HINSDALE, N.H.-To those complaining about criminalizing poverty, homelessness and drug use:
Each of you could be helping. Right now. Take in a homeless person, give them "a soft place to land", give them a place to use the bathroom (yours) and a place to store their belongings (your abode).
Concerned that drug users don't have a "safe space" to use drugs? Let that space be your very own yard/patio/spare room. You can watch over them and use the readily available medication to ensure that if they do overdose, you can save their life.
Put your good statements to good use now. Stop asking someone else to do it, and do it now. If you won't do so, ask yourself why. Otherwise, you risk becoming a hypocrite demanding "someone else" do what you're asking when you will not do it yourself.
HINSDALE, N.H.-I read that a Vermont representative worries that Trump will deport illegal immigrants and leave dairy farms with few workers, hurting that economy. Not all immigrants working on dairy farms are here illegally, and not all immigrants (legal or not) work in agriculture. To say we need illegal...
HINSDALE, N.H.-I've seen so many writers bashing Donald Trump and not convincing anyone why Harris is a great choice for president. Stop focusing hate and wrath on Donald Trump. Instead, convince me (and others) how policies are going to help us in our daily life, how they'll improve conditions...
HINSDALE, N.H.-Third Act has it wrong. If you drive, ride, or take a bus to a protest, you benefited from fossil fuels. To protest a bank investment in fossil fuels makes a person not only uninformed but also a hypocrite. Everything from the clothes on your back to literally everything you consume was brought by fossil fuels (trucks). Your smartphone? That has plastics (based in petroleum), and if you have stayed or know someone in a hospital, petroleum-based plastics are...
HINSDALE, N.H.-Woody Bernhard correctly points out that during Covid lockdowns, skies cleared, waters cleared, and it was like a miracle. All we need to do is receive everything for free, and we can all stay home forever! We need food to magically appear on shelves or in our pantries. We need to have homes without rent or a mortgage, which will just magically appear without construction workers or vehicles. (Remember, we are all staying home.) We need health care at...
HINSDALE, N.H.-The LGBTQ organization Out in the Open expresses support for legalizing sex work (prostitution) and safe spaces for people to access/use drugs. Would they support safe spaces for people to use alcohol and become intoxicated? How about a place for people to access and smoke cigarettes (or vape)? Additionally, they support the plight of people in Gaza, while hopefully remembering that in most of the Middle East, LGBTQ people are abused and even executed just for being who they...
HINSDALE, N.H.-On the front page of the May 8 edition of The Commons are two articles. One is about Winston Prouty seeking to build 300 housing units, but finding it difficult to secure financing. The other is about how wealthy Vermonters like Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield, and others favored a tax increase on the wealthiest Vermonters to (allegedly) raise funds for housing. Here's a thought: Instead of turning that money over to the government, why don't wealthy Vermonters concerned about...
I had to respond to Robin Rieske's piece. First, cigarette companies targeted everyone regardless of race or any other factor. (Remember the rugged white Marlboro Man?) Most companies want everyone to buy their product. Second, a lung is a lung, and cigarettes affect every smoker exactly the same way! I would rather see people smoking cigarettes than using illicit drugs. If you bring beer, even "light" beer, to an already intoxicated person to "keep them and others safe," you are...