Letters to the Editor
Thank you for a successful Touch-A-Truck event
To the Editor:
On Saturday, Aug. 20, the Milford Recreation Department held its second annual Touch-A-Truck Event at Milford Middle School and High School. We had over 400 people come out for our event.
The Recreation Department wants to give a big thank you to the Milford Fire Department, Milford Police Department, Milford Department of Public Works, Milford Ambulance, Nashua SWAT, N.H. State Police, Butler’s Bus Service, James Miles, Ciardelli, N.H. DRED and Eversource. This event couldn’t have been possible without our sponsors/trucks and volunteers.
Photos of the event will be posted on Facebook. Friend Milford Recreation today!
John Kohlmorgen
Recreation program coordinator
Town of Milford
Milford need to make choice: Preservation or destruction
To the Editor:
Readers of The Cabinet may remember Rachel Carson’s book "Silent Spring" (1962). Carson’s writings clearly showed how human well-being depends on the condition of whole ecosystems, how living beings are interrelated within those ecosystems and that caring for some animal populations, such as birds, turtles and snakes, requires care for the health of the whole system they live in.
Carson showed the need for deep changes in human practices and ways of being.
Brox Environmental Citizens (BEC) is a grassroots organization that is local in focus, devoted to saving the "special place" known as Brox, which has been called an "ecological gem" by the wildlife ecologist who conducted the Natural Resource Inventory for Milford’s Conservation Commission.
Like Carson, BEC stands for comprehensive and deep change in basic values and patterns of actions on the part of the town’s politicians; an end to the treatment of nature as an object that exists only for instrumental use and of a philosophy that emphasizes humans first, regardless of negative consequences to other beings.
Milford’s politicians and others, however, still consider economic growth and increased consumption as central values of Milford, and so the status quo economy is placed before environmental protections.
Some call town officials’ public show of environmental concern shallow because social and economic values that are having devastating effects on nature are being placed over environmental concerns.
The DPW "Danger Construction" signs erected at Brox, for example, signify that Brox is presently a very dangerous place – not only to humans, but for the Blanding’s and spotted turtles, the hognose snakes and all the wildlife living in this ecological treasure.
BEC’s mission challenges all of us to ask deep questions about how and why we act as we do. What are our ultimate values? What do we live for? What role does nature play in our lives? How do we realize our highest ends and what means shall we adopt to realize these aims? Shall we protect nature when she is in danger of losing wild life diversity?
It is our basic values, choices and priorities that determine how the whole town develops and what development’s effects are. This ecological gem is a great treasure of Milford. Honoring this requires a basic shift in the way we see, feel and value wild places in nature such as Brox.
Do we want to be known as the town that devastated this great ecological treasure of Milford and harmed the endangered and threatened wildlife who live there for consumptive economic development that spiritually impoverishes Milford by destroying diversity and natural places?
I prefer it be known as a community that saved its own "special place" for future generations and prevented Silent Spring at Brox.
Paul Cunningham, Ph.D.
Milford
Donation to Share Outreach is greatly appreciated
To the Editor:
On behalf of the board of directors, staff and clients of Share Outreach, I would like to thank the organizers and attendees of MASHstock, the multiyear reunion for Milford Area Senior High, for their support.
The addition of a charity component to this event provides a way for the alumni to honor the communities of Milford, Amherst and Mont Vernon. Share was awarded over $3,000, which will be used to directly support those in need in these three towns.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of MASHstock committee member Missy McMorrow, who spearheaded the fundraising. A special thank you goes out to the many businesses and individuals for their donations, which made this such a success. What a wonderful tradition they have all started!
Christine Janson
Executive director
Share Outreach