Opinion: The abortion riddle

By DOUG LOWE

Doug Lowe lives in Concord. As we all know, abortion is a medical procedure whereby a pregnancy is terminated. It is, of course, unique to the female half of our population. And abortion is a subject with an interesting history. The practice dates...

Opinion: The candidates Concord needs now

By CARISA CORROW

Carisa Corrow of Penacook is co-author of “126 Falsehoods We Believe About Education” and founder of Educating for Good. While Concord is a great little city with much to offer, it’s not perfect. We have some complicated issues that need to be...

Opinion: Why my inbox may not survive kindergarten

By BRIAN ADAMS

Brian Adams of Andover, Mass., is a UNH alumnus originally from Londonderry. He was previously a sketch comedy writing instructor and staff writer at ImprovBoston and a founding contributor to satirical online newspaper Recyculus. He is a father to...

Opinion: The NH House needs a climate science intervention

By JOHN GAGE

John Gage of Windham is volunteer NH state coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby. The opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the position of CCL. When my daughter and I attended a hearing of the NH House Committee on State-Federal...

Opinion: Understanding the deeper dimension of the U.S. Supreme Court’s corruption crisis

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. The stories about corruption at the U.S. Supreme Court keep mushrooming. We first heard about Justice Clarence Thomas accepting expensive gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow that Thomas never reported. After Thomas...

Opinion: Democracy does not live or die at the end of a rifle

By JOHN BUTTRICK

John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Rocker in his Concord home: Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com. “Democracies don’t have to die at the end of a rifle,” President Biden recently said. “They can die when people are silent,...

Opinion: The effects of social media on youth

By SUZANNE GAETJENS-OLESON

Suzanne Gaetjens-Oleson, LCMHC, is CEO of Northern Human Services in Conway. She lives in Lancaster. On June 6, Governor Chris Sununu signed Executive Order 2023-04, which directs the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human...

Opinion: A direct line from the Ku Klux Klan to MAGA

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Although this association has rarely been made, the similarities between the 1920s Ku Klux Klan and Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement are marked. Both movements have preached the centrality of...

Opinion: The purpose of public schools

By JANET WARD

Janet Ward lives in Contoocook. On April 25, the NH Senate Education Committee heard testimony regarding HB 367 and HB 464. Both bills propose the expansion of funding for Education Freedom Accounts, New Hampshire’s school voucher program. This...

Opinion: A better approach to cell service in Bow

By SUSAN MARCOTTE-JENKINS

Susan Marcotte-Jenkins of Bow attended the Monitor’s opinion writing workshop this summer. I’m a Bow resident with nothing personal at stake in the town’s cell tower project except the serious concerns everyone has over Bow’s inadequate cell service.I...

Opinion: The amazing heroism of Leon Lewis

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. While the great battle against fascism in World War II was fought in Europe, there was also a fight against fascism inside the United States in the 1930s-1940s. There is little recollection now that there was a...

Opinion: The historical precedent of January 6

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. The sedition convictions of Oath Keepers’ leaders, Elmer Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs, returned focus to the events of January 6. While the January 6 Committee has done an excellent job ferreting out facts, there...

Opinion: Transforming and modernizing juvenile justice

By JOE RIBSAM

Joe Ribsam is director of the Division for Children, Youth & Families at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. Over the last five years, New Hampshire has transformed the way it serves juvenile offenders. During this time, the...

Letter: Science versus myth

Yet another timely book has been recently released: Turtles all the Way Down: Vaccine Science and Myth by an anonymous author and edited by Mary Holland and Zoey O’Toole of Children’s Health Defense.For those with inquiring minds, you will likely...

Opinion: Antisemitism has a home among MAGA Republicans

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. When I was growing up, my family belonged to Main Line Reform Temple, a reform Jewish congregation in the Philadelphia suburbs. I was bar mitzvahed and confirmed there. For about ten years, I regularly attended...

Opinion: Not a law and order party

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Going as far back as the Richard Nixon presidency, the Republican Party has played the law and order card, arguing that they are the party that will keep Americans safe from crime and disorder. Of course, Nixon was...

Opinion: Minimizing and missing the fascist threat

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. Around seven years ago, I started raising the question of whether Donald Trump and the MAGA movement he led were fascist. Numerous academics and mainstream journalists pooh-poohed that characterization as imprecise...

Opinion: The little-known story of Jewish illegal immigration

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. I think it is fair to say that fear of immigrants in the United States is out-of-control. And it’s not just in the United States. Fascist and far-right politicians have persuaded citizens in many countries that the...

Opinion: The dark history of the Second Amendment

By JONATHAN P. BAIRD

Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot. With mass shootings practically a daily event, defenders of unrestricted gun owner rights typically invoke the mantra of the Second Amendment. Attention is rarely paid though to the historical circumstances...

Opinion: What if we get it right?

By JEAN STIMMELL

Jean Stimmell, retired stone mason and psychotherapist, lives in Northwood and blogs at jeanstimmell.blogspot.com. I’ve written before about how I’ve been trying to focus on positive alternatives to counteract today’s dominant “the sky is falling”...