Serve as a ballot worker and help protect voting rights: Letters

Serve as a ballot worker and help protect voting rights

Aug.17 − To the Editor:

Now is the time to consider doing your part to protect voting in Portsmouth. It is not enough to complain about infringements on the right to vote, e.g. gerrymandering, voter intimidation and voter fraud. We must all take action to protect our rights.

The best way to do that in Portsmouth is to indicate a willingness to serve as a ballot worker in one of the five Portsmouth voting locations.  Ballot workers are elected by each political party at a caucus, which will be held before or during the filing period of Aug. 28 and Sept. 12. These workers are on the frontline protecting our voting rights.  Please consider serving as such a ballot worker, by contacting the officials of your party or by calling city hall, and let them know that you want to help ensure fair elections in Portsmouth. The term is two years, with essentially one working day a year at the polls, and you are paid for your hours of service.

Peter Somssich

Portsmouth

Skip the stuff to celebrate International Coast Cleanup Day

Aug. 19 − To the Editor:

Sept. 16, 2023 is International Coastal Cleanup Day. ICCD is a global day of volunteer action focused on protecting oceans and coasts from all kinds of pollution. Since ICCD's creation more than 30 years ago by the Ocean Conservancy, over 17 million volunteers working with organizations all over the world in observance of ICCD have collected more than 350 million pounds of litter.

As a Seacoast resident and volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation New Hampshire chapter, this mission is very important to me. I’d like to share with fellow readers an excellent way to celebrate ICCD and to protect New Hampshire beaches, and that is to support a local “Skip The Stuff” policy.

Skip The Stuff (“STS”) is a national campaign that aims to reduce foodware waste by ensuring that restaurant takeout orders do not automatically include single-use accessories such as plastic utensils, straws, condiments, and napkins. Under an STS policy, these items would be added only upon request by the customer. Many retail food establishments include single-use items with takeout and delivery orders, even if a customer does not request them. This results in added cost for the establishment and unnecessary waste. STS policies are a win-win for restaurants, consumers, and local governments because they help to cut down on both litter and waste management costs.

Surfrider New Hampshire runs monthly beach clean ups year-round and some of the most common items collected are plastic straws, single-use utensils, and condiment packets. Ultimately, the solution is not to pick up increasing amounts of single-use plastics, but to reduce their use in the first place. That is exactly what STS does.

To learn more about STS or to get involved with the Surfrider Foundation New Hampshire chapter, contact our Campaigns Coordinator at campaigns@nh.surfrider.org and follow us on Instagram @surfridernh.

Kelsey Sullivan

Dover

Urge NH lawmakers to pass ranked choice voting

Aug. 20 − To the Editor:

New Hampshire representative andsenator excuses are what is keeping New Hampshire from getting started with ranked choice voting. Maine, Utah and Alaska have enacted ranked choice voting, but New Hampshire can’t even get the discussion to the New Hampshire House floor. Maine has twice as many districts, more distance and obstacles, and it launched ranked choice voting in 100 days without a dedicated budget.

Every one of us should know at least one of the 400 state representatives (1 per every 3,300 residents).  Many of us have multiple representatives, so each and every one of us should be comfortable reaching out to them this week and asking them to join the 8 p.m. Aug. 24 (on Zoom) New Hampshire ranked choice voting meeting. They will get to speak directly to Alaska state Sen. Cathy Giessel about the Alaska implementation.

If you want to have more choices when you vote, candidates who the majority of voters prefer over other choices then make some time this week and tell your New Hampshire representatives to go to nhrankedchoice.org/calendar and sign up for the discussion.  Make sure your representative has firsthand insight and is not driven by excuses and party protection instincts.

Steven Borne

VP NH Ranked Choice Voting, a NH Grassroots 501(c)(3)

Rye

Voters must evaluate both the election and Trump criminal trials

Aug. 20 − To the Editor:

Much is being said about the juxtaposition of Trump’s criminal trials and his 2024 run for president in that there is not enough time to be thorough with both in time for voters to react responsibly.

While it makes sense to resolve Trump’s criminal enquiries first so that that knowledge can be beneficially included in our selection of the next president, it looks like the two issues will run concurrently.

And that requires us, as voters, to critically follow the proceedings as the dynamics progress, and to keep the scales of justice in balance even though they will continuously be re-weighted by new data right up to voting time, when the "choose" bell is rung.

William L. Thoen

Exeter

The Trump effect and the myth of Pandora

Aug. 20 - To the Editor:

While reading the daily newspaper or watching TV news, shaking my head in disbelief at events unfolding in our country, I am increasingly convinced that they are the result of what I call “The Trump Effect.” While I know it is an exercise in futility to assign blame to any one individual, I feel as if there is an origin story that continues to have negative, impactful ripple effects.

The myth of Pandora is a well know part of Greek mythology which translated to the modern idiom, “opening Pandora’s box.” In the original myth “Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world.” According to one interpretation, only Hope remained in the jar. In my modern interpretation I suggest that what remained in the jar (or box) was civility, common courtesy, and decency, after Americans elected a questionably successful businessman, an unscrupulous TV reality show celebrity and clinical narcissist as president.

There was no shortage of hatred, racism and pent up and often violent frustration before Trump was elected, however through both his speech and behavior, what had previously been inappropriate became somehow now acceptable. From school board meetings where, angry parents scream and berate hard working volunteers, to unruly behavior at restaurants and other public venues, to the hall of Congress, with the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the “Trump Effect” is manifested.

The full “Trump Effect” is often in the news as we learn of more prison sentences for the violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Many of these violent offenders have been apologetic while testifying that they had been to the Trump rally that preceded. Many said they were caught up in the moment and had been incited to act by the lies that Trump told regarding the election and his encouragement to “fight like hell.” This is the most blatant example of the dangerous aspects of “TTE.”

I often refer to January 2016, when Trump famously announced that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone” without repercussions. Since then, we have seen a constant rise in gun violence and mass shootings with an unprecedented proliferation of firearms. This is not to say that Trump himself is responsible but rather the ripple effect of his very public statement ushered in a new era of violence, irresponsibility, and fear.

Many would make the argument that the Covid pandemic is to blame for much of the unacceptable behavior that we now experience daily. I point to the demonization of Dr. Faucci (who received death threats) while serving his country to the best of his ability as an example of how “The Trump Effect “caused Americans to ignore scientific truth while attacking the messenger.

While again not directly assigning blame, I suggest “TTE” as a factor in our newfound lack of respect for authority (i.e., The F.B.I.) and our American institutions (i.e., Congress, the Press and The Supreme Court), as well as for each other. Trump showed no respect for the office that he held and has thus convinced his base that the government is corrupt, and the justice system has been “weaponized” against him. Symbolically, Trump opened a Pandora’s box ushering in a new wave of disrespect, intolerance, and incivility.

In conclusion the ultimate example of “The Trump Effect” is that a twice impeached president, currently under 4 separate indictments totaling 41 felony counts, including an attempt to overturn the results of a highly scrutinized election, could be considered a candidate for president of the United States. In the words of famous '60s anthem, “something’s happening here, what it is ain‘t exactly clear.”

Stephen Philp

Portsmouth

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Serve as a ballot worker and help protect voting rights: Letters