CNHT's blog

06/07/2008: "Meet the New Press" Radio

From time to time, the hosts of NH Taxpayer Radio (a CNHT production) take to the airwaves on other talk shows around the state.

Press Release - July 5, 2008

Hopkinton, N.H. — A record number of local NH candidates took the anti-broadbased tax Pledge offered by The Coalition of NH Taxpayers at the Coalition's 10th Annual Taxpayer Reunion Picnic Event which was held in Hopkinton NH this July 5th.

The "Pledge" is a nonpartisan promise to the taxpayers which states that candidates will block all efforts to institute a state sales or income tax.

CNHT is the largest statewide group of its kind with affiliates in many towns and cities. It traditionally stages its yearly event on the Saturday nearest the Independence Day holiday.

In addition to the candidates for NH Senate and House, in attendance were:

George Phillies for President (L)

Ken Blevens for US Senate (L)

Dear Friends,

We are very excited to announce that we have recently completely revamped our website. It is now bigger, better and more informative. We have added a section that will make it easier to keep up with posting articles about our "working" news. This will be valuable information about cases we've taken on and their outcomes.

We hope you like the new design.

The feed for our new blog is here: http://www.cnht.org/news/feed/

We continue in the 6th year of our very successful weekly radio show: http://www.nhtaxpayerradio.org/feed.xml

The show can also be heard live every Thursday night from 6-8PM on WLMW 90.7 FM in the Manchester area or streaming from the web from: http://wlmw.mainstream.net:8000/listen.pls

Coalition of NH Taxpayers
136 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301
Annual Taxpayer Reunion Picnic Plus!
Hopkinton State Fairgrounds, Hopkinton, NH
Saturday, July 7, 2007

The Coalition of NH Taxpayers held another successful Annual Taxpayer Reunion Picnic (their 9th) at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds on Saturday, July 7th, 2007. Among almost 30 local organizations present were the NH Carbon Coalition, Second Amendment Sisters, Fix Our Flag, NH Center for Constitutional Studies, and many presidential campaigns.

 
Presidential candidates who were present and made speeches were John Cox, Governor Mike Huckabee, Daniel Gilbert, and Robert Haines. Congressman Duncan Hunter made a voice appearance by phone, and the Senator Sam Brownback, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor Tommy Thompson, and Governor Mitt Romney campaigns were represented as well. Governor James Gilmore had planned to attend but was recuperating from recent emergency eye surgery. Dr. Rand Paul, opthamologist and son of Candidate US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul made an appearance in his father's place. Dr. Paul had a previous committment to appear in Las Vegas but was certainly there in spirit as demonstrated by the crowd.

In the Concord Monitor:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070407/REPOSITORY/704070343/1037/NEWS04

Quoting this whining hyperbolic piece that appeared in the Valley News concerning the governor and the desire for more taxation: “There are 400 legislators to deal with, a pesky Executive Council constantly threatening to thwart your will, and an archaic tax system embedded deep in the state’s culture that prevents you from doing much of anything.”

Archaic? Since when is local control ‘archaic’? Once again, NH was chosen the #1 best state in which to live with the second to lowest tax burden per person. We are happy, prosperous, healthy and well educated. (See below taken from: http://www.morganquitno.com/sr07ml.htm)

NH does more than any other state, and not only does it with less, it does it BETTER. There is no education funding ‘crisis’ — only a crisis of greed which will never end if the governor caves into this selfishness.

Don’t let it happen. Write to your representatives and tell them to stop the madness in Concord. We want our old, #1 NH, back!

NH DOES MORE WITH LESS

“New Hampshire does an outstanding job in a number of quality of life areas,” said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. “The state has the lowest crime and poverty rates in the country. In addition, the citizens of New Hampshire are employed, well educated and involved in their communities.”

This marks the 17th year that Morgan Quitno Press has issued its Livable State Award. Based on 44 factors selected from updated editions of its annual reference book, State Rankings, the Most Livable State Award recognizes a state for its high quality of life. The just-released 2007 edition of State Rankings compares states in more than 550 categories.

“Our award is unique because it does not focus on any one category of data. It takes into account a broad range of economic, educational, health-oriented, public safety and environmental statistics,” said Morgan. “The Most Livable State Award tells an interesting story about life and government in the 50 United States.”

Rounding out the top five spots with New Hampshire are (in descending order) Minnesota, Wyoming, Utah and New Jersey. Bringing up the opposite end of the rankings scale with Mississippi are Louisiana in 49th, Arkansas in 48th, Kentucky in 47th and South Carolina in 46th place.

