Also on today’s menu:
Author Makes Case Against Book Bans
State Allocates $2.4 Million To Counter Domestic Violence
Another $10 Million To Address Addiction
After complaining about murals on a private building that she believes carry hidden LGBTQ+ messaging, Littleton Selectman and Republican State Senator Carrie Gendreau is now taking on a local theater troupe, Theater UP, whose production of La Cage Aux Folles is being performed this week at the Littleton Opera House — a building owned by the town.
Saying her Christian faith dictates opposition to the North Country Pride murals and a musical about a gay couple, Gendreau told NPR, “I’m taking this platform to say, people, you’re running towards a cliff and you don’t even know you’re running towards a cliff. I love you, I do love you, but there’s going to come a day.”
The Littleton Board of Selectmen has not acted on Gendreau’s proposal to ban all public art in Littleton, and it has not voted on her request to end the town’s relationship with Theater UP, which has used the Littleton Opera House as its home base for nearly a decade.
Many residents are crediting Littleton’s creative community as being responsible for a surge of economic activity in recent years that has replaced empty storefronts with quaint stores, cafes, and other novelties.
Author Makes Case Against Book Bans
Students’ access to books provides critical opportunities to gain other perspectives, Jodi Picoult told attendees at New Hampshire Humanities’ annual celebration in Manchester on November 8. The New York Times best-selling author and Upper Valley resident has been an outspoken critic of book bans.
Picoult told of a parent at her son’s school complaining about her book, Nineteen Minutes, a novel about a fictional school shooting in New Hampshire. The parent warned that it could cause a copycat incident, “But the fact that they could see themselves in the book was exactly the reason I wrote it,” Picoult said, “and the fact that it could happen and does happen in any community and is still happening.”
She maintains that preserving students’ access to books through public libraries is important. “There is this sense of revising history,” she said. “If we pull something off the shelf, then that person’s life or that person’s history does not exist. We don’t actually get to make that choice.”
Banning books is a part of a trend toward limiting knowledge of other perspectives and runs against the liberal arts view that knowledge leads to better decisions. John Warner, in his Substack newsletter, The Biblioracle Recommends, discussed the decline in humanities majors over the past few decades as college students increasingly chose classes they believed would lead to better jobs:
The move to turn post-secondary education into vocational training for white collar jobs isn’t new, is unfortunately bipartisan, is looking impossible to reverse under the present system, and also doesn’t make any sense on its own logic. The overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that humanities majors do quite well in the employment market, so the myth of unemployed history/English/anthropology majors is just that, a myth. To the extent that wages for those with humanities degrees lag behind others, much of it is structural. For example, the “teacher wage penalty” (most teachers get some sort of humanities degree) reaches a new all-time high, year-after-year. Teachers now make almost 25% less than others with comparable degrees.
As a guy with three English degrees, I think accepting the myth that a humanities degree is “useless” is incredibly short-sighted and counterproductive thinking, not because I have a romantic attachment to my field of study, but because my humanities education that trained me to think critically has allowed me to adapt to our ever changing world.
State Allocates $2.4 Million To Counter Domestic Violence
The Executive Council has agreed to spend $2,464,088 to support survivors of domestic violence and their children by offering safe shelter and housing resources, as well as expanding the technology for online chats and text services. Money will go to 14 embedded family violence prevention specialists who work with families and the Department of Health and Human Services to mitigate risk and collaborate with Child Protective Service workers in cases where there is a risk of domestic violence. The allocation also supports continued access to advocacy and crisis workers on a 24-hour-per-day basis.
The appropriation will be funneled through the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
“Our first priority must always be to keep victims safe and hold offenders accountable,” Governor Chris Sununu said. “The funds approved today are critical to ensuring resources are in place to minimize risk for domestic violence before it occurs and ensure emergency supports are available to respond immediately when needed.”
Another $10 Million To Address Addiction
The Executive Council also approved spending an additional $9,789,398 to expand The Doorways program, launched in 2019 to help those with substance use disorder. That brings to $57,826,595 the amount of money spent over the last year aimed at decreasing the rate of fatal overdoses and increasing access to care.
“The Doorways initiative has played a vital role in providing individuals across New Hampshire with critical treatment and recovery services, regardless of whether they live in rural New Hampshire or a more urban area," Governor Chris Sununu said. “Today's renewed investment in the program will ensure New Hampshire continues the important work being done to curb the harm caused by the nationwide drug epidemic.”
Commissioner Lori Weaver of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said, “The Doorways have created a pathway out of addiction and into recovery for thousands of New Hampshire residents. The Doorways provide a sense of hope and a brighter future. The continued funding ensures people will still be able to access the supports and services they need in their communities.”
National Gratitude Month
The News Café is among the publications that are “Reader Supported” — a revolutionary approach to publishing in response to the struggle of traditional news and magazine publishers, as well as unreliable social media. Many writers were at a loss as to how to reach their readers as their jobs and publications were eliminated. With the exception of the period of the pandemic, people read less and purchase fewer books.
Substack is a platform that aims to put readers and writers into a direct relationship that is not dependent on algorithms, advertisements, and profits. In traditional publishing, the money you pay a publisher is divided between executives and shareholders, distribution outlets like Amazon and other booksellers, editors, designers, agents, marketing and sales staff, and the cost of production. When you put down $25 for a hardcover book, the author receives between $2.50 and $4. If a successful book sells about 10,000 copies, the author may receive $25,000 for something he or she has spent years writing. Most of the authors you love are not rich. If they are lucky, they are a middle-class bunch, like artists, teachers, and preachers.
With Substack publications, instead of paying a corporation, you directly support the writers you like, who receive about 85 percent of the subscription revenue. For your $50 annual fee, the author gets about $42.50.
Since losing my full-time job during the pandemic, I’ve been a freelancer without a regular salary. Through Substack, I’ve been able to supplement the freelance work and continue my craft while thinking about upcoming projects.
That is why your support through paid subscriptions to the News Café and By The Way are so important. Although News Café posts are available to all subscribers at no charge, I appreciate the financial support for the time and resources it takes to do this work. Please consider “upsubscribing” to a paid subscription.
Either way, thank you for being here.
Also see our other Substack news site, By The Way.