Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

To the Editor: This month Roe, the landmark Supreme Court case which ruled that the right to choose an abortion was protected by the Constitution, would have turned 50. We should have been celebrating 50 years of legal abortion, but unfortunately, this past June a conservative Supreme Court struck down this critical precedent. As a result, more than half of our states have imposed harmful abortion bans and restrictions, leaving millions of people without access. It’s important to note that as reproductive justice advocates, we have always believed that Roe should be the floor not the ceiling. Even during the Roe era, abortion was not …

Read moreWe Must Fight For Reproductive Justice

To NBC, MSNBC and other media outlets (N.H. newspapers): Since Donald Trump has announced he is running for President in 2024 and there have been many indications in the past reporting that he has been intending to run, why have you not consulted your legal experts, on the air, like Neil Katyal, Jill Wine Banks, Glenn Kirschner and others, why is he being allowed to run when he is clearly disqualified Constitutionally from holding the office of President? See the 14th Amendment, “Citizenship Equal Protection of Citizenship and other Rights of Citizenship,” enacted in 1866, Section 3, “Disqualification for Holding Office,” which says in part, …

Read moreDamn Good Question

To the Editor: It is now clear that former Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand (a Democrat, who now resides in Rye) attempted to manipulate and influence the 2021 Municipal Elections in Portsmouth and committed several campaign violations in the process. This information is contained in an October 6, 2022 report issued by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office. The report seems to indicate that their investigation has not been completed in its entirety. What is not clear so far from this report is who are the other four unnamed individuals involved and who was Mr. Marchand’s client that provided the funding for this effort against five …

Read moreCity’s 2021 Municipal Elections Tainted

As we had anticipated—not having recently fallen off a turnip truck—the mid-term elections prompted a flood of correspondence on that vitally important topic. Unfortunately, mid-term elections are not timed to mesh well with our publishing schedule. We will write to Mr. Pappas soon, and ask if he can do something about this rude oversight. This unfortunate asynchrony left us with lots of letters urging voters not to make a terrible situation even more dire—none of which we would be able to publish until long after the matter was out of our readers’ hands. Such times test the mettle of an editor. Those of us born …

Read moreA Note on Letters, Timing, and History

To the Editor: In the lobby of the movie theater last weekend—Oct 22nd—A woman came up to me and said “Are you Viola Davis?! I can’t believe that Viola is here in Newington!” I was somewhat stunned, but not surprised. Although I don’t look a thing like Viola Davis aside from my skin color I have been somehow been mistaken for; Oprah, Whoopi and Halle Berry to name a few. Later, as I was discussing the movie we had just seen with my family the same woman came up to me again insisting that I was Viola Davis. Both times my attitude was conciliatory, but …

Read moreAll Black People are Not the Same