I would be remiss to let Black History Month go by without mentioning one of my political heroes, Kurt Schmoke, who was Mayor of Baltimore from 1987 to 1999. Mayor Schmoke was part of a remarkable generation of Black leadership that came out of Baltimore in that era, including the late Congressman Elijah Cummings and former NAACP Chairman and current Congressman, Kweisi Mfume.

I saw Mayor Schmoke speak once - at the time I was a high school student in Baltimore - and he described himself as a young man who "once had a great future." That was his go-to joke in every speech. He was well aware that he had dug his political grave through his opposition to the drug war.

In 1988, at the height of the Reagan-era moral panic and associated human tragedy of the "crack epidemic," Mayor Kurt Schmoke threw away his prepared notes prior to a speech before the U.S. Conference of Mayors and instead declared that the drug war makes no sense, that it is impossible to arrest and incarcerate our way out of the problem. 

He asked the Mayors to urge Congress to open a national discussion on treating substance use as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice.

This call was met with silence and scorn. Mayor Schmoke was deemed an apostate and disavowed even by his allies.

In advocating for the decriminalization of marijuana and medicalization of other drugs, Schmoke's ideas presaged the modern harm reduction movement. It took 35 years and an overdose crisis that broadly affected white people, but laws and attitudes have gradually been shifting toward what Mayor Schmoke was proposing.

Last year's landmark Medically Assisted Treatment Act, sponsored by NH's own Senator Maggie Hassan, is an example of how a public health approach to the problem of substance use can save lives.

Though the road from Mayor of Baltimore to Governor of Maryland is generally a well-worn path, Kurt Schmoke never made that jump. That said, it should be noted that the people of Baltimore twice saw fit to re-elect Kurt Schmoke as Mayor. He is currently President of the University of Baltimore.

"Dwarf Star" is a video game that my 16 year old son wrote and released on Steam, which is where PC games are bought and sold these days.

If you have a PC, a Steam account, and enjoy shooting alien spaceships and supporting young game developers, you should buy a copy. Only $5.

Calvin originally released this in November, after about 3 years of development. He's just put out an updated release includes that new features including "raid mode," for those who wish to have a less structured alien spaceship shooting experience, in edition to the original, plot-driven campaign.

No, it hasn't been selling well, but one hopes it will look great on a college application. I know I sure hadn't released a Steam game when I was his age.

Here's a promotional video he made for the game. Lucky for him, we have a spaceship set in our basement.

Once again, I am asking you to BUY A COPY OF MY KID'S GAME on Steam.

Rep. Jodi Newell's "Delegate Rules" bill, HB 392, passed the House via the consent calendar on Wednesday and is on to the Senate. The bill had previously passed unanimously in committee.

This bill "enacts procedures to choose, regulate, and bind delegates to an amendment proposing convention under Article V of the United States Constitution." 

Basically, the point of this is to ensure that, in the event that a amendment convention were called by two-thirds of State legislatures, a set of rules would be in place to ensure that New Hampshire's delegation to that convention is accountable to will of the people.

The possibility of a runaway Convention has been one of the concerns that has made some people hesitant about supporting calls for an Article V Convention, and is one of the reasons such a convention has never been called. The purpose of this bill is to help allay those concerns.

 As Rep. Newell explains: 

The legislation that we passed has to do with making sure that the delegates are elected democratically, making sure that they take an oath that says that yes, you are there to represent the people of New Hampshire and you are there to represent the concerns of those people and you are limited to that topic and if not at the end of the day you will be held accountable. Not only will you be recalled - and there is a process for you to be replaced in that situation - if you are a person who is going to a situation like that and you are with the intention of amending our fundamental document in a way that does not align with the people of New Hampshire then there will be consequences for you.

While this may sound like an obscure procedural thing, this is part of a broader effort to lay the groundwork for an amendment convention under Article V that would propose a 28th Amendment to the Constitution on the issue of campaign finance reform.

Rep. Newell, together with the bill's co-sponsor, Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket and Newfields), was recently on "TYT's The Conversation," with Cenk Uygur to discuss this bill. Worth a watch!

Happy Residents' Day! 

Residents' Day is cool new holiday I just invented. It happens on the same day as President's Day but it has one fewer letters, and it celebrates all the awesome people we have here in the United States of America. 

Our Residents.

Who are the Residents? 

If you were born here and you live here you are a Resident. 

If you weren't born here and you live here you are a Resident. 

If you were born here and live abroad, call yourself a Resident if you want to. Why not?

Immigrants are Residents. If you've got a green card, you are a Resident. If you don't got a green card, you are also a Resident. 

If you hopped over the wall yesterday and slept the night with a rock beneath your head, bienvenue my fellow Resident.

Residents' Day doesn't care about your social standing, political viewpoint, or legal status. If you reside here you are a Resident, and this day celebrates you!

If you are dead you were a Resident, and Residents' Day values that, but mostly Residents' Day is a day to honor the living. 

George Washington was a famous and important Resident, but he is dead and so this isn't really about George Washington. We celebrate Residents Day alongside Presidents Day, not in place of it.

