LTE's from Undergrounders

[Kat Kanning]

Should I add that, next time I talk to the media?  "...and Londonderry is doing nothing to stop it!" 

[AlanM]

Should I add that, next time I talk to the media?? "...and Londonderry is doing nothing to stop it!"?

Most definitely! The towns all claim their actions are for the good of the townspeople, so, put up or shut up. Better yet, just resign and get totally out of the way.

[APB]

Should I add that, next time I talk to the media?? "...and Londonderry is doing nothing to stop it!"?

I agree with your letter! At no time were any of the authorities in Londonderry and Concord concerned about all the land owners rights. They were more concerned about the Co Hass. Keep in mind at the mitigation meeting 99.9 % of the Londonderry residents that spoke was against the taking. Some of our State reps were there, but none of our Councilors were there to hear Londonderry residents concern's.

[Kat Kanning]

This was printed in the Keene Sentinel today:

Are your public school children being taught what you want them to learn?  Are they being educated in the manner you prefer?  Are they safe?  Are the public schools responsive to your family's needs?  Do you feel respected as a parent by public school employees?

I have come to believe that the public schools cannot and should not be reformed.  The government has lost my trust and should not be in charge of educating my child.  Government education can never be responsive to the needs of you, as a consumer of education.  When government controls the school purse strings, it is only the politically well-connected who control the content and manner of children's education.  Without any reasonable accountability, teachers will continue to be forced to use the latest non-functional education fads, rather than tried-and-true methods, and we will continue to graduate illiterates.

It's time to return control over a child's education to his/her parents.  It's time to officially separate school and state.  Please consider signing the Separation of School and State Proclamation:  "I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in education," which you can find at http://honestedu.org.  Please consider taking action which will free our children.  This website will also answer questions on how education can and should be handled privately.

Kat Dillon

Keene, NH 03431

[Lex]

Good one Kat! 

[Lloyd Danforth]

Really something getting this published!

[frisco]

Well done, Kat!

[Kat Kanning]

Thank you, oh odiferous one.  Welcome to the forum

[Fluff and Stuff]

I only had two letters to the editor published last year.  I'm starting early this year and will make sure that I get three LTE published this year.  Here comes my Advocates award.  I'm doing it all for the FSP 

http://commercialappeal.com/mca/letters_to_editor/article/0,1426,MCA_538_4370723,00.html
Bigger government isn't solution

In his question-and-answer session at City Hall, Mayor Herenton said Memphis is growing and will always be the capital of the Mid-South (Jan. 6 article, "Herenton takes on media, says he was never in drug rehab/Chides businesses for blocking 'revenue' measures"). He even suggested that the answer to our problems is to create another county tax, and implied that Memphis government has reached full efficiency. He had the audacity to suggest that certain parts of Memphis, such as South and North Memphis, are full of real people.

Basically, Herenton said that we have lots of problems, and government will try to solve them all.

The truth is, Memphis is not growing; its population shrinks every year it does not annex part of the county. Memphis already has the highest taxes in Tennessee, and more taxes will just make things worse. Herenton did not mention any libertarian solution. Every solution he suggested would make government bigger.

This fake person from Germantown is beginning to understand why Memphis has high taxes, high poverty and high crime.

Keith Carlsen

Germantown

[Kat Kanning]

Just got a nice phone call about this letter to the editor.  The lady thanked me for writing it and said she didn't know others felt that way.  Said she was sending me a long article in the mail and didn't want me to worry it was hate mail or something

[AlanM]

Awesome. 

[varrin]

Y'all,

This was published last November in the Sentinel.  Just didn't get a chance to post it here yet.

Parking ordinance has a not-so-friendly appeal
HTTP://sentinelsource.com/main.asp?SectionID=43&subsectionID=106&articleID=88849
Web Posted 11/21/2005
Article :

To The Sentinel:
I?m sure glad our city government is busy making sure I don?t have too many friends and that I?m not distracted with trivial things like lowering our sky-high property taxes. But I digress.

The city owns the streets, so I can respect its zeal to enact sensible policies with respect to street parking. I actually prefer having my guests park on my driveway, not on the street. I park my own car in the garage (unlike some), just to make more room for them on the driveway.  But now, the city has made it impossible to accommodate more friends on my own property.

Friday?s (Nov. 12) Sentinel reported on the ordinance prohibiting parking on lawns in Keene. This should be alarming first and foremost because it is an outright assault on private-property rights.  What?s even more absurd, though, is the hoops one must jump through to actually comply with the law by providing adequate paved or gravel parking on one?s own property.

