YourNeighborhoodNews.com: The Goffstown News

Goffstown's Highway Safety Committee, led by Police Chief Michael French, has recommended to the board of selectmen that a traffic signal be placed at the intersection of Wallace and Shirley Hill roads in Goffstown.

Twenty-five accidents have occurred there in the past three years, eight of them involving serious injuries.

Apparently they've tried other things . warning signs that a stop is ahead, bigger stop signs, grooves on the road. But the accidents continue.

Anyone who's driven that stretch of Wallace Road knows how dangerous it is. Whether you're driving to or from Bedford, the stop comes up quickly, and when you are stopped, it's almost impossible to see very far down the road because it curves so close to the intersection. Even if you haven't had an accident there, maybe you've had a close call. And in winter, it's slippery and even more dangerous.

So the selectmen want to think about it some more, try another option, maybe. But what hasn't been tried yet? They want to be sure that a light will prevent accidents. They want to save money.

But why is it that the powers that be wait to take steps to save lives until a life is gone?

Because that's what's going to happen, given enough time. It's time to do something about that intersection. No matter what it costs.
-Christine Heiser

There is so much misinformation circulating, concerning this subject. And this letter is either part of that campaign or from someone that is poorly informed as to the crisis this nation is facing.

Something must be done about this now or no one that has payed into Social Security will receive anything from it. That is a bad return on an investment, don't you think?

If it is looked at logically, Social Security is not secure and won't be unless something is done. People also seem to have lost sight of what Social Security is, it is a retirement supplement to defray the costs of living with no active source of income.

If the "baby boomers" and seniors will quit acting so infantile, they will see that by the time their children and grandchildren retire, those generations will be paying for huge increases in the Social Security tax and cuts in benefits. Are they so selfish that they can't see that their children and grandchildren will exist just to pay Social Security taxes?

This is a very unfair burden to the younger generations. I know I don't want my daughter paying 50 percent or more of her income to Social Security.

"We've seen wiped-out retirement funds; from Enron and Lucent to Healthsouth and WorldCom: Millions of stock/ retirement dollars evaporated."

This has nothing to do with Social Security, these are 401ks etc. I believe anyone who invested in these companies signed something to the effect of: their investment is not guaranteed a profit and could lose money. They did not decide how your Social Security money is invested.

These companies or companies like them will not be running our personal retirement accounts. These companies. executives are being investigated, charged and convicted for the crimes they committed. President Bush misspoke about the T bills. T bills were an incorrect term. This is what I believe he was trying to convey.

Congress for years now has been taking money from the Social Security trust fund and using it for the general budget. And they (Congress) have issued worthless IOUs, because Congress has no intention of paying the money back.

The private stock market is not a risky gamble. It is a gamble, but life is a gamble. Take a look at the long-term growth of the stock market. It has grown consistently and steadily in the last 50 years.

Yes, there economic downturns, but they are short-lived and sporadic . all in all a good vehicle for long term investment. If it is looked at with the short term in mind it is quite volatile. But retirement is being discussed here and the longterm model should always be considered, not the short term.

President Bush's plan for Social Security might not be the best plan. It is the only plan I have heard, and I have yet to hear one idea from the opposition. Instead of bemoaning how wrong Bush's plan is, why not put some viable alternatives on the table for discussion. And by alternatives I don't mean tax increases.

Personally, I would like to see the Social Security Act, the Welfare Act and any other entitlement act repealed. Congress and the president have no constitutional authority to enact legislation for the express purpose of taking money from one group and giving it to another. This power is not enumerated once in the Constitution. If all this was cut from the budget, deficits would be nonexistent.
Mark Loveless
Goffstown

We were concerned about what we considered several pitfalls of the policy, the most glaring being the fact that if you stole, vandalized or hazed, you were merely suspended from the team for a certain number of games to be determined by the athletic director on a case-bycase basis. However, if you were caught drinking, doing drugs or were in the presence of someone who was drinking or doing drugs, you were immediately dismissed from the team for the remainder of the season.

Although none of us condoned the use of illegal substances by the youth of JSR, many of us felt that it sent a mixed message about what the John Stark community considered a forgivable transgression. It was clear and understandable that the "decision- makers" wanted to send a strong message about illegal drug and alcohol use, while our committee felt equally strong that stealing, vandalism and hazing ranked right up there on the list of no-no's. Is one really any worse than the other?

After reviewing many of the studies that conclude that .zerotolerance . drug policies are ineffective as being a deterrent to alcohol/drug use and new studies about the workings of the teenage brain, our group proposed what we believed was a more responsible way to address this very difficult issue.

We modeled our program after the Hillsboro Youth Court's system of restorative justice, a philosophy that is practiced around the world. It is for the first-time offender only. It includes all types of infractions. Its premise and research recognizes that people can make mistakes, but allows the person the opportunity to take responsibility and learn from their mistakes. The student would be suspended for a certain number of games and then have the opportunity to redeem him/herself by fulfilling a contract of demands tailored to the offense.

This would have been administered by a group of school personnel and community members. We presented our plan to the school board. It was positively received and then sometime over the summer the new idea was scrapped. We were told they appreciated our input but the policy was going to stay as is. However, they were going to add a counseling component for the alcohol/drug users.