What Residents Day is about is broadening the celebration. Residents Day says we celebrate not just the Presidents, but all of the Residents. Including everybody.

While Presidents' Day celebrates political leaders our history, Residents' Day celebrates who we are right now.

Residents' Day says "I see you, fellow Residents, and you are awesome. Now go forward with love."

Happy Residents' Day!

The American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE), is an organization which fights the banning of books, a form of censorship. This censorship occurs when organizations, government officials or individuals have books removed from bookstores, libraries and/or schools. The reasons given for the banning or censorship is usually an objection to the ideas, themes or content (violence, sex or anything thought to be obscene) in a particular book. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is thought to be the first book to have been banned nationally, not just for its pro-abolitionist leanings, but it led to, oftentimes, heated debates on slavery. In 1873, Anthony Comstock, a United States postal inspector, an anti-vice activist and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, persuaded Congress to pass the Comstock Law. This law made the delivery through the mail system (or by other means of transportation) of lascivious, lewd or obscene materials, illegal. It went so far as to stopping the mailing of any methods of public information about preventing conception, obtaining an abortion and preventing venereal diseases. Physicians pamphlets on reproduction, textbooks on anatomy, ANYTHING by Oscar Wilde along with The Canterbury Tales were thought to be too risqué to go through the mail. 

Comstock Law remained on the books until 1957, when Roth v The United States came before the Supreme Court. Samuel Roth, a writer and bookseller was convicted for mailing pornographic magazines to subscribers, and was imprisoned until 1961. Now, the legal system in America needed to rethink its definition of obscenity, again.

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, how to define obscenity and how it connects to the First Amendment has been the argument of many censorship disputes. While it is now rare for a book banning case to be brought to the federal courts, challenges to books are still happening on state and local levels. 

Here in New Hampshire, HB 514 a bill which is “relative to the dissemination of obscene material by schools and institutions of higher learning” is being considered in the House Education Committee. This bill would require schools to put in place procedures for parents who take exception to materials they feel are inappropriate. Supporters of the bill see it as a  way of protecting children from materials which may be deemed obscene. Opponents see it as a form of censorship and claim these procedures are already in place.

Rep. Glenn Cordelli(R-Tuftonboro), who is the sponsor of the bill, claims obscenity laws in New Hampshire need to be stronger. This legislation would affect grades K-12. Some members of the committee asked if school employees would be subjected to criminal consequences.

HB514 is a bill still in committee and faces difficult hurdles before going to the full House for a vote, but is worth watching.

A hearing for HB 342, which would establish a blood lead level testing requirement for children entering day care and public schools, is being held at 2:00 today in front of the NH House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee.

Here in Keene, I've been pushing the City to work with Sullivan and Cheshire Counties to apply for grant funding available through HUD that would help homeowners and landlords address the lead paint hazard in older homes. In 2021, Sullivan County received $1.7 million to fund lead abatement projects in 60 homes, and expanding that program to Cheshire County is a huge opportunity to make our housing safer for the children to live there.

In December, I had this to say before a Keene City Council committee:

Looking at data provided by the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services, for recent years in Keene, every year there have been from 10 to 14 cases of children under 6 years old diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels – that is, cases detected where there is more than 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. That’s about half a classroom full of kids every year.

I would note that this is the number of cases detected – there are certainly undetected cases out there, as well as cases where children are affected by lead levels lower than that 5 microgram threshold. There is no safe level of lead in children’s blood.

HB 342 - sponsored by Rep. Nancy Murphy (D-Merrimack) and co-sponsored by Keene Rep. Jodi Newell, among others - would reduced the number of undetected cases of lead poisoning and provide better data with with to address this problem. 

The bill would help to make sure that all students in New Hampshire, except for the few who opt out for religious reasons, are tested for lead, which would enable children who test positive to get services they need to help overcome the challenges they may face due to lead poisoning. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the effects of lead poisoning in children can include damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problem.

You can help by signing in remotely to the hearing on Thursday to support HB 342 in the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee, or by sending an email to the committee at HHSEA@leg.state.nh.us

In yesterday’s House session, the GOP clearly demonstrated what their priorities are for the Granite State.  They opposed HB 626, which would move administration of Education Freedom Accounts (i.e., the state voucher program) from the private contractor that takes 10% of the fund they manage as a fee – about $2.3 million each year – and moves it to the Department of Education, where there is more transparent oversight.  

In their opposition to the bill, GOP lawmakers argued that the millions of taxpayer dollars paid to the private contractor were insignificant, and that the savings from moving administration of the fund would be a mere trifle. (Fortunately, we were able to overcome opposition and send this bill to the Finance Committee.)

Remarkably, but not surprisingly, those same GOP lawmakers went on to oppose several other pieces of legislation involving much smaller amounts of money that would be going directly into New Hampshire communities. For example, they opposed HB 487, which would establish a New Hampshire farm-to-school program that would reimburse schools up to $1200/year for the purchase of locally grown and produced food. This bill would be a win-win-win for New Hampshire farmers, schools, and students. (This bill was tabled.)  