CNHT's Impressions of Liberty Forum 2007

You probably have heard about the Free State Project from some news source somewhere over the last few years. It was a considered an oddity at first, the idea of having people move to a state to promote freedom, lower taxes, less government, and personal responsibility. Some critics were amused and thought they had “gone away”. Not so.

The Free State Project is alive and well and growing by the week. I see them all the time and have quite a bit of contact with many of the members, some of whom have not even moved here yet. They get CNHT E-Blasts.

Their first big bash outside of the annual Porcfest, which has been held in Lancaster for the last three years was “The Liberty Forum” this past weekend in Concord at the Holiday Inn. 350 people attended.

US Congressman Ron Paul wows crowd of 150 in NH
Pembroke, New Hampshire
Saturday, February 24, 2007

US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul was still receiving applause as he walked out the door of a private home in Pembroke on Saturday evening after speaking to 150 supporters who donated thousands of dollars to seed his bid for the presidency. Paul arrived at 9 PM and stayed to mingle with the adoring crowd until 11:30 PM as they drank coffee and dipped fruit from a large arrangement into a chocolate fountain.

While visiting New Hampshire on a presidential exploratory trip, he also appeared at the NH Liberty Forum in Concord, where he had been endorsed for the presidency on the Friday evening before by former Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.

Paul’s speech, which was recorded professionally by California filmmaker Bill Dumas, centered around the financial state of the country, the war in Iraq, and the limited role of government, and was met with long bouts of applause by the standing-room only crowd.

Supporters believe that Paul’s message can unite fiscal conservatives, republicans, libertarians, constitutionalists, and others who are disillusioned with the direction in which the country is headed, in the cause of less government and reasonable spending and on getting the country back on track with regard to foreign policy.

Here is an email CNHT got on Friday the 9th from a person from NH Right to Life. It seems the Governor's Office thinks it's funny to forward calls to 217-2121 to NHRTL instead of taking them themselves. I called and confirmed this was happening Friday but when the 271-2121 # was called yesterday morning the activity had stopped.

What this amounts to is PHONE JAMMING because it is the forwarding of unwanted calls to the answering machine of the non-profit.

How cute it is when our Governor's Office does it?

Luckily phone jamming in NH is "unconstitutional" as you will see by reading the relevant RSA below.

Also is the email that was sent to CNHT Friday and below that the RSA.

 
Be proud of your bipartisan, oh so popular Governor and his wicked funny staff. We are disgusted with the lot of them.

I am often asked, 'What exactly does CNHT DO?

CNHT is so busy doing a good job of 'doing' that we don't do as well of a job at spreading the word about what it is that we do.

All one needs to do is attend one of our twice monthly meetings (yes we are that busy that we meet twice a month) to get an earful of information.

For now, I guess the best answer would be, what we do is 'everything and anything' to stem the tide of corruption and secrecy in NH government as well as keep a lid on the level of taxation imposed, and monitor for waste or fraud regarding the public money...

This latest e-Blast from our Chair Ed Naile, gives cause as to why the Right to Know law (91-A) should not only be preserved but expanded. Please watch the 2007 resurrection of HB 626 for this. Town meeting season is approaching soon, and not only is this every citizen's chance to reject frivolous spending that would raise everyone's taxes, but a chance to protest (and eject if necessary) the new anti-Pledge group who will be trying to pass actual warrant articles denouncing the Pledge and any candidates who would take that Pledge.

In order to demand socialism, one must find a source with a certain degree of success...

From Foster's Daily Democrat:

Saturday, December 16, 2006
New Hampshire is good and getting better all the time

Sometimes we have to be reminded how good we have it in New Hampshire. Sometimes we have to step back from the moaners and groaners who see little but the dark side of things around them. Listen to their voices long enough and you begin to believe they know what they are talking about and theirs are the only words of substance.

Then comes along someone like George Bald, New Hampshire's commissioner of Resources and Economic Development, and expresses the other side — the side with the numbers to back them up.

Bald is not some tricky bureaucrat who is ready to blow smoke in your eyes when things start to go sour. He has a history in the public sector of telling things like they are — neither a Pollyanna nor a Cassandra.

Bald was on home turf recently — speaking to local business leaders in Rochester. His message was the New Hampshire economy is doing well and looking up. Economic growth in the Granite State is increasing at a greater rate than that of the national average. On top of it is a sharp jump in exports last year — 11.5 percent over the previous year — and an unemployment rate that is below the national average. Those are the kind of indicators that signify a healthy economy — an economy destined for future gains.

