Monday, October 22, What if They Win in NH?
The final fourth-Monday panel presentation sponsored by the Upper Valley Dems before the election in November featured two knowledgeable speakers on two complex topics: first, the suppression by New Hampshire Republicans of the ability of voters to participate in state elections and, second, the fiscal morass of New Hampshire’s system of property taxes.
Liz Wester, state chairperson of America Votes, described the efforts of her organization to provide needed support to local election officials in their efforts to comply with obstructive GOP election legislation. Liz also expressed concern about the disenfranchising effects of GOP gerrymandering and the GOP’s reluctance to open up the voter registration process so as to encourage voter participation and full citizenship.
Mark Fernald mesmerized the audience at the Grafton County Senior Center with more than half-a-dozen charts graphically displaying the deleterious effects of New Hampshire’s property taxes on the ability of small towns to adequately fund education and on the ability of the state to provide such basic services as safe roads and bridges, emergency addiction services, responsible mental-health care, and family medical leave benefits. Mark identified a deepening financial crisis for the State of New Hampshire and called for a radical reimaging of the way the state can put its fiscal house in order.
- Video 1: UVD Lecture Series: Liz Wester, America Votes
- Video 2: UVD Lecture Series: Mark Fernald, Political Blogger
- Video 3: UVD Lecture Series: Q & A 1 Some of the issues discussed in this section: The pledge, The Governor and income and/or sales tax, America Votes’ stand on the Secretary of State position, Mark’s his charts, Ballot amendments, Education-credit tax lawsuit.
- Video 4: UVD Lecture Series: Q & A 2
Someone in the audience asked why Mark’s charts aren’t more available! Well, he has them on his site, https://www.markfernald.com/
Here are the individual presentations for each of his charts from Mark’s web site:
- New Hampshire is a Tax Paradise and Other Myths
- How We Get Hammered Through Tax Distribution
- The Truth About the Gas Tax!
- The Terrible Gutting of UNH Funding
- If Taxes are the Price We Pay for Civilization, What Does That Say About New Hampshire?
Here are Mark Fernald’s charts. Double tap the image to see a larger view.
- Links to photos
Photos by Bill Secord
Video recording by iPhone
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Monday, September 24, The State and Our Children
The Honorable Laurie Harding, a former Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, moderated the panel.
The issues covered ranged from the accessibility of birth-to-three support services and pre-k educational opportunities, to the financial support given to foster care providers, to mental health diagnosis and treatment available for children, to the impact of the opioid crisis on family stability. It should come as no surprise that budget cuts passed by Republican controlled legislatures have resulted in woefully low financial support for all of these services. State funding for DCYF in 2010 totaled around $124,000; that funding was reduced to $101,00 for the past several years by Republican legislatures, especially those led by Republican Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien. The speakers were guardedly optimistic that Democrats might gain control of the State House and State Senate in November and will be able to begin to better support the youngest members of our society
For photos from the event, click HERE.
To watch the first part of the program, click HERE.
To watch the Q&A of the program, click HERE.
Photos by Bill Secord
Video recording by ETV
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Monday, August 27, Grafton County Candidate Primary Debates
In the fourteenth installment of the Fourth-Monday Lecture Series sponsored by the UVDems, six candidates in the September Democratic Primary made their case before an audience of more than fifty people gathered in the old Canaan Meeting House.
Chuck Townsend, co-chair of Mascoma Forward, opened the event by recognizing other candidates for office in November’s election, and County Treasurer Karen Liot Hill made opening remarks about the importance of primaries and offered a tribute to the memory of U.S. Senator John McCain.
Grafton county Commissioner Wendy Piper moderated the forum and gave an outline of the procedure to be followed before starting off with the introduction and questioning of candidates.
The first two candidates speaking were candidates for the office of county attorney. Natch Greyes is presently the prosecutor for the towns of Littleton, Sugar Hill, and Franconia; and Marcie Hornick is the managing attorney of the Littleton Office of the New Hampshire Public Defender. Natch Greyes and Marcie Hornick links. Video of Debate.
The next candidates speaking were candidates for the office of county sheriff. Travis Austin is the chief of police for the town of Hebron; Jeff Stiegler is the chief of police for the town of Bradford, Vermont. Travis Austin and Jeff Stiegler links. Video of Debate.
The final two candidates speaking were Kelley Monahan, present register of deeds for Grafton County, and Liz Gesler, small business owner and cofounder of the High Horses Therapeutic Riding Program. Liz Gesler and Kelley Monahan links. Video of Debate.
The forum ended with opening questions from the audience for the full lineup of candidates. Video of Q&A
Please click HERE for photos from the evening.
Please click HERE for the full videotape of the debates.
