SAVE THE DATE!!!
The
Barnstead Parade Congregational Church Missions Annual Cookie Walk
will be held on Saturday, December 15th from 9am-12noon. All cookies
are homemade. There will also be a Christmas Corner for last minute
gifts. Enjoy a cup of cocoa or coffee—we look forward to seeing you!
Barnstead, Alton, Pittsfield, Gilmanton
Seeking
Board Members!! The Barnstead Farmers Market was voted WMUR’S #3
Best Farmers Market in NH for 2018!
Our
market is growing and we need more Board Members for the 2019
season! We are seeking business owners, business minded individuals
or individuals who have some background or experience within the
farming or agriculture industry. Our board needs individuals who are
motivated to help us move to the next level of success. If this is
YOU, please contact Lori Mahar, President of the BACFM! 603-269-2329
or [email protected]. Please
visit
www.barnsteadfarmersmarket.club for more information about our
market!
Oscar
Foss Memorial Library News
Story
Hour
Story
Hour is held every Wednesday at 10am from September through May and
follows the Barnstead school calendar for days off. Join us for
stories, music & movement, and arts & crafts. Story Hour will not be
held December 19th and December 26th due to the Christmas holiday.
Please check our website, Facebook or WMUR for cancellations due to
inclement weather this winter.
Adult
Book Club
The
Adult Book Club meets the first Wednesday of each month at 7pm here
at the library. Join us for some great literature and stimulating
conversation. Copies of the current book, “Endurance,” by Scott
Kelly, are available at the library. The next meeting is scheduled
for January 2, 2019.
Teen
Writers Group
The
Teen Writers Group will be meeting on Thursday, January 3, 2019 at
6:30pm. This group meets at the library on the first Thursday of
each month. Teens 12-18 years are welcome to attend for sharing,
discussing and improving their writing.
Yoga
Mary
Ellen Shannon, RYT offers two yoga classes at the library every
Tuesday afternoon, Simply Yoga at 4:15pm for beginners and an All
Levels Class at 5:30pm. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring a
yoga mat. If you have blocks and straps, please bring those also.
Classes are by donation and all are welcome and encouraged to
attend, regardless of ability to donate. Mary Ellen has been a
resident of Barnstead for 18 years and a yoga practitioner for even
longer. If you have further questions, please contact Mary Ellen at
269-5030.
Please
call the library (269-3900) or visit our website (oscarfoss.org)
for more information about our programs or events. There is always
something happening at the Oscar Foss Memorial Library! Library
hours are; Tuesday and Wednesday: 10am-6pm, Thursday and Friday:
12pm-8pm, Saturday: 10am- 1pm, Sunday and Monday: closed.
2018
Milk & Cookies New Year’s Eve Concert Features “All the Songs I
Can’t Remember The Words To”
Submitted By Chris Bonoli, Your Local Musician
If all
goes as planned, on New Year’s Eve, Roy D’Innocenzo will sit down
with me, with a cup of tea, and a music stand to play a 2 hour
“parlor concert” at the Barnstead Town Hall. We will be
playing “All the Songs I Can’t Remember The Words To” and you
are all invited to attend. As usual, the concert will be from
7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on December 31 and doors will open at 6:00 p.m.
with a short intermission to snack on some Milk & Cookies! Roy
will play some instrumentals in his jazzy style and he will also
back me up as I play and sing. As tradition has it, I will
pass out the words and we will all sing the song American Pie just
before intermission. This year all proceeds will benefit the
Memorial to Honor Public Works Employees who have died on the job
from ALL New Hampshire municipalities, counties and the state. To
date, there are 33 names for the memorial being constructed in
Concord.
The
suggested concert donation will be $8. Please call me at
603-340-1468 or 776-3616 and leave a message to reserve your
tickets. All additional monetary donations to the Memorial, or
donations of cookies and desserts are graciously accepted - and I
will call you back to confirm your reservation. If you are a
public works employee and receive your paycheck from a municipality
or the state, you and your family may attend for free as our “thank
you” for your public service designing, building and maintaining our
infrastructure – and hopefully you won’t have to be out plowing and
treating roads on December 31!
In
closing, I want to thank the Milk & Cookies New Year’s Eve concert
fans from all the surrounding towns who have supported this event
over the last 7 years. Many of you have asked me “Would I be hosting
another New Year’s Eve Concert for 2018?” Well, the answer is “Yes”
and you are the reason this is happening! Have a safe and
happy holiday with your loved ones and family and we’ll see you on
New Year’s Eve.
Letter
To The Editor
Wealthy
White Men, Slavery and the Electoral College
When
the framers of the U.S. Constitution devised the Electoral College
as the mechanism for electing presidents, the only eligible voters
were landowning white men. White men who did not own property could
not vote. In other words, wealthy white males held all the power.
One
important factor, being talked about more in recent years, was
crucial in the decision to vote through the Electoral College rather
than by direct popular vote. Standard textbooks rarely mention “the
real demon dooming direct national election…” (Yale constitutional
law specialist A.R. Amar). That demon was slavery.
Southern white slave owners were disadvantaged because of a lack of
eligible voters. Since the majority of their population was slaves,
southerners complained that they would never win a presidential
election by direct vote. James Madison proposed using the
“three-fifths clause” as applied to the House of Representatives.
Each southern state could count slaves in their population with a
two-fifths discount because slaves’ value was “debased by servitude
below the equal level of free inhabitants.” Although
controversial, the North gave in and the Electoral College was born.
The
Electoral College has remained controversial, yet it survives,
despite the fact that it has never worked the way it was intended
and slavery was abolished long ago. It defies the democratic
principle of one person, one vote; voters feel their vote is
meaningless unless they live in a “swing” state; and it encourages
voter suppression.
For
many years we have elected our legislators and governors directly.
Why should we not do the same with presidents? The Electoral College
has no basis in today’s world. And why should we continue to support
an immoral system that used black slaves to give political power to
an already privileged white male class?
Jane
Westlake
Barnstead
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