New Hampshire has been designated the "Most Livable State" in the country three years in a row. It's also the second healthiest state in America and the third safest among the nation's 50 states. The nice part about being second and third? There is incentive to do even better.

Bald said tourism — a four-season industry in New Hampshire — brought 33.4 million visitors to New Hampshire. In addition to what they spent in the private sector, those visitors contributed $20.5 million to the state in rooms and meals taxes.

Two hundred thousand acres of state-owned land and 220,000 acres under managed easements makes New Hampshire the second most forested state in the United States, Bald said in Rochester.

Economic development is a key part of DRED's charge and Bald himself has set an example for the agency's Division of Economic Development. His name is golden among local leaders in New Hampshire's real North Country — the lands north of the mountains where the commissioner played a key role in an earlier term at DRED in getting the mills in Berlin and Gorham running again and in negotiating the sale to the state of lands owned by International Paper. Local leaders in communities of the Upper Connecticut River Valley also speak glowingly of DRED under Bald's leadership.

Pease International Tradeport has been an important factor in the upswing in the Seacoast's economy during most of the past decade. It is no accident that the most successful growth at Pease occurred at times when George Bald was economic development director at the Tradeport and later when he was its executive director.

When DRED was established as part of a larger reorganization of state government some people expressed concern that such diverse divisions as economic development and resource management would not work well under the same umbrella. In fact, they and other divisions within DRED have come to understand and complement each other's goals.

George Bald put it in clear terms when he spoke in Rochester. He stressed "having a good economy is good for the environment and having a good environment is good for the economy."

Something good is happening in New Hampshire. You can see and hear it in the words of Gov. John Lynch, you can read and hear it the words of some department heads. You can see it in the way the state's economy is continuing to respond.

Life in New Hampshire is getting better every day. Be a part of it.

Dear prospective movers, new movers and current NHerites:

Recently a group was formed by the NH Council of Churches, as well as other groups such as Women Making a Difference, Democracy for New Hampshire, The League of Women Voters, NH Peace Action Council, Universalist Unitarians, and others, to remove from the dialogue the famous 'PLEDGE' that candidates and legislators take to promise not to raise or levy new taxes from a central authority such as the state. This group, known as the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition, and which we call the 'religious left' has even gone so far as to say  that taking this pledge is 'morally bankrupt'.

As purveyors of the pledge and keeper of the 'list', CNHT has this response to GSFTC and others who think that the recent liberal sweep was grounds to start talking about an income or sales tax, when NO DEMOCRAT ran on that platform...and in fact, many took our pledge or at least verbally promised the same.

This is an excerpt from a website of a business (Creative Optics, Inc.) that is clearly grateful to live in NH:

"NH pays least income to taxes in U.S."  2006.  Source: Manchester Union Leader. (see a chart here: http://www.cnht.org/images/tax_chart.jpg)

"NH claims best-in-nation award again ... winning the award three years in a row."  2006.  Source: Manchester Union Leader.

"Good living in NH: Census data confirm the obvious."  2005.  "THE NEW Hampshire way of life is best, and we have the data to prove it.   On Tuesday U.S. Census data confirmed that New Hampshire had the highest median household income and the lowest average poverty rate in these great United States.   New Hampshire has such good numbers primarily because our culture highly values self-reliance. New Hampshire's high school and college graduation rates are higher than the national average... The people of New Hampshire value all the right things - family, community, independence, self-reliance, an honest day's work..."   Source: Manchester Union Leader.

 I thought this article in NH Magazine about NH independence was worth reposting here. What we need is more people who come here to have a spirit of community, but voluntarily, without dependence on the 'government'.

No Missing Pieces
By John Walters

It’s a bit of a puzzle how the Granite State prides itself on both rugged individualism and a powerful sense of community. That’s a contradiction we can live with. In spite of our differences and our longing for independence, we know we are better together than we are apart.

The tradition of living in community has deep roots in New Hampshire. Early pioneers banded together out of pure necessity. The governmental system is heavily weighted toward the local level, encouraging community involvement. And throughout our history, communities have formed around religious, political or social beliefs, common interests or the simple desire to gather with like-minded people.

In recent decades, community life has been in decline. But even today, you can find groups who are joining together in some kind of community.