Photos by Bill Secord
Video recording by ETV
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Monday, June 25, A Community Response to Immigration
A panel of experts on immigration issues drew one-hundred-four people to the Upper Valley Senior Center on Monday, June 25, for the fourteenth community presentation sponsored by the Upper Valley Democrats since January 2017.
The panel, comprised of five immigration activists from across the state, presented a stark picture of the dire circumstances faced by both documented and undocumented immigrants to the United States and New Hampshire, especially people of color. Each panelist told personal stories about local and national immigration outrages, as well as offering prospective actions that members of the audience might themselves take to affect the national response.
The panelists were Evangeline Monroe, a retired foreign service officer; Eva Castillo, executive director of the New Hampshire Alliance of Immigrants and Refugees; Asma Elhuni, lead organizer for the United Valley Interface Project; Kate Semple Barta, attorney for the Welcoming All Nationalities Network of the Upper Valley; and Ron Wendt, executive director of the United Valley Interface Project.
For videos from the event, click HERE.
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Monday, May 21: A Community Response to Homelessness
Ann Garland, co-chair of the Upper Valley Democrats, opened the meeting with a reminder to visit the postcard project table and write a pre-addressed postcard to Governor Sununu regarding the voter residency bill. She also called attention to the sign-ups for the two UVD community service projects in June*.
Devin Wilkie, chair of the UVD Affordable Housing and Homelessness committee, set the stage for the evening. He explained that around the fall of 2016, the City of Lebanon passed an ordinance banning camping on public property, and as a result a group of dedicated individuals representing organizations, our elected officials, and concerned community members have been meeting every month to discuss how to address issue of homelessness and how to help those members of our community who are the most vulnerable. Tonight’s program is the outcome.
Devin introduced George Sykes, moderator and ranking member of the Transportation Committee, who in turn introduced the panelists:
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- Susan Almy serves on the House Ways and Means committee
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- Andrew Winter is Executive Director of Twin Pines Housing Trust
- Sara Kobylenski is Executive Director of the Upper Valley Haven
For the video of the presentation and Q&A, please click here.
We have captured a few quotes from the panelists, but they do not come close to doing justice to the evening discussion. You can watch the video for the whole program here.
Rep. George Sykes, D-Lebanon, moderator, “I implore you to become knowledgeable about the positions of your state representatives and your other elected officials, query them strongly on where they stand on the issues of homelessness and affordable housing, and make sure you vote.”
Rep. Susan Almy, D-Lebanon, “Across the Upper Valley, the homeless of all stripes are found in winter as well as in greater numbers in summer, in tents, cars, friends’ couches, shelters, a camper behind a friend’s house, or in a forest belonging to an absentee landlord. Many become homeless suddenly, due to loss of jobs, illness and accidents, and inability to earn enough to pay the rent or mortgage.”
Andrew Winter, Twin Pines Housing Trust, “Ten Parkhurst (housing for chronically homeless and extremely low income members of the community) here in Lebanon is the first project of its kind in the entire country using national Housing Trust Fund money, and it happened because of the partnership between Twin Pines Housing Trust and the Upper Valley Haven.”
Sara Kobylenski, Upper Valley Haven, “ In 2015, a survey showed about 125 individuals who were homeless without any kind of resource in the core upper valley towns.”
“George and I forced the Department of Motor Vehicles to allow the homeless to register their cars, and thus to retain their cars, and be able to sleep in their cars, and go look for a place to live in their cars, and look for a job.”
“Shelter needs have been creeping up since 2014, and this year we were running 18 extra beds and some nights they were all filled. “
“There is a shortage of five thousand units in our region, based on a 2012 assessment. Businesses are telling us there are literally thousands of jobs that are vacant and the only way you are going to bring people to the upper valley is if you have a place to house them.”
We thank the panelists for their participation and Devin, for bringing the panel together.
Want to help? You can reinforce with time or money the human services needed for those in temporary shelter, help out at Twin Pines, at LISTEN, with Silent Warriors, or with forming a group to explore and defend options for a seasonal or permanent shelter on our side of the river to expand the Haven’s work.
Community Service Project dates:
*Saturday, June 2, 1- 3 p.m. Headrest
*Friday, June 15, 3 – 6 p.m. Listen Community Services
Sign up via email: kaylamarra@gmail.com
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Monday, April 23: Environmental Ethics in the Post-Carbon Era
Bill Secord, co-chair of the Upper Valley Democrats, opened the program with a reminder to visit the community service table managed by Kayla Marra, and sign up for our first UVDems community project—a cleanup of the Mascoma Rail Trail,, Sunday, April 29, 1-3 p.m. The staging area will be the parking lot opposite the entrance to the Alice Peck Day Hospital.
Dan Vallone, co-chair of the newly formed Democratic Veterans & Military Families Caucus, introduced us to the new caucus and its mission – to create a community of New Hampshire Democratic veterans and their families. Dan invited anyone interested in being involved in the caucus to please contact him NHDPveterans@gmail.com. You do not need to be a veteran to join.