They also opposed (and defeated) two election-reform measures, in part on the grounds that they place a financial burden on taxpayers.  HB 324, the “Voter Owned Elections” bill, would give every New Hampshire voter four $25 certificates which they could donate to the Executive Council or gubernatorial candidates of their choice.  The intent of the bill is to increase the power of local, transparent campaign fundraising, diminish the power of out-of-state dark money, and give our citizens a more direct investment in our representative democracy.  For the Republicans, this was all too expensive at $6 million (= $8 per voter per election cycle in taxes). 

Even the $100,000 per election cycle that would be allocated by HB 508 for pre-paid postage on absentee ballots was deemed outrageous by the same GOP lawmakers who didn’t blink at the millions we pay in administration fees for vouchers.  Rep. Jonah Wheeler of Peterborough argued passionately and eloquently that postage on absentee ballots was a form of poll tax and the New Hampshire citizens who have requested and been granted permission to cast an absentee ballot should not have to pay Uncle Sam to exercise their right to vote. 

The fact that the cost of this program would be a mere fraction of the cost of the administration fees for the state voucher program, and the fact that Republicans are usually the first to argue that we need to stop sending so much of our hard-earned money to the federal government leads one to believe that they had other reasons for opposing legislation that would make it easier for people to vote.

For those keeping score at home: NH House GOP lawmakers are thrilled to send our tax dollars to a private contractor to administer a program that is more than $20 million over budget – but giving schools financial support to buy locally-grown produce from New Hampshire farmers; giving Granite Staters the means to take back some ownership of our elections; and abolishing a poll tax that hinders the ability of some of our fellow citizens to participate in the system of representative democracy, these are a burden we just can’t afford.

Four abortion rights-related measures will have hearings before the House Judiciary Committee on starting at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, February 15. These are:

• CACR 2 (NH’s Reproductive Liberty Amendment): Enshrines reproductive rights into NH’s state constitution.
• HB 88 (Access to Abortion Care Act): Enshrines abortion rights into state statute.
• HB 224: Repeals the criminal & civil penalties from the fetal life protection act.
• HB 271: Repeals the fetal life protection act.

Cheshire 16's Rep. Amanda Toll is prime sponsor NH’s Reproductive Liberty Amendment, CACR2, with multiple other Monadnock-area legislators including Senator Donovan Fenton, and Reps Joe Schapiro, Shaun Filiault, Renee Monteil, and Jonah Wheeler. Additionally, Keene Reps Jodi Newell and Nick Germana will both be presenting testimony.

To support these bills, sign in remotely to the House Judiciary hearings via the General Court's Online Testimony Submission page.

Watch the full testimony of the hearing. Rep. Amanda Toll's bit starts about 12 minutes in.

'Till' will be playing at the Showroom in Keene on Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week, presented by the City of Keene Human Rights Committee and Keene State College Cultural Center. 

The film is "based on the true story of Mamie Till-Bradley, an educator and activist who pursued justice after the murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett in 1955."

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Visit the Colonial Theater website for more information. Schedule is as follows:

February 15 – 6:30 pm film followed by Q&A Session with Dottie Morris
February 16 – 6:30 pm guest speaker, 7:00 pm film followed by Q&A Session with Dottie Morris

My local State Rep, Shaun Filiault (D-Keene), ran and won on the issue of repealing the gay panic defense. His first bill that he has sponsored as a State Rep is HB 315 "An act prohibiting provocations based on a victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation from being used as a defense in a criminal case."

Last week it was voted on in the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. While the bill made it through, a rather weird amendment was attached to it as part of the sausage-making process. The bill is now described as "An Act prohibition provocation based on the defendant's religion, race, creed, sexual orientation, national  origin, political beliefs, or affiliation, sex, or gender identity."

That's right, this bill got All Lives Mattered. 

This bill is of specific significance to the LGBTQ+ community because of an established history in this country of convicted killers of gay or trans people receiving a lighter sentence by arguing that they were so freaked out by someone's gender or sexuality, that they could not help but commit murder. 

HB3 315, as originally written, was an affirmative refutation of this "gay panic defense" and, more broadly, the idea that gay people somehow deserve less protection under the law than everyone else. 

This watered down version now I guess prohibits the "religious panic defense," the "racial panic defense," and the "creed panic defense," though none of those are actual defenses that have been used by lawyers and granted deference by courts. To be sure, hate crimes exist in all those categories, but its specifically the murders of gay and trans people that are currently open to legal question on grounds of "panic."

Broadening the law to include a number of at-risk groups - leading with religion - may seem like an egalitarian and way of finessing a delicate issue. But what it actually does is provide cover for those who want to turn away from recognizing that a specific injustice toward gay and trans people has existed in case law, and that it is appropriate for the State of New Hampshire to specifically repudiate that injustice.  

The question of why people would want such cover is left as an exercise for the reader.

As Shaun said on the Facebook, "When an apple enters committee, it will exit a as pear.... Today I got a pear. A big old pear."