Here, we’ll explore the past and present of community living in New Hampshire, to see why people come together and how they benefit from building relationships beyond their immediate families. We’ll also look at how a decline in community life may be changing the Granite State.

Two meanings of community

The community tradition has two separate strands. Both arise out of the same need for human interconnection, but express themselves in different ways. Both can be seen throughout New Hampshire history.

The first is very simple: strong local ties. The most obvious manifestation is town meeting; but in general, New Hampshire’s political structure has a decidedly local bent. “By design, our state government is the weakest in the country,” says Lew Feldstein of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. “A lot of authority is placed on the local level.”

The second occurs when people decide to form a self-selecting group. One well-known example is the Shaker movement: “In order to achieve an idealized society, Shakers lived communally in relative isolation from the outside world,” says David Starbuck in “Neither Plain Nor Simple,” his book on life in the Canterbury Shaker village.

To live in community, people have to make compromises and lower their barriers; but they get a lot in return. “Take two similar communities,” says Feldstein. “In the one with closer ties, people literally feel better about their lives, their health is better, they live longer, their schools are likely to be better, public safety is better, their local government is likely to perform better and the local business climate is better.”

The academic term is “social capital” — the measurable benefits of community. New Hampshire has historically been rich in social capital. But in the state and the nation, social capital is diminishing. It’s a trend that worries Feldstein — for the future health of public life, and for the locally oriented, volunteer-dependent social order of New Hampshire.

Some people are worried enough about the trend that they are creating their own communities and building their own stocks of social capital.

Intentional Communities

On the west end of Peterborough, there’s a large parcel of “undeveloped” land: some woods, some open fields and the former site of a once-popular inn. This isn’t a community yet, but just wait a couple of years.

Sherry Hulbert stands in what used to be the inn’s parking lot, and unrolls a plan on the hood of her car. This is a proposed map of the Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm, a community that will include 29 units of housing, a working farm and woodlands. “The idea is that the farm and community will be mutually beneficial neighbors,” she says. Hulbert is a farmer herself; she, her husband, and another couple are the project’s organizers.

The community is designed to enhance neighborhood interaction and minimize environmental impact. The homes will be clustered in one corner of the 113-acre site. The units will share a single heating system and a Common House with room for meetings and gatherings. Parking is on the periphery; no vehicles will be allowed within the neighborhood. “That is probably the biggest thing that culls people,” says Hulbert. “Can they imagine not driving right up to their house, especially in bad weather?” It’s not for everyone, but Hulbert only needs to fill 29 homes. Eighteen are already spoken for, and she is confident the community will be fully populated by the spring of 2008, when all the construction will be done.

Nubanusit will be an “intentional community” — a gathering of residents who share a common vision. There are a wide variety of intentional communities; cooperatives, residential land trusts, communes. The vision can be social, political, philosophical or religious — and it can be moderate or extreme.

Somewhere in the woods of New Hampshire lives the “Tribe of Dirt,” another would-be intentional community. Right now, it’s a single family living in a cabin, but its intent is to form a “committed extended family living together, adapting together and making a living together,” according to the Tribe’s website.

The Tribe of Dirt rejects modern economic, social, religious and political structures. Its name is a reminder of humanity’s place in the web of life: “We are of the same material as the rest of the animals, vegetables, minerals, et al of the world.” The Tribe has turned its back on what it sees as a bloated, dysfunctional world, and seeks to establish a completely independent life. Indeed, I quote from the Tribe’s Web site because its members did not respond to my inquiries.

The Nubanusit Farm and the Tribe of Dirt may not have much in common, but they both spring from the human need for community — for a feeling of connection that reaches beyond immediate family. This need has been expressed in many different ways over time.

The NH Tradition of Community

In Colonial days, community was a matter of survival. An example of early community life can be seen at the Fort at No. 4 in Charlestown. This is a living-history museum that reveals life in an 18th-century garrison — a post on what was then the wild frontier. “This was land prospecting,” says Fort director Cheryl Cavanaugh. “Farmers coming from Massachusetts wanting to better themselves.”

They found difficult conditions and a constant threat from the Abenaki Indians — who did not appreciate the settlers’ incursion. Because of the isolation and danger, the farmers had no choice but to cooperate and share their lives. After a few years, they voted to fortify their village; the plan for this fortification is the basis for the museum of today.

