Op-Ed: The New Hampshire We Love – InDepthNH.orgInDepthNH.org – InDepthNH.org

By NANCY MARTLAND

My heart belongs to New Hampshire. I love our state. I love our land, our people and our way of life. But as I look around me today, my heart is breaking. Breaking for the meanness of our politics, the callous disregard for the welfare of our citizens, and the utter breakdown of any kind of cooperative spirit.

Those in control of our legislature seem to want to abandon the social contract that most of us take for granted. Getting together to provide a public education to all of our children, basic services like police and fire protection, roads, libraries, and recreational facilities. Working with our neighbors to find solutions to problems that need solving. Thats my New Hampshire.

Not so long ago, I was deeply involved in the Northern Pass opposition. I saw it as a way to protect something essential about New Hampshire, and most people seemed to agree. The opposition represented the best of our state. It included people from all walks of life, all regions, and all backgrounds. For ten years we stuck together and we got the job done. Nobody cared about a persons politics. Everybody cared about New Hampshire. We were successful, in part because we were so varied and different with a wide range of strengths all across the spectrum.

I am not certain that such an alliance could even exist today.

I struggle to make sense of what is happening. It seems like our common interests have fractured. Everything is politicized. Extremists have inflicted terrible wounds on our state. Anger and hostility have overtaken respect and civil decorum. So-called Free Staters are here explicitly to create a libertarian paradise that worships the individual and seeks to eliminate government. Republicans with whom I have worked in the past and thought to be sensible go along with their efforts and are moving further and further to the extreme. They seem to have entirely lost the thread of what New Hampshire is all about.

Our Governor either agrees with this crowd or is too afraid to stand up to them.

One faction actually wants us to secede from the United States nine Republican legislators have filed a bill to do so.

Others oppose public education. Republicans created Education Freedom Accounts, purported to offer choice to parents, but in reality designed to drain funds from our public schools to undermine them and eliminate them. They seem to think we should all home school our children. Why should government provide an education?

Still others see absolutely no reason for us to pull together to protect each other from COVID, with enraged individuals busting up meetings because their medical freedom is more important than the health of everyone else. Republicans have fought sensible measures to mitigate and control the spread of disease, right up to Governor Sununu allowing unvaccinated staff to work in our nursing homes caring for our parents and grandparents, exposing them to serious illness.

Then there are the legislators who seek to control what we do and think. Enacting abortion restrictions that include the requirement for a medically unnecessary and invasive vaginal probe ultrasound. Controlling what our teachers say about American history by requiring that they say only positive things about our countrys past. One group offered a $500 bounty to anyone who informed on a teacher.

I am profoundly sorry to say that if we want a New Hampshire that is kind and decent, where we work together to achieve our goals and meet our needs, we cannot return the present Republican legislature to power in 2022. Sadly, the NH Republican Party is more interested in scoring ideological points than they are in us.

Dont get me wrong. I have voted for plenty of Republicans in my life. I expect to do so again. Like many people, I tend to want to vote for the person, not the party. It was a pleasure to vote for Ray Burton, for example.

But for right now we owe it to ourselves and our children to restore the New Hampshire we all love. And that means not voting for any Republican who supports these extreme policies.

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