Some favorite Letters-to-Editor

[Dave Ridley]

These are some favorite LTEs I've written.  I'm posting copies here for easy reference by newspaper or magazine editors, some of whom I will be inviting here to eyeball my work and possibly put me into action as a guest columnist.

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LTE for Union Leader, sent 10/20/04

Union Leader "Gets It"

Regarding your editorial on stem cell funding ("The Real Issue is Government Coercion," mid-October), *thank you!* You folks really get it! The sad thing is how many papers do not.

Hardly anyone these days seems to acknowledge the simple but critical difference between voluntary funding and coercive (taxpayer) funding. It is the source of our suffering as a nation, the fact that so many now assume it is okay to take a third of their neighbor's wages and dump it into government programs against the neighbor's will. Pacifists forced to pay for the Iraq war. Pro-lifers forced to pay for embryo destruction. All of us forced to fund the enforcement of unconstitutional gun laws, in effect bankrolling the partial disarmament of our own homes.

Someday, somewhere, people will figure out a way to fund more of these things with less coercion. Right now hardly anyone is even making the attempt; with the partial exception of Governor Benson and his allies...who've taken modest steps in this direction at great political peril. The payoff is already showing as New Hampshire pulls further ahead in the nation, but do we recognize our own success?

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LTE for Portsmouth Herald, sent 12/26/04

"Underfunded" Executive Branch??

Regarding your Dec. 3 editorial "Lynch, Scamman can bring positive change," I was terrified to learn from you that New Hampshire has a "dangerously understaffed and underfunded" executive branch.

Could you enumerate these dangers for me, so that I might take immediate steps to protect myself from them?

For instance, am I at risk of reduced taxation resulting from this underfunding?  Will this government's failure to spend more money on itself mean that I have to live under a governor who lacks an official SUV?  Will I be condemned to citizenship in a state where he or she goes without a salary?  What if we end up with one of those "citizen governors?"  You know the type?anarchists like Thomas Jefferson are always crowing about them.

I know what I'll do...I'll move to Massachusetts, where people have their priorities straight, where government is "adequately funded" and leaders are given sufficient power to impose their will on the people.

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LTE for Portsmouth Herald, sent 2/4/05:

Help us remain us

In response to Shir Haberman's January 24 article "State gets poor gun-safety rating:"  I'm disappointed.  When writing non-editorial pieces...aren't you supposed to at least *pretend* you are getting the other side of a story?  There are probably five NH organizations you could have easily contacted for a rebutting viewpoint, but since you never did...I will articulate that viewpoint for you.

I was at the January 25 committee hearing where our state reps entertained public feedback on the gun control bill your article refers to, HB 208.  Two-oh-eight would restrict the ability of New Hampshire residents to carry firearms near schools and possibly near school buses.  Currently we are one of only a handful of states which still trust licensed adults to lawfully carry guns in or near schools.

I will tell you just what I told the committee:

It's been my experience, generally, that when New Hampshire does something one way and the rest of the states do it another way...

We are right and they are *wrong.*

I don't want us to be more like Massachusetts.  I want us to be more like *us.*

Please help us remain us.  Vote against this gun control bill.

I'm told this was the only testimony of the day which earned applause from the committee.