Seth Wheeler: New Hampshire Legislature Republican majority stunts

To The Daily Sun,

It’s a fun fact that New Hampshire has Massachusetts to thank for its fierce independent streak. Long ago when New Hampshire was still a backwater of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it became a haven for Massachusetts transplants who viewed the aggressive Puritan authorities down south as encroaching, intolerant, and overly controlling.

The conflict was so severe that King Charles II stepped in, specifically setting up New Hampshire as a separate royal province in 1679 to remove it from Massachusetts Bay control.

With that beginning, the people of New Hampshire created their own social compact, which boils down to this: Respect my way of life, I respect readers' way of life, we all support and protect our community. Implicit is the understanding that we will not impose our beliefs on one another. This shared ideal has endured for more than 300 years. It’s at the core of Live Free Or Die.

That’s why it is so difficult to watch this Legislature make confetti out of our social contract with each other.

Instead of governing to help the majority of New Hampshire residents who just want a return to sanity, our Republican majority has played its hand, and it’s a closed fist. Here’s a partial list of what they’re telling us to do: change public school curriculums to fit their revisionist history; punish teachers who run afoul of their new morality; endanger children’s health by removing vaccine requirements (defeated … for now); fund private education with public money; and, in a familiar refrain, where to go to the bathroom.

The Republican majority knows the clock is ticking on these legislative stunts. Midterm elections are coming and sensible New Hampshire residents will reward leaders who will address our broken taxation system and re-establish our bonds of mutual trust and respect.

Seth Wheeler

Meredith