Free Republic

Excellent article.


Here is another on the subject.

http://hnn.us/articles/1658.html

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, "college has gone from being an intellectual privilege to a social necessity."

He made many of the same points both articles bring up.

W. N. Kilarjian, FRGS

This last Fourth of July my wife, myself and our Jack Russell Terrier ‘Mac’ traveled to New Hampshire from our home in Westchester County, NY. This was only the second trip to the granite state for my wife and the first for Mac. In my youth our family had traveled often to New Hampshire on summer vacations, frequenting Manchester, Portsmouth, Nashua and Lake Winnipesaukee. Those summer trips and subsequent trips thereafter always engendered a feeling of being drawn to the Old Man of the Mountain. New Hampshire’s appealing qualities are manifest. In the muscular natural beauty, the open, friendly and forthrightness of the people, the dignity of her cities and towns. Admirable traits abound.

On this trip we planned to visit Keene and then continue north to stay with friends in the Berlin and Gorham area. We departed NY and made our first port of call. We found Keene and its environs to be thoroughly lovely. The Main Street, which we strolled along amiably, is nonpareil. Reasoned development policies clearly in evidence, Keene possesses the needed commercial attributes and infrastructure without sacrificing the feeling of neighborly community.

Our next stops were in Berlin and Gorham. Here we met friends, took in the beautiful fireworks display in Gorham and basked in the wonderful surroundings. Berlin, while obviously a factory town, fortunes ebbing and flowing as the tide thereon, seems as if the tide is coming back in with a vengeance. In many locations we noticed new or just getting ready to open businesses. There is a sense of optimism about town. This augurs well for the future. A note about the Fourth of July fireworks show in Gorham. When the National Anthem started it was heartening to see the vast majority of people stand while it played. In me this evoked clear thoughts on the meaning of patriotism and brought to mind Adlai Stevenson: “Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” A short frenzied burst of patriotic emotion is what we saw in New York after recent events. True to type, New Yorkers have reverted to their particular and peculiar form of condescension towards not only our nation but to those who evince the tranquil and steady patriotism of a lifetime. Being a life long New Yorker, born in New York City in Jamaica, Queens and raised in Astoria, I am keenly aware of the attitudes of New Yorkers toward what they regard the “lesser States” and those who dwell in them.

One of the reasons we made the Keene area our first stop was because of our intention to move there over the course of the next year. Deciding to leave our settled life in New York was not done on a whim. Sadly, or perhaps not so, it has become a necessary reality. New York as presently constituted no longer resembles the New York of my youth. Decades of misguided government policies both fiscal and social have taken the empire out of the Empire State. Also, as a life long conservative and republican one no longer feels especially welcome. A monolithic political structure is not conducive to representative government. The State itself, particularly in the area of government, has become unwieldy. In light of the stark differences that exist in the three main regions it may be time to consider devolving to three smaller states – North, West and South New York State. Perhaps this might stem the tide so to speak and bring sanity back to governance. Well, enough about New York.

After deciding to make the move we researched New Hampshire and several other states and in nearly every measure and survey year after year New Hampshire ranks at the top or highly in nearly every category. Its admirable qualities and policies of government at every level plus an abiding belief in the fundamental ability of the individual or business to make their own way sans the tender mercies of government are attributes seen all to infrequently in government these days. Frankly, there was really no way New Hampshire was going to lose in our book. Our minds had already been made up; we were just going through the motions in cursory fashion.

The entire trip was thoroughly enjoyable. All that we saw and did along with the people we spoke with reinforced for us that we made the right choice in deciding to move to New Hampshire.

We look forward to making New Hampshire our new home.

W. N. Kilarjian is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of the United Kingdom. As a freelance editor and writer he has indited for, among others, The Berlin Reporter (Berlin, NH), PardonMyEnglish.com, IsraPundit.com, MichNews.com, OpinionEditorials.com and The Templar Intelligencer.

Published: Op-Ed Page, The Berlin Reporter (7/14/04) (Berlin, New Hampshire)

© W. N. Kilarjian 2004