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Remembering Gail Mills

To the Editor: The Community Rights Movement in New England is grieving the loss of a water protector. Gail Mills of Nottingham, N.H., passed away this month, having paid forward a legacy of community activism that inspired local activists across the country. Townspeople in Nottingham faced their Goliath in the mid-2000’s when USA Springs, LLC management decided to extract and bottle water from a local aquifer, to sell overseas in Italy. Gail and her husband, Chris, encouraged the community to stand their ground and do everything within their power to prevent permits from being issued by the state. What they learned through infuriating experience was …

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The Pearl to become Sovereign Souls Fellowship

After decades serving other purposes, the building which housed the first Black church in New Hampshire may become the home of its newest. A community calling itself New Friends of the Pearl is working to raise funds to purchase the building at the corner of Pearl and Hanover streets in Portsmouth. If they succeed, they will lease the property to the Sovereign Souls Fellowship African Methodist Episcopal Church, under the leadership of Rev. Robert H. Thompson. A bronze plaque affixed to the building by the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail gives the following brief history: “In 1915 the congregation of People’s Baptist Church, which had been …

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Fri, Oct 22

1987—At Yoken’s, noted buffoon Donald Trump speaks before a credulous Portsmouth Rotary Club. 1979—With an OK from Jimmy Carter, the Shah of Iran enters the U.S. for medical treatment, triggering chaos. 1968—To improve the odds of his re-election, Richard Nixon tells H.R. Haldeman to “monkey wrench” negotiations to end the Vietnam War. 1967—KGB agent Manfred Ramminger steals a Sidewinder missile from Neuburg AFB, takes it off-base in a wheelbarrow, drives away with it sticking out the back of his Mercedes, and mails it, dismantled, to Moscow. 1963—Fed up with accurate reporting, JFK asks “Punch” Sulzberger to assign Times’ David Halberstam anywhere but Vietnam. It doesn’t …

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Thurs, Oct 21

1975—In the 12th inning, New Hampshire’s own Carlton Fisk waves the ball fair, and the Red Sox win Game 6 of the World Series. 1967—Yippies, Diggers, & Hippies try but fail to levitate the Pentagon. 1966—A mountain of mine waste collapses onto a school in Wales, killing 28 adults and 116 children. 1965—Lyndon Johnson flashes his gall bladder scar for photographers. 1957—Special Forces Capt. Harry Cramer becomes the 2nd American killed by hostile action in Vietnam. His death is falsely listed as accidental. 1954—Indiana’s Boxing Commission says boxers and wrestlers must swear an oath they’re not Commies before they can fight in the Hoosier State. …

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Wed, Oct 20

2011—Brotherly Leader Muammar Ghadaffi is rather unceremoniously dispatched by Libyan rebels. 2005—Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) nixes an increase in Federal home heating aid for the poor. 1990—In 22 cities, Americans protest the impending Gulf War. 1983—Reagan inks the Conn. Indian Land Claims Settlement Act recognizing the Mashantucket Pequots. 1973—After A.G. Eliot Richardson and Deputy A.G. William Ruckelshaus refuse on principle to comply with President Nixon’s order to fire Special Prosecuter Archibald Cox, Solicitor General Robert Bork, who is not so encumbered, complies. 1967—Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin shoot 24 feet of film purporting to show a Sasquatch walking along a streambed in northern California. 1947—HUAC …

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