NH House takes up worthless bill

Rep. Karen Reid’s bill to impose restrictions on sex education and discussions of human sexuality in New Hampshire public schools is a useless piece of legislation, founded in fear. Among its most ridiculous measures is its attempt to forbid any discussion of “sexual lifestyles,” not just in sex ed classes but throughout the curriculum. The bill, HB 1185, has been “referred for interim study,” which means it’s dead for now, but could be resurrected next year.

Perhaps Rep. Reid believes that by listing in her bill all the different sexualities, gender identities, and gender expressions that will be off limits to discuss — including heterosexuality — she will avoid being labeled transphobic and heterosexist. She is wrong. Not only is this bill a shameful attempt to erase the identities of the marginalized, but it throws up barriers to the teaching of a host of topics across academic subjects.

It’s fun — in a dystopian kind of way — to come up with topics that would be struck from the curriculum should this bill pass. In my list below, I’ve made a point of sticking with those that relate to people with majority identities (white and apparently straight). I wouldn’t want to upset Rep. Reid and the similarly narrow-minded.

■No reading or discussion of Shakespearean sonnets, Jane Austen’s novels, or anything else that touches on romantic love.

■No lessons on Nobel Prize-winning scientists Paul and Marie Curie. They were a married couple who had children together. Two strikes against them: they were likely heterosexuals who had sex with each other at least twice.

■It’s okay to talk about American presidents in social studies, but not to mention the Roosevelts, Adamses, or Bushes. Family dynasties can only be created through — you guessed it — people having sex.

■Math teachers beware! When creating algebraic word problems, avoid anything having to do with parents, siblings, men, or women.

■Feel free to teach about the Constitution, but be careful! Watch out for Article II because it includes being a, “natural born citizen” among qualifications for the presidency. And forget the 19th Amendment, which literally includes the word “sex.”

Cybele Merrick

Lyme

Time for a change

Not so long ago, America was at the top. The country was a giant of productivity, relative stability, general prosperity, with a thriving middle class.

By the current trajectory, one can easily project into the near future. What we can readily see is an America deliberately drained of manufacturing, of energy autonomy, of prosperity and well being; a lost country increasingly defined by wars, surveillance, inflation, debt, demoralization, chaos, lawlessness, suicide, despair, violence, homelessness and widespread poverty. Everyone can easily see the direction of that movement every day.

In the unlikely event that you escape these conditions personally, do you imagine that you will live unaffected by this society? How about your children?

This is where our country is heading by just continuing to follow the current trajectory. FDR once said that “in politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens you can bet it was planned that way.” Will you continue to actually vote for more of the same? What will it take for you to realize?

A day is coming, and it’s coming fast, you will wake up to the awareness that you no longer recognize the country you’re living in. It will no longer be the country you believed it to be, but it will be too late and too far gone by then. We’re clearly committing national suicide. We need to change course.

Neil Meliment

Hartland

No contest
for president

John Nelson tries his best to argue for a second Trump term (“Trump will rise again,” Forum, Feb. 24). He blames Democrats and the media for the disgraced former president’s legal woes, cites questionable accomplishments and then trots out old charges against President Biden that don’t hold water.

First, the strongest voices against another Trump term don’t come from Democrats, but from 24 folks who worked for him during his chaotic four years. These include his Vice President Mike Pence, his Attorney General Bill Barr, his Defense secretaries James Mattis and Mark Esper, his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his Homeland Security Secretary and later his Chief of Staff John Kelly, and even his White House lawyer Ty Cobb, all of whom say how unfit and dangerous Trump is to our nation. Read their comments in full: “24 former Trump allies and aides who turned against him,” by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, Oct. 3, 2023.

Finally, President Biden’s real accomplishments are extraordinary: more jobs created in his first two years in office than any president; built more infrastructure than any president since Eisenhower; restored the vital partnership with our European NATO allies; lowered drug prices; made the single largest investment to combat climate change in the world; and built the most successful economy in the world today.

If their resumes were placed side by side for the White House job, there’s no question who’s best equipped to lead our nation: Joe Biden. Vote for him on Nov. 5 like your life depends on it, because it does.

Bob Williamson

South Woodstock