hampshire organizations and businesses receive nearly $130 million in NIH grants, grants that spur $301 million in statewide economic activity and support nearly 1,200 local jobs. Job losses, economic downturn and knock-on state budget cuts are some of the likely outcomes of the NIH grant funding cuts that will directly impact everyday Granite Staters’ wallets. To say nothing of stalled research into treatments and cures for heart disease, cancer and other illnesses that many of readers suffer. Please do better. Connect the dots.

Nancy Hendryx

Concord