What are the most significant ways that New Hampshire has changed over the past 25 years?
- Many of New Hampshire’s changes are not distinct from those of other states. These include the impacts of a globalizing economy which is intensifying the wealth gap and creating a homogeneous mass culture.
- New Hampshire is experiencing an increase in the diversity of its population in terms of national origin and race.
- Passage of civil unions is an indicator of a growing respect and visibility of people who are lesbian and gay.
What in politics and government has changed the most, especially in New Hampshire, over the last quarter century? When I started at the AFSC in 1981, our communication was primarily by mimeographed newsletters produced using an electric typewriter and sent by mail. Now electronic communication makes it easier to reach large numbers of people instantly.
What Granite Stater(s) would you say inspired you? In what way? I am lucky in that I get to meet people all over the state who inspire me with their commitments to social justice and peace. Here are 3 of them:
Lionel Johnson – As one of the founders of Manchester’s NAACP branch in 1964, Lionel was at the center of local and statewide civil rights activism until his death in 2004. He understood the sting and oppression of racism, and dedicated his life to practical, sometimes slow steps toward achieving justice. When the Martin Luther King Coalition gave him a special award in 1988, he told me, “You only have so much time on earth to live. If you don’t produce something for humanity, what are you here for?”
Lois Booth -- Lois was on the committee that hired me in 1981 and has been a indefatigable volunteer for the AFSC and NH Peace Action all along. She is one of those people usually found working behind the scenes day after day after day to educate the public about threats to peace, help others find ways to use their voices, and make sure the organizations she cares about have the resources they need to function.
Erin Placey - Erin is the Youth Organizer for the AFSC this year. Every day I am impressed with the energy, creativity, and integrity with which she accompanies the state's teenagers in their own paths to effective activism. I am also inspired by her willingness to try things she's never done before.
What would you consider your favorite spot in New Hampshire and why?
1) Pillsbury State Park, a beautiful spot of wilderness
2) World Fellowship, a place where people who care about social justice gather in the beauty of the White Mountains. www.worldfellowship.org
3) The ponds at Canterbury Shaker Village, where the grass and trees are starting to turn green.
What would you like to see accomplished in New Hampshire over the next 25 years? Asked in 1893 "what does Labor want?" Samuel Gompers, first president of the American Federation of Labor, replied:
"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures."
That works for me.