From a modern-day perspective, it’s hard to conceive of the isolation of Colonial America — not just on the frontier, but even in places like Portsmouth and Boston. Communication with Britain was inconsistent, expensive and very time-consuming. In the absence of constant control from across the Atlantic, a tradition of local self-government developed. Historian Jeremy Bangs traces the origin of the New England town meeting to the early days of the Plymouth settlement, where “all proposed laws were voted on by all the freemen.”

Not everyone thought this was a good thing; Lord Germain, a British colonial official, called town meetings “the proceedings of a tumultuous and riotous rabble.” Of course, he had just been provoked by the Boston Tea Party.

Milord notwithstanding, town meeting became the cornerstone of government in the Northeast. In his book called “Real Democracy,” University of Vermont political scientist Frank Bryan says town meeting is “stitched into the fabric of New England.” This is especially true in New Hampshire, with its relatively weak state government.

The classic New Hampshire town has a sense of community that grows naturally out of constant interchange — at town meeting, at the dump, at the corner store. Writer and humorist Rebecca Rule has created a series of stories about small-town life, inspired by (but not based upon) Northwood, the town she has called home for the past 28 years. Which means she is “still an outsider” to many.

She says in a small town, everyone knows your business. “A friend of mine was coming to visit me, and she stopped at a coffee shop in town. She told the clerk, ‘I want a cup of coffee for me, and one for my friend Becky Rule.’ The clerk said, ‘Oh, Becky doesn’t drink coffee.’ And I don’t.”

Rule’s friend was surprised and a bit disturbed by that level of casual knowledge, but it’s a great example of the strong but casual ties that bind a community together.

Common Interests

Some communities are loosely defined, but still qualify as gatherings of like-minded people. In Temple and Wilton, an informal community has grown around the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, teacher and thinker of the early 20th century. Steiner developed new concepts in education, medicine, politics, social structure, economics and agriculture. His overall philosophy is known as “anthroposophy.” The best known of his systems is the Waldorf school, which encourages a holistic approach to child development: engaging the mind, body and spirit in equal measure.

Glynn Graham’s classroom is not something you’d see at your local elementary school. Graham is a teacher at the Pine Hill Waldorf School; her classroom is full of supplies for knitting and sewing. “Steiner thought of the human being as threefold,” she says. “Head, heart and hands: thinking, feeling and doing. So each day is supposed to include all three.” According to Graham, handwork helps to develop thinking skills — and it provides a tangible sense of accomplishment that builds confidence.

The beginnings of the Steiner gathering date back to 1942, when a woman named Beulah Emmet founded High Mowing School in Wilton. At the time, there were quite a few Waldorf elementary schools in America, but not as many high schools. High Mowing became a magnet for people committed to Waldorf education, drawing like-minded people to the area.

Today, the local Anthroposophical Society has about 140 members, but their influence outweighs the sheer numbers. They have created several vibrant institutions, including the Pine Hill and High Mowing schools, the Hearthstone Land Trust, two residential facilities for people with mental disabilities and the Temple-Wilton Community Farm. Most of the people who participate are not Anthroposophists; they simply like the quality of the education, service and food. The presence of this very informal Steiner community has had a beneficial impact on the wider community life of the area.

Just off I-89 in Grantham, there’s a sizeable community hidden in the woods. Residents of the Eastman Community are not drawn together by philosophy or belief; they simply want to live in well-built homes in a rural setting with a variety of recreational facilities. But Eastman is more structured than a typical town; its residents are called “members” to emphasize the nature of the community. “When you buy a house in Eastman, you’re buying into the community and the whole concept,” says Eastman’s director of marketing and communications Lorie McClory,

Eastman was founded in the 1960s by Emil Hanslin, a developer with an interest in planned communities and environmental preservation. His son Tony, a longtime Eastman member, says the elder Hanslin was a pioneer in new kinds of development: “common use land, green space, the sense of building community rather than subdivision.”

Eastman’s facilities include a lake, golf club, tennis courts, skiing and hiking trails, a community garden, a fitness center, swimming pool and sauna. There are a variety of organized activities for members. There are spaces for meetings and functions, as well as a pub and a full-service restaurant.

And there are some rules and regulations. “Eastman is probably not for everyone,” says McClory. “We’ve had people move out because they wanted more freedom with their own property.” The restrictions are meant to preserve the character of Eastman. In exchange for abiding by the rules, Eastman members get to enjoy a well-ordered community that blends in to the surrounding environment. Even when you’re in the middle of Eastman, it’s hard to believe you’re surrounded by a small town with more than 1,500 homes.

