Just Like Mary
Mary
Poppins (aka Linda Peck) will pop into the Chesley Memorial Library
with her carpet bag full of hats, scarves, umbrellas that fly, a
giant hat rack, and more…ready to tell magical stories that will
delight audience members of all ages. Join us on Thursday, August
7, at 6:00 p.m. for this FREE performance. Funding for the Kids,
Books, and the Arts event is provided by the Jack and Dorothy Byrne
Foundation, CHILIS, Cogswell Benevolent Trust, and is supported in
part by a grant from the NH State Council on the Arts and the
National Endowment for the Arts as well as funds administered by the
NH State Library and provided by the Institute of Museum and Library
Services.
Northwood Police Department Adds On-Body Video Capability
Submitted By Lucy Edwards
The
Northwood Police Department rolled out their on-body video camera
program for every uniformed officer on July 23, 2014, joining
several other police departments in New Hampshire in using this new
technology. The cameras Northwood chose are made by Taser, and can
be worn just above the ear using a headband, or on a pair of
glasses, or shoulder mounted. Sgt. Shane Wells modeled the camera
for us.
The
first question I asked was, “Do you have to get permission to
record?” Chief Drolet explained that they notify the parties being
recorded but permission is not needed when the officer is
interacting in a law-enforcement encounter. For example, if you stop
to talk to an officer at the supermarket, the recorder is not turned
on, but if you are pulled over on the highway, the recorder will be
on.
Chief
Drolet noted that having a videotape record of a law-enforcement
encounter is good police practice for both the officer and the other
persons involved. The experience of officers who have worn on-body
cameras elsewhere is that it markedly improves behavior, of both the
officer and the subjects. I asked Sgt. Wells what his experience so
far has been like, and he immediately described it as good. He said
that he found he was much more conscious of his words and actions,
remembering his training as he worked. He also said he was a bit
surprised that the reactions of the public were so positive.
The
Chief noted that being able to watch the tapes and see exactly what
happened during the encounter makes writing good reports much
easier. The videotapes are also excellent educational tools. The
department will be reviewing them and using both the good examples
and the not-so-good in their trainings. The information on the tapes
is also going to save time and money when officers have to go to
court to testify.
Letter To The Editor
Bombs
Away
While I
should be writing another letter to convince you that if you elect
me to represent you in Concord this fall, I will solve all of the
state’s problems and resolve all of its dilemmas, I feel impelled to
comment on Mike Faiella’s recent letter about the decision to use
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to hasten the end of war in
the Pacific.
Mr.
Doucet’s letter last week addresses the source of Mr. Fiella’s
revisionist views: a book of dubious scholarship, The Decision to
Use the Atomic Bomb by Gary Alperovitz. But I will confine my
remarks to a more personal view of those events.
Granted, I was only 8 months old at the time – August of 1945 – but
my father was aboard a ship in Okinawa harbor, part of what might be
the second greatest expeditionary naval force in history. Credit for
Number One goes to the Normandy invasion fleet, but since the
invasion of Japan never happened, historians haven’t weighed in on
this issue.
And
because the invasion was not needed, they never will.
But
here’s the history as I know it from my father and a couple of other
vets whom I discovered who were in Okinawa at the time. Having
fought their way across the Pacific, island by island, against a
tenacious enemy, many US military leaders were convinced that Japan
would have to be invaded to be compelled to surrender. Hence the
build-up of the fleet and the decision to drop the bombs instead.
Japan surrendered unconditionally and was occupied by my father and
others.
A side
“benefit” of this action as nuclear weapons proliferated and became
ever-more powerful was that leaders since have not used them.
Mutual Assured Destruction has kept the safety on. Let’s hope that
continues.
Tom
Chase
Northwood
Letter To The Editor
To the
Editor,
“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges
even where there is no river”, Nikita Khrushchev.
Disclaimer, I’m not running for anything, this year. In response to
the article “Sign Slogans” I have some ideas to lower taxes. As they
did in Britain, have everyone receiving a disability benefit submit
to a medical test to confirm the need. A third did not show up and
55% of those that did were fit for work. Disability is the new
welfare. Similarly if unemployment was run correctly the
unemployment # would drop very quickly. Help the unemployed by
assisting them to relocate where the jobs are such as Yuma, Arizona,
North Dakota or Texas. As a business owner I was overrun with
“disabled” and “unemployed” people quite able to work, under the
table. Get unions out of the government. Only there are completely
incompetent bureaucrats of failing institutions given incredible
bonuses of taxpayers’ dollars, think veterans’ healthcare, the IRS.
I could go on and on. Let me give you just two more.
Clone
Benjamin Netanyahu and put him in charge of enforcing our borders.
Better yet, elect him President.
Re-elect Bruce Hodgdon. He is not a lawyer. He is not living off of
taxpayer dollars. He is paying those taxes. He is an incredibly hard
working family supporting man. He will be the first to say that we
have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. He did not and will
not raise your taxes.
Let’s
help those that need it,
Tim
Jandebeur
Northwood, NH
Letter to the Editor
Hiroshima, Once More
I grew
up in the decade after World War II, in a home that revered Douglas
Mac Arthur alongside America’s Founding Fathers. We had a war atlas
with his picture on the cover and a scroll of his West Point
farewell speech. When he died I was only a teenager, but I trekked
to the 7th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, where he lay in state, to
pay him homage.
Like
most Americans, for much of my life I believed we were justified in
dropping atomic bombs on Japanese cities. It was only when I read a
few years ago that General Mac Arthur disagreed with that decision
that I rethought my position. As I researched the question I
discovered that Mac Arthur wasn’t the only military officer who felt
that way. So did Generals Eisenhower, Marshall, Le May, and Clark,
along with Admirals Leahy, Halsey, Strauss, and Nimitz, among
others.
I also
learned, partly from Mac Arthur’s confrontation with President
Truman during the Korean War, that it’s possible to criticize a
President’s decision--even when he’s acting as
Commander-in-Chief--and still love your country.
In the
Stephen Vincent Benet’s story “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” the
character Daniel Webster “talked of the early days of America and
the men who had made those days….He admitted all the wrong that had
ever been done. But he showed how, out of the wrong and the right,
the suffering and the starvations, something new had come,” and that
something was a free nation.
We love
our country as we love our family, faults and all. We love our
culture, history, founders, and ideals. We love our home, our town,
our state. We don’t have to agree with every government action, in
1945 or 2014, to be patriotic.
Michael
Faiella
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