NH Homeland Security and Emergency Management is responsible for deploying resources in emergencies. They are working hard to manage assistance state wide. They are putting together a summary of their activities for me and I will post that later today or tomorrow. ~ Steve
https://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/hsem/ – NH Homeland Security and Emergency Management
https://www.facebook.com/NH.HSEM
We are a world away from where we were last July. Many people have begun to forget all about the pandemic, especially if they don’t watch cable news… and especially if they weren’t personally touched by it with illness or loss. It is important to remember that people were though. I know someone personally who was not permitted to visit his mother in her nursing home. He had to watch her die through a window. If you were lucky, count your blessings. If you weren’t, then you understand.
I interact with a lot of people and go to meetings with people from all over the state. I normally get sick once or twice a year. I have not been sick since February of 2020. I have been more diligent about hand washing, cleaning things that I touch, avoiding touching dirty things, etc. I avoid close talkers. I enforce personal space. The knowledge that you lose is amazing. I remember being taught in filthy 1970’s New York how to work a public toilet with my shoe. elbow the door, etc. When we were sick, it was cover your mouth, don’t share towels, wash your hands and face a lot every day, etc. We used to do a lot more to protect against infection.
I am making a conscious effort to think more about minimizing my risk with simple things that I can do. I like not being sick, so I am going to try hard to continue doing these things. I hope you do too. While we’re at it, if you are not vaccinated, talk to your doctor. Don’t take my advice on vaccines. Unless your neighbor is also your doctor, don’t take their advice. Don’t let a talking head or politician convince you whether or not to vaccinate. Talk to your family and the only person qualified to give you health care advice, your doctor. ~ Steve
It is time for my annual expression of thanks, and admonition.
Please do not wish anyone a “happy Memorial Day”. This is the day we honor the thousands who have given their lives so that we can enjoy our way of life. This is a solemn day, and our dead heroes deserve our reverence and gratitude.
Today, you may criticize the government and not be arrested for it. You may choose where to go and what to do. You may decide to run for office, or move to another town or state. The people who protected your freedom to do all these things, and more, are pictured above. Take a moment to thank to thank them this weekend. ~ Steve
From history.com:
On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.
The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.
It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
NH State Representative Steven Smith 
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