So here we are a year later and there was a party somewhere within the last couple of weeks at which some athletes both "in" and "out" of season got caught for drinking. Unfortunately, we can't say that we are surprised.

What we can say, though, is that we know that you are all good kids that made a poor choice. For those of you that have been thrown off your team, we are truly sorry that you won't be able to benefit from our plan.

We continue to believe our plan of restorative justice would have allowed you the opportunity to redeem yourselves in the eyes of your school community, kept you busy by staying involved with your team and perhaps given you an incentive not to drink next Saturday night.
Jeanne Daniel
Ruth Cherry
Deb Dow
Jackie Cowell
Margaret Glover

The climbing wall from Vertical Dreams was a hit, along with officer Chauvette and his dog Rex from the Goffstown Police Department.

We also would like to thank officer Peterson and officer Clark from the Weare Police Department for their bike safety training class.

Thank you to all parents and kids who brought your bikes. We had no idea this was going to be such a big hit that we look forward to doing this again next year and spending more time with it.

Thank you to the Weare Fire Department for bringing a fire truck and an ambulance. The water show was spectacular. Thank you to Riverside Tae- KwonDo for showing us the moves and to Chris Hague from the Weare Public Library for a great storytime.

We would also like to thank The Dog Bite Hot Dog Cart for providing refreshments, Carl Knapp for bringing a grader for us to look at and Mrs. Milano, Center Woods Elementary School art teacher, for providing the art projects.

And a final thank you to all the parents and students who participated, making it a fun afternoon.
Lynn Hanna
Weare Friends PTO Literacy Committee

The witnessed wishes of Terri Schiavo are instead to be controlled by religious dogma on "life." Will my husband be vilified a murderer or worse just because I choose not to live in the condition Mrs. Schiavo did? Is this what the last election was about?

Now, imagine a religious man gets elected president with the support of millions of his faith. Kennedy claims a mandate. President Kennedy announces new Catholic dogma laws: no divorce or contraception, public tax dollars for Catholic schools, books banned and no meat on Fridays!

Now look at the headlines with the radical Christian fundamentalists leading a pandering Congress by the nose to an unconstitutional law for one person!

This religious right is flexing its newfound evangelical muscle. Their Republican evangelical leaders like Falwell, Robertson and Dobson have announced their goal to remake our laws to fit their personal religious views. According to evangelical Republican leaders, American law needs to be based on Biblical law, much like Iran is based on the Koran. They make no secret of these plans. Televangelists say jump and Mr. Frist and DeLay ask how high? They are determined to have their version of Biblical law injected into our government and anyone who isn't in agreement? Tough!

"You're a terrorist" or "persecutor of Christians," say GOP activists like Randall Terry.

The repression has already begun. Women have already gone to their pharmacy to fill contraception prescriptions, only to be told that under the new law, the pharmacist can choose to not fill it if he feels contraception is wrong.

Married woman have been denied legal emergency contraception. Doctors can now choose not to prescribe contraceptives in the same "conscience" law. Their religious conscience rights supersede my right to buy my medicine? Why? We aren't a theocracy. Can they refuse to sell condoms? Why do their religious rights get to bulldoze my rights?

Science teachers are being intimidated to include a Christian creation story in place of scientific evidence on evolution in the biology class of all students. Instead of having a parental opt-out option in health class, accurate health information on disease and pregnancy have been replaced for all students with "just say no." Evidently it's preferable to have kids contract AIDS than to have accurate health information. How Christian is that?

Replacing science with religious beliefs has become so prevalent in several of our national agencies like EPA that scientists have banded together to try to ring the alarm. Movies have been shut down for mentioning the evolution of volcanic microbial life. Women's clinics have been bombed and their doctors intimidated and even murdered. Incredibly, a murder contract was put out on a Schiavo case judge as well as on her husband by someone in "the religious culture of life."

No need for clean environment laws, Jesus is coming soon, so pollute away because there will be no future generations who will need those resources anyway.

Oh, and if the "end" doesn't happen, our great-grandkids get a dangerously polluted resourcepoor planet!

Check out "dominionists" online. Evidently Jesus has changed his mind on the whole "care for the poor" thing, too, judging from the Bush budget cuts to the handicapped, the children, our veterans and the increasing numbers of poor citizens.

"Blessed are the peacemakers"; they are called unpatriotic. Contrary to the Christian right babble, the founding fathers were not fundamentalist Christians, they were deists who believed in a divine presence without the dogma and self-righteousness of many churches of their time.

As followers of the enlightenment, they would be fighting against the Christian fundamentalist efforts at religious domination of our government. Voices against all this are starting to be heard, from concerned voters to equally concerned church leaders.

Check out the voting record of your representatives and be heard.
Jeanne Stapleton
New Boston

Some children have had a hard winter. Things may be easier for them now that they can spend more time outdoors. No more heavy clothes with long sleeves for a while. Child abuse is more obvious during warm weather. School staff often see its results in unexplained bruises and marks on a child. These kids may need to be placed in foster care.

May is foster care month. If you know a foster parent ask them about fostering and thank them for the good work they do. Then find out how you can help. Call your local Concord DCYF foster care worker at (800) 322- 9191.
Jan Feuer
New Hampshire Foster and Adoptive Parent Association
Concord