Also on today’s menu:
Former Hebron Legislator Suzanne Smith Dies
Littleton Town Manager Resigns Amidst Controversy
Undermining Her Own Credibility
The driver of a Ford-350 truck with plow and sander was treated for minor injuries at Concord Hospital-Laconia after a rollover crash near the Union Diner on Union Avenue in Laconia, around 8 a.m. on January 8.
Laconia police say the truck hit a utility guardrail while southbound on Union Avenue. The driver was the only occupant of the vehicle.
The accident remains under investigation, but police suspect that road conditions, not speed nor alcohol, were responsible for the crash.
Discussion: The advice remains the same: Drive slowly and carefully during a storm.
Former Hebron Legislator Suzanne Smith Dies
Former representative Suzanne Smith of Hebron died on January 6 after having served the voters of Plymouth, Holderness, and Hebron in the legislature from 2008 to 2022.
Smith, a Democrat, served as chair of the Resources, Recreation, and Development Committee and advocated for clean water, recreation, and children’s health. She sponsored bills on the use of off-highway recreational vehicles, definitions for “wake” boats, control of greenhouse gas emissions, composting, rail trail management, and rural access to broadband internet. She sponsored a bill to relocate the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Association’s facility at the former Laconia State School property to a site near Robbie Mills Field in Laconia. She also served as treasurer of the New Hampshire Audubon Pemi-Baker Chapter.
Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1948, she was a copy editor and broadcaster and owned a natural food store from 1977 to 1998. In 2002, she was certified by the Council for Homeopathic Certification and served as assistant editor/copy editor for the American Homeopathic Journal.
Discussion: Suzanne Smith embodied the values that most Lakes Region residents share: a concern for the environment and for the people who live here.
Littleton Town Manager Resigns Amidst Controversy
Littleton Town Manager Jim Gleason announced his resignation at the January 8 selectmen’s meeting, saying, “I’m tired of what has been going on. It’s been very hurtful.”
The town has been mired in controversy since Selectman and State Senator Carrie Gendreau called homosexuality an “abomination” and objected to a mural on a private building that she believed carried LGBTQ+ symbols last August.
Gleason told InDepthNH.org last fall that, soon after Gendreau made her comments, a woman came into his office, demanding that the town remove LGBTQ art, and she told him that his late son, who was gay and had committed suicide, belonged to be “where he is.”
Discussion: Holding leaders accountable for their actions is one thing; bullying people who are doing their best to serve the community is another. Too many good people are abandoning public service amidst threats and the emotional toll of dealing with hatred.
Undermining Her Own Credibility
Discussion: Heather Cox Richardson is a well-respected columnist whose Letters From An American provide wonderful historic context for what is happening in the United States today. A history professor, she describes herself as being “interested in the contrast between image and reality in American politics. I believe in American democracy, despite its frequent failures.”
It was troubling, then, to read today that “The first Republican caucus will be held on January 15 in Iowa; the first Democratic primary will be held on February 3.”
She knows better. The first Democratic primary is in New Hampshire on January 23. It’s just that the Democratic National Committee has chosen not to recognize it, and President Joe Biden Jr. refused to put his name on the New Hampshire ballot for political reasons: He wants to reward South Carolina for the boost that state gave to his 2020 campaign. She is choosing image over reality — that because a political group discounts a state’s population, that population might as well not exist.
Heather compounded her error by going on to say, “This year, for the first time, South Carolina will host the Democrats’ first presidential primary, in recognition that Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that previously were first, do not represent either the Democrats’ voter base or the country.”
The statement is almost as bad as Hillary Clinton’s description of much of the nation’s population as “deplorables” or Donald Trump’s assertions that anyone who disagrees with him is not a patriot. Heather is saying voters in Iowa and New Hampshire do not count, including New Hampshire Democrats who, in her opinion, are not part of the Democrat base.
She again chooses image over reality. The image painted by the DNC is that, because New Hampshire does not have as diverse a population as much of the country, it cannot reflect common views — as if a predominantly white population cannot have the same level of empathy and understanding as one with a higher percentage of minorities. From a partisan perspective, it also ignores the fact that every one in New Hampshire’s Congressional delegation is a Democrat.
The reality is that the New Hampshire Primary provides the best access to the candidates, allowing them to reveal their authentic personalities — such as Nikki Haley’s gaffe about the cause of the Civil War.
Café Chatter
On Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s Ripple of Hope Moment: Tom, I give you credit for posting this opinion piece. However, I completely disagree with at least 90% of this opinion. Just the questionable support for Kennedy, who I have, and his family has, discounted his unscientific claims about vaccines. I proudly have referred myself as a Kennedy Democrat for decades. I disagree with so much else that it would take as almost as many paragraphs as this opinion piece. However, it’s an opinion and everyone has their right to express it, as long as it doesn’t promote violence.
— Candace Skurnik
I am so sorry to hear of Rep. Smith's death. She was such a nice and kind person and served her constituents well in Concord.