Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence
Experiencing White Privilege
To the Editor: I very much appreciated Curtis Springer’s August 22nd [Portsmouth] Herald letter explaining how he would describe white privilege. A small example from my life is that I was at a yard gathering in Rye a number of weeks ago. I had evidently parked in a place on the road that wasn’t designated as safe for oncoming traffic. Midway into the gathering, I saw the lights of a police car. I knew immediately what the problem was. I moved my car. Incident done. Neither the policeman nor I was threatened by the other. I am a white, graying, middle class woman, and he …
High Praise From an Expert
Generally we are not inclined to toot our own bosun’s whistle. In this case, though, we’ll make a happy exception. Our Tidal Guide for September 21st included this item: “1989—The Chase Manhattan Bank accepts for deposit a check sent as a prank by Spy Magazine. Endorsed by ‘short-fingered vulgarian’ Donald J. Trump, it’s for $0.13.” On Wednesday, this showed up on Twitter: “The ‘this day in history’ feature in the @NHGazette is the best I’ve ever seen—and not just because one of their events for yesterday was Donald Trump in 1989 becoming the only rich American of the dozens to whom Spy sent increasingly tiny …
Senator Susan Collins?
Dear Sir: It was with great disappointment that Allan Kerr, a person I almost always agree with, has decided to continue to support Senator Susan Collins. In his September 20th opinion piece, Mr. Kerr seemed to overlook many of the times Sen. Collins has supported Donald Trump in ways that were contrary to the best interests of Maine and America. He gave a great deal of credit for supporting the Bath Iron Works (BIW) and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY). He also praised the Senator for her support of the Thresher Memorial. It took absolutely no political courage on her part, or cost her any …
Fear Is All Trump Has
Dear Sir: Fear is a very powerful emotion, one that causes otherwise rational people to make irrational decisions. No one knows this better than Donald Trump and the Republican Party. They have used fear for decades to get voters to support them. The Lee Atwater/Willie Horton ads against Michael Dukakis, in the George H.W. Bush Presidential campaign in 1988, were very effective in getting people to vote for Mr. Bush. Now, in 2020, Donald Trump is using fear to sway the election in his favor. Considering that he has no other accomplishment to run on, fear is the only tool available to him. He cannot …