Portsmouth needs to limit terms of HDC members; lots about Trump and Hitler: Letters

Portsmouth HDC rejects modest solar panels; approves non-conforming architecture downtown

Dec. 21 − To the Editor:

The Portsmouth HDC has denied solar panels to a New Castle Street residence, but it has approved the building of the Hearth on Daniel Street. The solar panels should have been a no brainer in the affirmative. How is The Hearth even remotely in character for Portsmouth's Historic District?

Also, awhile ago there was an HDC objection to a door replacement on South Street to a house that is not even visible from the road, but yet The Hearth ?

I feel there should be a limit to time served on the HDC. Some people have been on this committee for decades. The times they are a changin'.

Susan Seiden

Portsmouth

Trump sounds a lot like Adolph Hitler

Dec. 21 − To the Editor:

Trump insists he has not read Mein Kampf.  This may be true but, perhaps, not the point.  Scholars justifiably read it to study the mind of a sociopath.  It helps them see warning signs before someone becomes a dictator with power to enforce his demented view of the world. That is, before it’s too late.

Non-scholarly people with anger issues and sociopathic tendencies read Mein Kampf as a how-to book. They read it to have their master, Hitler, show them the way.  But that “way” ended poorly for everyone. At the end of the war, for example, deep in the bowels of the Berlin bunker, Hitler’s right-hand man, Goebbels, killed his own six children, his wife, and then himself.  Because of Hitler, Europe lay in ruins with millions of people dead, injured, or misplaced.  Hitler caused the world’s economic structure to crumble. All this happened when gullible people followed the ideas of Mein Kampf even if they never read it.

Economic ruin for the majority, mass incarceration, and even predictable deaths are the true meaning of (following) Mein Kampf.  Trump has said so himself when he says he will build concentration camps for any group of people he dislikes or do not have the right blood.  He will lock up journalists and media commentators.  He’s even hinted that he would have generals who disobey his commands assassinated. Trump’s Hitler-like goals predict dictatorship as sure as Hitler moved from chancellor to dictator.

Trump has repeatedly said he will be a dictator for only the first day. When has Trump ever told the truth? Trick question. Trump speaks truth when he says he wants to be dictator, but he lies when he says it’s only for one day.  He will repeat his first-day dictatorship for as long as he wants. And Trump wants unlimited power to do whatever he wants for as long as he wants.

People follow Trump because they want a strongman President. They want someone who will break things up and drain the swamp.  Such naivete grows in people who think they are tougher than others and have what it takes to get ahead.  In the process of getting themselves ahead they show contempt for those they think are less talented or weak, even if they mistake the talents, strengths, and courage of those deemed of lesser “blood”.

Trump calls his view of life transactional, but he really means life transformed into jungle savagery where it’s kill or be killed. Trump aims to force his transactional-savage view on us all. Trump never needed to read Mein Kampf, but he could write it (with a ghost writer).

J. Michael Atherton

Dover

UNH was right to allow Trump to speak, despite liberal howls

Dec. 21 − To the Editor:

So, a writer to these pages, despite stating she is for free speech, admonishes the UNH hierarchy for giving Donald Trump a pulpit to advance his causes, many of which I agree with.  She must be one of those who fancies being wrapped in the cloak of democracy. Sure she does. I’m going to go out on a limb here by guessing she’s a liberal, a likely Democrat who may or may not have received her brainwashing at UNH. Just a guess here, but probably a pretty good one. Ah, how our poor democracy has been savaged by the likes of Donald Trump. At least that's what your professors may have spoon fed you.

And the Democrats in your eyes, the eyes of an ideologue, can do no wrong. No, spying on a presidential candidate is not quite up their alley, nor is censoring. Heaven forbid they effect the arrest those whose thinking is contrary to theirs nor do they create hoaxes which paralyzed the term of a sitting president. No, not Democrats. And they certainly aren’t prone to fixing elections like the one in 1960, or keeping competitors off the ballet like Trump or, for that matter, JFK, Jr. I could go on and on but the letter writer, you know, the one who wears that special cloak certainly knows all this, yet would deny it no matter what. That’s what ideologues do. Tough to see the forest through the trees. UNH did the right thing by letting Trump speak while causing liberals to howl with rage. Open forums should be available to all, that’s the Democratic way, is it not?

Dan Hurley

Dover

Don't just pray for peace. Demand it.

Dec. 22 − To the Editor:

How can we celebrate this season of peace and goodwill while Netanyahu continues to bomb innocent Palestinians?

It’s past time for the US to demand an end to the slaughter, and work with the UN to create a peace process. This is the season not just to pray, but demand peace.

Malcolm Odell

Exeter

Is your drumbeat marching our Democracy a cliff?

Dec. 24 −To the Editor:

Decades ago, one difference between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering majors was that Chemistry majors had to take German as part of their curriculum. Germans were considered the masters of chemical synthesis, so it was considered useful to learn the language.

Germany once made great efforts to turn their coal into liquid fuel. It is no surprise then, that a World War 2 era Germany chose to invade Poland, a nation with oil wells, as one of its first acts. Russian oil fields were likely a reason so much effort was spent on that front later on. Wars use a lot of oil, both then and now.

Lately, we have been exposed to a few German terms, although not actually in German. One that comes to mind is Lebensborn, where Germany set up breeding clinics/camps in Germany and Norway to increase their ranks. The modern equivalent appears to be rolling back Roe vs Wade to somehow increase the population; we may need the birthing camps at some point. It was also pretty easy to crack the code when the former President spoke about needing more immigrants from places like Norway. There also appears to be attempts at creating a new generation of Aryan Youth and German Maidens in the United States by use of under-education, propaganda and repeated economic trauma.

Then there is Kristallnacht, which in our current times is not a single event, but an ongoing string of anti-semitic attacks large and small. It is especially rich that some devout Christians tolerate this behavior given that Jesus was born a Jewish man. We also have the second coming of the German American Bund, led by a descendent of the Drumpf family. Drumpf translates to drum, which sort of explains why so many folks are marching to the beat of a different drummer. Little did I realize in college that I would be learning one too many German words now. Be careful of the drumbeat you follow; despite the excitement it may bring in the short term, you may be helping march yourself and our democracy off a cliff.

Don Cavallaro

Rye

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth needs to limit terms of HDC members: Letters