Since June, I have been plodding through the onerous process of obtaining a waiver to widen my driveway to facilitate more parking. I almost completed the process only to have the planning board cancel its October meeting. That means I won?t be able to complete the project until spring, provided the planning board approves my request. In the meantime, I?m stuck with a stupid-looking, inadequate driveway.

So let?s review: No street parking, no lawn parking, no wide driveways equals less friends. Am I the only one thinking we need some new ?pro-friends? members on the city council.

---

Post-letter note:  This was printed in mid-November.  At the November planning board meeting (several days after this was published), my request for a variance was denied.  The saga continues...

V-

[Dave Ridley]

From me...

Dear folks at the Sentinel:

With regard to that 6 percent property tax increase which our ever-ravenous Board of Education Prevention wishes to foist upon Keene residents...I just wanted to point out two statistics. 

According to our State Department Of Education, SAU 29 - the government school entity "serving" (or bleeding) Keene - expends an average of well over $9,000 on each student every year. That is if you believe these stats and do not think the number is much higher.   It is at least three times what it costs to send your child to the private Trinity Christian School.   If TCS can educate a local  student for $3K and do it so well that some people *choose* them over all other Monadnock area schools, how are we to believe that SAU 29 requires not just that $9,000+ amount, but that PLUS six percent?  If they are so in need of funds, why haven't they yet gotten rid of the oversized, money-sucking administrative building at 34 West as over 60% of voters "requested" during the election a year ago?   

A business would fail if it behaved this way, but since it is a government monopoly school system it goes on, forever expanding and leeching even as our student population begins to wane.

I'll be voting no on all of the board's requests for taxpayer dollars come March.   A yes vote would be morally wrong considering how high taxes already are in Keene and how inefficiently the money will be used.

 
*Sources:    New Hampshire State Department Of Education - http://www.ed.state.nh.us/education/
Trinity Christian School (Keene) - http://tcskeene.org/tuiti.html

[tracysaboe]

One of the Londonderry city councilors wrote to Russell complaining that it's not Londonderry doing this.

They are doing nothing, that I see, to oppose it! If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Careful, you're going to start sounding line Bush 

Tracy

[CNHT]

I keep sending them, they do not print them. But please keep trying.
We have to counter THIS mentality!

http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060209/REPOSITORY/602090332/1029/OPINION03

Here is the text in case by the time you see it, it's not accessible:

In Dick Drescher's Feb. 1 Monitor letter concerning the proposed bottled beverage tax, he wrote that it's time New Hampshire ceased its nickel-and-dime thinking on revenue-raising. I agree completely.
Our Legislature over the years steadfastly has refused to admit, let alone recognize, that virtually every segment of state government is inadequately funded, all to the detriment of our citizenry. These include human services, the environment, law enforcement, the judicial system and education.

Instead of facing the entire spectrum and establishing a method to meet the needs, the Legislature has instituted a tax here and there or increased existing taxes. Where is the logic and semblance of order in needs vs. funding? There is none. Now, there's the proposed beverage tax to protect groundwater.

The point is not whether groundwater needs protection. The point is that rather than deciding that some small portion of our state's overall existence needs work that will cost money and then mounting a tax (or a fee) to fund the cost, our Legislature first must determine what the entire cost of operation is and then establish an overall revenue-raising program to meet that cost.

We no longer can afford to impose a little tax or fee here and there. If one on bottled beverages, why not one on, say, building products? After all, houses and the people in them deplete water reserves, pollute the atmosphere, add to school costs, etc.

Or one on food packages that are not recyclable or biodegradable? Or on milk, since cows must drink water to produce milk? Where does the list stop?
Legislators, do your job. Implement a funding system that is universal and equitable and produces revenue sufficient to meet the state's requirements.

ARNOLD C. CODA
Hopkinton

Update: They printed my counter letter today! http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/REPOSITORY/602110335/1029/OPINION03
It was short and sweet and mentioned libertarian...

Here it is:

Arnold C. Coda from Hopkinton made the outrageous statement that we need more taxes for more adequate funding of New Hampshire government.
He might find that recently a person was hired to root out waste in government spending and found $8 million in waste and fraud in the New Hampshire HHS department alone!

Even the Republican Party of New Hampshire has lost most of its libertarian principles, especially when talking about taxation.

The above example alone is enough to prove we need less taxation, not more.