A rejection of the mainstream

For various reasons, some groups remove themselves from mainstream society to create an atmosphere of shared purpose where beliefs and philosophies can be reinforced. There’s a long tradition of such communities in the Roman Catholic Church; one example is the La Salette Shrine in Enfield.

An apparition of the Virgin Mary seen by two French children in 1846 inspired the La Salette order. The message of Mary — calling for piety, purity and reconciliation — inspired the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, who now serve in 21 countries.

“We’re not monastic,” says Father Gerard Boulanger, director of the Enfield shrine. He says the La Salettes are strongly focused on serving the rest of the world, and living in community helps them fulfill their mission. “We come together for mutual support. We join together for prayer, we live in fraternity and we help one another.” They also provide a temporary refuge for others: “One of our purposes is to provide a prayerful atmosphere in a hectic world.”

Boulanger says there’s a big misperception about Catholic orders. “If you join an order to hide from the world, you’re never going to make it. It’s not an escape; you’re even more engaged with the world.”

A belief in land preservation and sustainable farming is the motivation for a new community in Acworth. Steve and Barbara Davis had been farming there since the early ’80s, but they had a broader vision that couldn’t be fulfilled by a single family. They wanted to add more land and a wider variety of products. They wanted a structure that would preserve the farm beyond their life spans. “Also, we’d been working on our own, and felt a sense of isolation,” says Steve Davis.

In 2000, they formed the Cold Pond Community Land Trust. Since then, according to Davis, “we’ve attracted a group of people with similar goals and visions.”

At last count, the community included seven homes and 28 residents — about as big as they want to be, on their current 275-acre lot.

It’s an active farm. They grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs; they raise chickens for eggs and meat, cattle for dairy and meat; they produce honey, maple syrup, yogurt and cheese. And all their heat comes from wood harvested on-site.

The community is young but thriving, and Davis is happy. “We’re far better off than we were. It’s satisfying and gratifying to see the community working and growing together. It’s inspiring.”

Cold Pond is overseen by a board of directors that makes financial and land-use decisions. But otherwise the residents govern themselves by consensus. This may seem like a remnant of the ’60s, but Davis sees deeper roots: “The way we live here is closer to the roots of New Hampshire life than the way most people live today.” Indeed, in Cold Pond, it’s easy to see echoes of the Fort at No. 4 — minus the stockades, of course.

The Decline and Fall of Community?

The spirit of community expresses itself in a variety of ways: a town meeting, a planned development, a religious order, an intentional community in the woods. They all share a common characteristic: a basic human need to band together. “To not have this opportunity is to miss the chance to really get close to a group of people,” says Davis. “You gain a lot of mutual support; you can share experiences, skills and talents.”

“There is individual development and growth, and community development and growth,” says Sherry Hulbert of Nubanusit Farm. “Both are important in different ways. In our society, we’re imbalanced: lots of individual, very little community.”

So why do most of us choose to live in relative isolation? Why are so many of us “Bowling Alone,” to borrow the title of Robert Putnam’s book on the decline of community? Lew Feldstein of NHCF cites several causes: More time at work, and more two-career couples. And more time on the go. “For every ten additional minutes of commuting time, our community engagement drops by ten percent.”

And then there’s home entertainment. “Time spent watching TV is inversely proportional to community involvement,” says Feldstein. He jokingly suggests a TV buy-back program to counter the stay-at-home trend.

Community life takes time and effort; it requires a degree of sacrifice, of accommodation to the beliefs and wishes of others. But it is key for a healthy society. Feldstein argues that the loss of community is affecting New Hampshire, because of its dependence on local government and volunteerism. The “Live Free or Die” state cannot survive on rugged individualism alone; it only works if community life is strong. In its absence, New Hampshire may turn into a different and less distinctive place.

In this age of the individual, some still choose the benefits and limitations of community life. It comes in all shapes and sizes, from the self-imposed isolation of the Tribe of Dirt to the upscale abundance of Eastman; from the religious faith of the Shakers to the ecological commitment of Cold Pond; from the lifelong commitment of the La Salettes to the fluidity of the Anthroposophists. Even if you don’t decide to head for the woods and join the Tribe of Dirt, you might consider taking a page from their playbook. Get to know your neighbors a little better. Take part in community activities. Go to town meeting. Make an investment in social capital, and you might just find a new sense of health and fulfillment. And New Hampshire will be a little better place. NH

E Pluribus Granitus, By Jack Kenny

The Granite State is too cold to be a melting pot, so the different species of folks who live here co-exist peacefully (if not quietly) but tend to stay just like they are. A well-known curmudgeon commentator (which, in New Hampshire, is a species unto itself) offers the following definitions of a few of the basic types of Granite Staters.

