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In response to the addition of Nakba Day on the city calendar, the Capital City needs to leave world politics to the federal government where it belongs, and immediately refocus on caring for the 44,769 people who already live here. The number 44,769 needs to show prominently on the city’s website home page. The figure 44,769 needs to appear in the mission statement. The quantity 44,769 needs to become ever-present in the minds of leadership because those are the only people they have been hired and elected to serve.

Pembroke is unfairly painted with a broad brush regarding last March’s school funding cuts. In feature stories and editorials, Pembroke is being compared with Croydon, which proposed to cut a school district budget of $1,700,000 budget to $800,000, a reduction of 47%.

Planet-wide fire, flood, drought. Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria in shambles, Greenland, Panama, even Canada in a gunsight. Trump again, January 6 twice, the first, an insurrection, a “Day of Love,” the second, a peaceful transfer of power presided over by VP Harris; “drill, baby, drill,” “we have liquid gold under our feet,” the proclaimed reversal of an oil drill ban. Plastic abuse with forever consequence; another “unprecedented” severe weather pattern across the U.S. the week of January 5; gradual human-caused extinction of species and more fire, flood, draught.

The drama with the Pembroke and Kearsarge regional school districts has brought public school funding to the public’s attention. The problem is both sides of the issue are wrong. One side believes the state needs to pay more towards education. The problem with this group is they never say how. Is the state going to raise taxes on workers? Is the state going to raise taxes on New Hampshire businesses? Unless the state has a bag of gold stashed away someone is going to be left with the bill. According to the Education Data Initiative, New Hampshire has the seventh highest per student spending in the country. This includes both state and local funding. Why is that? Does New Hampshire have a higher percentage of kids with special education requirements? Does New Hampshire have a higher percentage of administrators that make six figures? Maybe our new governor’s COGE team can investigate this.

An article in the Jan. 8 edition of the Monitor is titled “January 6 celebrants, hoping for pardons, gather in NH.” I cannot believe anyone would call the rioters celebrants. They broke into a federal building, defecated, destroyed property and hunted down senators and the vice president with chants of violence. Please, let’s not make these people sound like innocent party-goers!

Donald Trump did not win an electoral mandate to seize territories. He did not win a mandate at all, in fact, as he won by just over 1.5% points and got just under half of the total votes. While he clearly won the election, Trump getting less than 50% of the votes is not a mandate. As an aside, the certification of the 2024 election was a model of democracy, unlike January 6, 2020. Trump certainly did not receive a mandate to seize Greenland or the Panama Canal. He didn’t campaign on land seizures. Still, he is tossing a hand grenade under the bus of international order. He remains a blustering bully. With any luck, this will be like his promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. He didn’t build much wall, and he didn’t make Mexico pay for it.

Recently soon to be ex-governor Chris Sununu was on CNN with Dana Bash. This guy really likes to hear himself talk regardless of how foolish he may sound. To say that Elon Musk has no ulterior motives with respect to government interference is gas lighting 101. Most recently Musk, who is not an elected official, stuck his nose in the House of Representatives business affairs. He was able to quash a bipartisan agreement that both parties had agreed to over months of negotiating. The House failed to pass the resolution, rewrote it and then passed the revised version. What did Musk get out of this? They removed a part of the bill that would restrict business dealings in China. Musk’s Tesla has its largest factory in China, half of Tesla sales are in China. If that isn’t an ulterior motive, then I’ll eat my shirt.

I was thrilled to see a photo of my friend Laura Morrison’s work on the front page of the Thursday, Jan. 9, edition of the Insider. When I read the article about our joint show at Two Villages Gallery, however, I was upset that the writer claimed I “often used feathers and stones” in my beadwork.

Our two bird feeders have been surprisingly quiet for over a week, no chickadees, nuthatches or finches. Even our beloved cardinals are nowhere! Has anyone else noticed this? We miss them.

As a young engineer and pilot trainee in the 1980s, I had much to learn. We learned about checklists for avoiding future problems and ensuring everything was considered and accomplished. We used the checklists because we lacked the experience required for reliable success. Another memory from the 1980s was Freddy Krueger, a fictitious character who could harm you in your sleep. He was The Nightmare on Elm Street. Years later, a more frightening name was coined.

It boggles my mind that someone in city government decided to modify a calendar entry to “be unbiased and accurate” based upon the objections of a partisan political group about the atrocities committed against innocents in the Arab-Israeli War. Then, they removed the item and stated publicly that the inclusion of the Nakba was “a grave oversight.”

Given the great expanse of The Donald’s capacity to lie, gaslight and project his own failures onto his opponents, I submit that that expanse be referred to as the “Gulf of Trump.” The brand has a beautiful ring, covers a lot of territory and is beautiful and appropriate.

The bowing of the knee, the kissing of the Trump ring, the anticipatory obedience are in full swing as Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) just made the reckless and dangerous decision to end its minimal fact-checking program.

I may not know all my neighbors by name or sight, but through Next Door online forums I know we are in shock over recent property tax bills. What’s the driver? In Weare, not the town’s share of taxes. For years, Weare has limped along on default budgets. But, as in many towns that saw up to a 16% jump, taxes are driven by school costs, and school costs are driven by state policy. Less comes from the state as vouchers are given to families that may or may not apply the money to “adequate” education. State aid decreases with every child withdrawn from public school. But the cost of operating and staffing a building remains for local taxpayers.

The My Turn by Ms. Podlipny was great. Could the Monitor please get on board with reducing plastic use by asking their delivery people not to bag the daily paper in plastic?