Lynn Garfield, Chair of the UVDems Environment Committee, introduced Bruce James, the moderator for the evening.
Bruce is a professor emeritus in the fields of soil science and environmental science and policy at the University of Maryland.
Click here for the videotaped Q&A portion of the evening’s panel.
Below are panelists’ final remarks to the moderator’s closing question on “the justice issue of the benefits and cost being born by different people”.
Links provided during the program:
From Meredith Angwin:
Electricity Map,
Worldwide carbon emissions
From Darla Bruno
Oil pipeline deaths
Photos by Bill Secord
Video recording and editing by Ann Garland
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Monday, March 26, 2018: Elections, NHDP Platform Committee, Legislative Update
Thanks to Elizabeth Kilmarx’s postcard project, we wrote 28 postcards to Governor Sununu asking him to stand by his promise to protect students’ right to vote and to support common-sense gun reforms.
The evening opened with executive board elections to fill two vacancies: the position of co-chair was left vacant in January when George Sykes stepped down and the position of secretary was vacated in the fall due to a job opportunity out of state. George Sykes announced there had been a nomination for Bill Secord for co-chair, and asked for a second to the nomination. In response to an audience member request of the co-chair job description, George explained the co-chair shared duties with the other co-chair, ran executive board meetings, and that the full description could be found in the bylaws on the website. The vote passed unanimously.
George Sykes asked for a second to the nomination of Margaret Campbell as secretary, which was forthcoming, and Margaret was voted in unanimously as secretary.
Bylaws link: (https://www.uppervalleydemocrats.com/category/bylaws/)
George was presented with a card and gift in recognition of his contribution to the Upper Valley Democrats over more than five years.
The NHDP Platform Committee distributed copies of the 2018 proposed platform and asked for community input. Many took the floor with pre-scripted planks on issues ranging from gerrymandering, protection of our coastal waterways, gun violence prevention, voter rights for inmates, affordable housing and jobs, consideration of a growing elderly population, health care for all and more. The audience was fully engaged and applauded their fellow community spokespeople. Erin Turmelle, Coordinated Campaign Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party, expressed appreciation for the thoughtful contributions made by the attendees and for their provision of written commentary.
Below are some remarks from members of our community. Hold you mouse over an image to see the remarks.
The evening closed with a lively legislative update from Representatives Tim Josephson, Canaan, (Municipal and County Government); Polly Campion, Hanover (Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs); and Susan Almy, Lebanon (Ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee and former chair). The bottom line is we have remarkably astute, articulate, thoughtful, and hardworking elected officials representing us in Concord, and we need to vote in more of them if we are going to turn the ship around.
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
For more photos, click HERE
Photos by Bill Secord
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Monday, February 26, 2018. Citizen Lobbying
Ann Garland, (L), co-chair of the Upper Valley Democrats, introduces the evening’s topic and our two presenters.
Karen Liot Hill explains that lobbying is when you seek to influence a public official or politician.
The Upper Valley Democrats were treated to an informative and entertaining evening on citizen lobbying on Monday.
Karen Liot Hill and Brittany Pye* facilitated the program. Karen laid out the structure: how, where and when citizens can get involved in lobbying. Click here for slides.
Brittany followed up with an ad hoc report on current NH bills, and then led us through the General Court website, where we can find everything we need to know on House and Senate committees and bills. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/
*Brittany Pye is well known for her Facebook videos on current NH Bills, and they are worth watching. (Click on the link to see one of her FB live videos.)
Elizabeth Kilmarx organized a postcard table for members to fill out postcards to elected officials with one simple message: No guns in New Hampshire schools. No bump stocks. No assault weapons. No arming teachers.
And as always, thanks to our potluck chefs for once again providing a wonderful assortment of dishes.
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
For more photos, click HERE
Photos by Bill Secord
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Tuesday, January 23, 2018. Education Roundtable.
Over 50 Upper Valley residents turned out on Tuesday for our inaugural Upper Valley Lecture Series.
House Representatives Douglas Ley, D-Cheshire; Brian Sullivan, D-Sullivan; Linda Tanner, D-Sullivan; and our own Sharon Nordgren from Hanover presented and fielded questions for well over an hour.
The speakers were focused, at times humorous, and full of factoids, many of which made us gasp! We applaud their tireless work. It was a very special evening.
A big thank you to all who provided an exceptional potluck for the evening.
We have uploaded the videotaped portion of the program on Youtube. Just click to watch.
If you like our lecture series programs, please consider supporting them with a donation. Click HERE to make an online contribution. We thank you in advance for your generosity.
For more photos, click HERE
Photos by Bill Secord
Click HERE to see our 2017 Lecture Series write-ups.