Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

by Robert C. Koehler Our post-election hope couldn’t be more fragile. Does Joe Biden see his mission as merely reclaiming “situation normal” from Donald Trump? How aware is he of the big, beyond-our-lifetimes future and the crucial need to address climate change? Is he able to acknowledge that human interests go well beyond national borders? And if so, how much political traction would he have to have before he could begin turning vision into policy? A recent bit of news: The House just voted overwhelmingly in favor of the 2021 Pentagon budget: $740.5 billion. The vote was 335-78. More Democrats than Republicans gave it their …

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To the Editor: The refusal by the Supreme Court to consider Texas Attorney General Paxton’s bogus suit to void the presidential election results for four battleground states was greeted with relief by most Americans. The decision should guarantee that the validity of Joe Biden’s election will not be challenged by more baseless lawsuits. Few expect, however, that Trump will ever accept the fact that he lost the election and it is apparent that he will continue to loudly proclaim his fantasies of election fraud. Trump’s intransigence is no surprise. Many pundits including his psychologist niece had predicted that he would never acknowledge defeat and would …

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To the Editor: Oh man, what a mess our democracy is in! It was a mess before Trump and the pandemic but it’s a bigger mess now—we can all agree on that right? What we need now, and what we’ve needed for decades, is to rebuild our democracy through the community rights movement. This is also called “community organizing” and the objective is to build citizen action groups in every town and community that informs and empowers We the People to take control of our ecosystems and government. “We have the best politicians that money can buy,” said Will Rogers 100 years ago, and it’s …

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by James A. Haught Americans who say their religion is “none” delivered the White House to the Biden-Harris Democratic ticket in the 2020 election. That’s the conclusion of a top socio-political researcher, Dr. Ryan Burge of Eastern Illinois University. “I think that Joe Biden should thank the ‘nones’ for being the president-elect right now,” Dr. Burge wrote for the Religion in Public website. “Nones” generally hold compassionate social values, thus they’ve become the largest faith segment in the Democratic Party base. Dr. Burge outlined how they’re a powerhouse progressive-liberal political force in America. “Half of white liberals today identify as religiously unaffiliated,” he said. He …

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Dear Editor: I’ve just read Holderness resident Ty Gagne’s new book, The Last Traverse: Tragedy and Resilience in the Winter Whites. I bought additional copies for Christmas gifts, going to both Gibson’s in Concord and Innisfree Bookstore in Meredith. Other New Hampshire bookstores should carry it. Ty’s career is in risk management. His new book is about a hike gone tragically wrong on Mt. Lafayette. An earlier book, Where You’ll Find Me: Risk, Decisions, and the Last Climb of Kate Matrosova, emphasizes risk awareness. Both tell riveting stories of real people, and what can go wrong when terrible weather conditions change everything during winter hikes. …

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“The Declaration of Independence announces the sublime truth, that all power comes from the people. This was a denial, and the first denial of a nation, of the infamous dogma that God confers the right upon one man to govern others. It was the first grand assertion of the dignity of the human race. It declared the governed to be the source of power, and in fact denied the authority of any and all gods. Through the ages of slavery—through the weary centuries of the lash and chain, God was the acknowledged ruler of the world. To enthrone man, was to dethrone God.” – Robert …

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