The Alleged Editor

Free and Fair Elections?

To the Editor: The U.S. Constitution’s 15th Amendment guarantees all citizens the right to vote. But until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, literacy tests suppressed voting in many states. Many hurdles for pandemic-wary New Hampshire voters promise novel forms of voter suppression. Hooray! The Governor and Secretary of State say anyone can vote absentee—just claim a disability (fear of Coronavirus). What about those hurdles? New Hampshire is the only state without registration by mail or online. The only way to register to vote is in-person at your Town Office… …which is probably closed. If applying (by phone, mail, email) to vote absentee, be sure …

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Real American Carnage

Officially, as of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.5 million Americans were confirmed to have been infected by the coronavirus. More than 90,000 have died. Those are the figures we have to work with, anyway. We know that both numbers will only rise. That goes without saying for the death toll, of course, because life is a one-way street. These days, though, with more than 1,200 people dying every day from the virus, the mortality department’s accountants can no more keep up than Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory. The number of total cases is also a moving target; with new people getting infected every …

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Why Treat Essential Workers So Badly?

by Lawrence Wittner On March 19, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum identifying the nation’s 2.5 million farmworkers as “essential” workers. Soon thereafter, agribusinesses began distributing formal letters to their farm laborers, also declaring that that they were “essential.” Of course, it shouldn’t have required a government-business effort to establish this point. Without farmworkers, there is no food. And the American people need food to survive. But, remarkably, over the course of U.S. history, farmworkers, although essential, have been terribly mistreated. Whether as slaves, indentured servants, sharecroppers, or migrant laborers, these millions of hardworking people endured harsh and brutal lives, enriching others …

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Collect Renewable Energy Payments for Rooftop Solar

To the Editor: As a member of the Science Technology & Energy (STE) committee of the N.H. House of Representatives during the past three years, I have been dealing with issues surrounding energy generation, renewable and sustainable energy, and energy efficiency. As part of that process I became aware of the fact that as a rooftop solar owner I am eligible to be registered as a renewable energy generator, allowing me to collect revenues. Each Megawatt Hour MWh of generating capacity qualifies the owner for one Renewable Energy Certificate [REC]. These RECs are sold at the New England quarterly auction. It turns out that when …

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