Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” The current political climate has many feeling afraid and helpless, believing that there is nothing we can do about the potentially damaging decisions coming down from the Trump regime. But in New Hampshire last week, an event showed once again what can happen when individuals join together, whether it’s in our state or nationally.

Representative Dan McGuire, R-Epsom, proposed a bill that would have removed the arts, civics, government, economics, geography, history, Holocaust and genocide education, engineering, technology computer sciences and world languages from state educational mandated standards. This bill would have altered the statute defining the adequate education which the state has a constitutional obligation to provide students.

As individuals, we can let our elected representatives know our concerns. Through word of mouth, emails, letters to the editor and social media posts, the consequences of this bill spread through our communities. As a result, over 30,000 people opposed it on the House’s electronic system — with only 70 supporting it — and the bill was determined to be “Inexpedient to Legislate,” which is the legislature’s formal recommendation that a bill should not pass. If you are worried about what’s happening in our state and/or country, let your voice be heard. What happened in NH this past week shows that every voice does count.

Wendy Oellers-Fulmer

Gilford