The Cranky Yankee is a remarkably durable soul who flourishes in all kinds of severe weather and terrain. This chip off the ol’ block o’ granite can stand some things, but not many. He thinks it’s bad enough that people move here from Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and other ungodly places full of people with strange-sounding names. What bugs him most about these foreigners, however, is that after they’ve been here 20 or 30 years, some o’ these durn fools start to thinkin’ they belong here. The Cranky Yankee knows that none of us belongs anywhere but for the grace of God, according to whose tender mercy and omniscient benevolence, most of us are damned to Hell anyway. So the foreigners may as well stay in Massachusetts and get used to it.

Don’t be fooled, by the way, by the masculine pronoun. The Cranky Yankee doesn’t have much use for political correctness, but the ol’ boy can be an ol’ gal, too. In fact our most popular scenic highway was named for a Cranky Yankee called Moody Margaret, which is why it’s called the Cranky Maggie Highway, which the foreigners mispronounce all the time.

Now your Back to Earthers are a vanishing breed, which used to be found mainly in the western part of the state, near Vermont, the upside down, Bass-ackwards state with a socialist congressman, an independent U.S. Senator named Jeffords and a Cranky Yankee of their own named Leahy — a fair-minded Irishman who doesn’t like anybody very much. Vermont still has more cows than New Hampshire, mainly because they have one whenever someone mentions the possibility of a Wal-Mart coming to the Northeast Kingdom.

New Hampshire used to have some of those goat-milk loving, crunchy granola types livin’ off the land o’ Cow Hampshuh, but reality has pretty well caught up with and overtaken them. “A lot of them have gone on to be successful business men and women,” says New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Taylor, a native of New Hampshuh who’s just too damn cheerful to be a Cranky Yankee. “I think they’ve faded into normalcy.”

Flatlanders are the newcomers who really don’t approve of the people and the customs they have found here, but have moved in on us, anyway. They disapprove of hunting, except maybe for the bow-and-arrow kind, and don’t like guns in general. They think it’s vulgar of people to cut their own wood. They tend to freak out in three inches of snow. (Some of them are working the weather center at WMUR-TV, Channel 9. But you’ve probably noticed that already.)

Massholes are Flatlanders with an Attitude. They tend to like the Boston Globe and other Bay State things, like smart-ass columnists who think New Hampshire folk are so dumb it takes us two hours to watch “60 Minutes” (a classic Mike Barnicle line). They like to believe they left civilization and culture behind in Boston and are at the far end of the universe when they are in New Hampshuh. The only culture here, they insist, is in the yogurt. They are still proud of being the only state that voted for George McGovern and think that it’s a compliment when you call their native state the “People’s Republic.”

Then there are those hard-to-define folk who might be called Everyone Else. They come here from all over the place and some of them even think New Hampshire is a good place to retire, believing perhaps that this is Florida with snow. Some of them actually have winter homes in Florida, but like the Granite State because it has no sales or income tax and if you buy up enough land here, you can put it in current use and keep your property taxes low, too. In this respect, they resemble the Cranky Yankees, but they’re not cranky enough and they’ll never “Speak New Hampshuh like a Native” — no matter how many Fritz Wetherbee books and tapes they buy. NH

Puzzle me This
The puzzle used to illustrate this story is a one-of-a-kind, hand-cut wooden puzzle created by David Beffa-Negrini of Fool’s Gold in Harrisville (www.foolsgoldpuzzles.com). Along with creating mind-boggling 250-piece puzzles with irregular edges and double-cut (cloned) pieces, Beffa-Negrini makes more gentle puzzles using art or sentimental images that are perfect gifts. You can enter to win the puzzle on page 48 by composing a short essay (less than 200 words) with the title “The Community Puzzle” and sending it to editor@nhmagazine.com. The best essay will be published in this magazine and we’ll send the puzzle to the writer. Submissions must be received by Dec. 16.

About the Artist
The painting on our featured puzzle is by Sieglinde (Sissi) Shattuck, a native of Austria who received her training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. It is one of four panels she created to document the beauty and life of the town of Hillsborough, where she now resides. The prints were shown during the VIP Ausland Niederösterrreicher Treffen 2006 in St. Pölten, Austria, where they were very well received and praised for showing "the other United States" that is less known abroad.

