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Publisher's Note: E-Z speedy
By Jody Reese
The NH Transportation Department is cracking down on people who speed through the E-ZPass lane. Fines have been threatened, as has revoking drivers’ transponders.
While some people are clearly going too fast through the lanes, most drivers average 20 miles an hour through it, a reasonable speed considering how unclogged our roads are at most times. The suggested speed of 10 miles per hour is far too low. After hearing Commissioner George Campbell on NHPR’s The Exchange recently complaining about people averaging 20 miles per hour, compared to New Yorkers, who average 10 miles per hours, I watched my speedometer as I went through the tolls. I generally clocked 20 miles per hour. I tried slowing down to 10 miles per hour and it felt like a full stop. Actually, it felt dangerous.
Of course, that shouldn’t mean 40 or more miles per hour is acceptable, just that before the transportation department starts cracking down they should go out and observe how people use the fast lanes — they are supposed to be fast. Let’s not lose sight of that.
Footloose
Was it loose hips sink ships? A high school in Exeter is canceling a dance because students were dancing in a sexual way — in particular grinding into each other.
Oh, the irony.
Baby Boomers brought us the sexual revolution. Wasn’t it all free love and expression way back in sixties? Forty years later, boomers don’t want high school students dancing in a sexual way? Now keep in mind, most high schoolers are having sex, according to almost every study on sex, and they are ... high schoolers. Some of them can go off to war and even drink beer in Canada, legally.
While it’s understandable that our children’s sexuality bothers us — how could it not — we need to let them figure this kind of stuff out for themselves. We as a society have been infantilizing our children. We try so hard to keep them young and protected, but in reality they grow up into adults. And we need to make sure they are prepared for that. Part of preparing our children for adulthood is letting them make decisions for themselves, even stupid ones.
And if we’re really talking about the safety of our children, what about driving? More teens are killed on the roads than anything else. You don’t die from dirty dancing.
No really, school is good
As the unemployment rate tops 8 percent nationally, one thing is becoming quite clear: if you have a four-year college degree you’re way, way better off — three times better off.
The national unemployment rate for college graduates is 4 percent; the rate for high school graduates is 12 percent.
Now comes Hudson, one of the last towns in New Hampshire to not offer kindergarten, suing to stop an order from the state to provide kindergarten for free. It’s quite clear that kids who receive good early education are much more likely to go on to college. Doesn’t Hudson know — children are our future and apparently a future without a college degree is a harder one than one with. What’s next for Hudson, closing the library?
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