Stephanie Vuolo: Free staters in the NH house should be of concern

To The Daily Sun,

As a resident of Alton, I am appalled that GOP representatives from Belknap County, including Ray Howard, of Alton, and Michael Sylvia, of Belmont, are sponsoring a bill calling for New Hampshire to secede from the U.S. As Leonard Witt explained in his Oct. 19, letter, their bill and beliefs betray our Pledge of Allegiance and trample on the graves of all the men and women who gave their lives fighting for this country. To make matters worse, when Rep. Howard attempted to respond to Mr. Witt’s letter, he simply repeated the fringe fantasies of the radical anarchists of the Free State Movement and never once mentioned any love of country.

The New Hampshire anti-government takeover plan has been over 20 years in the making, with the Free Town Project (libertarian extremists similar to the Free State Project) starting an experiment in Grafton in 2004 to create a town with no tax, no government, no authorities, no laws, and no rules. In his book “A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear,” Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling described the disastrous aftermath as follows: “The survivors of America’s first Free Town Project were left to assess the damage, as if they’d woken up after a smashing house party, only to remember, with growing horror, that it had taken place in their own home."

These radical anarchists are flame throwers who do not represent the views of the people of New Hampshire, on either side of the aisle. When the majority Republican towns of Alton, Gilmanton, and Barnstead (Howard’s district) and Belmont (Sylvia’s district) voted these men into office, did anyone have any idea where it would lead?

Let’s not let these fringe idealogues trample on our flag and trash our county, our state, and our nation.

Stephanie Vuolo

Alton Bay