MicroCommunities

Animist Dawn Survival Community, Hillsborough (Forming)
Founded by a Passamaquoddy Indian, the community consists of one man, one woman and three children. The community is polygamous and seeks more women who wish to be part of the family.

Cold Pond Community Land Trust, Acworth
A reserve of 275 acres for low to middle income families who wish to derive a livelihood from farming in a community setting. Population is currently around 20 adults and children.

D Acres of New Hampshire Dorchester
An idealistic organic farm and homestead with a vision to produce a simple yet comfortable standard of living involving conservation and reduced fossil fuel consumption. Six adults and open to more.

Dancing Bones, Wentworth
Small cabins and sustainable life in harmony with the Earth on a 40-acre land trust. Ten members and open to all ages and genders.

MorningSun Community Temple (Forming)
Planning to be an educational center and residential community developing the practice of mindfulness and sustainable living to address the needs of society and the world.

Namasté Greenfire Center Barnstead (Forming)
Freethinkers and activists are welcome to a spiritually focused circle seeking empowerment, personal transformation and cultural evolution. Six adults and one child, open to new members.

Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm Steele Road, Peterborough (Forming)
Co-housing project of 29 environmentally designed homes, a Common House, office space, a working farm and woodlands with walking trails on 113 acres.

Pinnacle Project Lyme (Forming)
Multi-age intentional neighborhood, rural setting but 10 miles from Dartmouth College. Sixteen year-round living suites in a common house and 20 rustic cabins on 120 acres.

Tribe of Dirt (town not given) (Forming)
A tribal vision of a heroic extended family living and adapting together to create a legacy of cradle-to-grave security for future generations. Especially seeking committed couples with children.

Twelve Tribes Community in Lancaster
This local outpost of an international community seeks to “love one another and care for each other’s needs the same way that Yahshua, the Son of God, did when he walked the earth.” The 80 members, young and old, are key members of the local community as well, operating successful businesses in the town of Lancaster.

Descriptions above are based upon information that appears on the Fellowship for Intentional Communities site (directory.ic.org), which also details such social factors as underlying philosophies and decision-making processes of each community, diet restrictions, labor contributions required and openness to new members.

In the 1970s they were called communes, and they popped up and then faded as fast as dandelions. But the concept of the small intentional community has never really faded from the scene. The Missouri-based Fellowship for Intentional Communities lists 13 classic communitarian groups, either established or forming (or defunct) in New Hampshire. Some, like the Animist Dawn Survival Community or the Tribe of Dirt, are essentially just idealistic families, willing to extend themselves by sharing their resources and their peculiar visions with others. Others, like the Twelve Tribes (based in Lancaster but with dozens of other locations in the U.S. and overseas), are well established and successful, with clearly defined social order and productive industry to preserve a common quality of life for the members of the group. All represent the desire to distinguish themselves from the modern world by redefining the nature of community based upon common ethics or beliefs.

Check this link to hear the interview with Gary Roberge of Avitar Associates, the firm that does much of the assessing of property in NH in order to determine their taxes.

Listen carefully for the reason he gave for having recently stepped down from the Assessing Standards Board - too many people allowed to speak up against the "View Tax".

CNHT takes great pride in being a part of what helped his decision to resign, by helping to shine the light on this latest scam to increase government revenue perpetrated on the taxpayers.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/11851 

As a non-partisan organization we at CNHT don't really care what party you choose to join...that is, as long as you are for the cause of lower taxes and less government.

But lately, we are seeing many people calling themselves 'libertarians' championing the causes of socialists who hope to overthrow the very champions who are responsible for the wonderful advantages that NH offers that made it so inviting a state in the first place! 
 
NH is not just the lowest taxed, most prosperous, highest acheiving  state in the northeast for nothing. It is Republicans who are responsible for this.

Is it any wonder that Republicans also scored the highest on this non-partisan scorecard, from a group run mostly by FSPers:

New Hampshire Liberty Alliance Scorecard
http://www.cnht.org/images/2006HouseNHLA.pdf

Here also is some important information on how taxation has ruined the economies of  Vermont and Connecticut:
http://www.cnht.org/images/riverdividesit.pdf
http://www.cnht.org/images/fifteen.pdf

And finally a chart of our state as it compares to the others tax-wise:
http://www.cnht.org/images/tax_chart.jpg

The bottom line is, no matter what, it is REPUBLICANS who have given us and helped us KEEP the NH Advantage.