NH State Budget, HB1 and HB2, etc.

March 31, 2011

New Hampshire Senate
107 N. Main Street
Room 302 - State House
Concord, NH 03301

RE: NH State Budget, HB1 and HB2, etc.

To the Honorable Members of the New Hampshire Senate:

Tomorrow, April 1, 2011 is my 51st birthday. I am proud to be a resident of our state (since 1976), a graduate of Stevens High School (1978), UNH (1982, 1984G), and Pierce Law (2004). I have lived in Claremont, the UNH/Seacoast area, Concord, Manchester, and now in Suncook. I have served on NH Bar Committees, local budget committees and a local school board and several church committees. I am a family law attorney, a poet, and a small business man in our state.

I took time out of my schedule to be at the State House Plaza today to attend the Rally 4 New Hampshire. Like many I talked with, I do not do this frequently. But these are extraordinary times. I know that the budget cuts the House passed today will be devastating for many of our most vulnerable citizens, from children, to the aged, to the sick and mentally ill. I have a Master of Education Law, a Master of Public Administration, and a Juris Doctorate, so I have a lot of the alphabet soup people look to. But I also have 3 daughters and a strong Christian faith, which lead me to write this letter just as much.

These both made me go to the State House today. I couldn’t sleep tonight if I hadn’t, as Bishop Gene Robinson said back on March 10, before the House Finance Committee. It is all of our duty to speak out against injustice and to lift our neighbors up, especially the weakest among us. We have to do better. We have to find another way that starting by cutting mental health services, mediators, the abuse and neglect system, guardians ad litem, home care providers, and other low income programs across the state, etc. We have to leave these kinds of cuts as the last thing we do. We have to ask harder questions about what kind of state we want to live in.

I love New Hampshire but I want to know that we continue to care for one another as we always have, without eliminating the welfare law that has been proposed. I believe in the justice system; but indigent NH people need justice too. There will be sadness and long-term medical, penal, and social consequences on the cuts that the House has passed.

Please, use the power our Constitution grants the upper chamber. Be deliberative, do not rush to judge, start over and build a fair and balanced budget for our state.

If you need me to help, let me know. I believe together we can do better. Our children, our elders, the mentally ill and the indigent are crying out. Please be their voice.

As I said above, I am a Christian poet. I have attached below just 3 of the 55 poems I have now written about the budget cuts. Links to these poems are here:

http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Hampshirehttp://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Hampshire%20budgethttp://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Hampshire%20budget%20cuts

Thank you.

Sincerely,



Raymond A. Foss, Esq.

--------------------------------
The Children, the Aged, the Disabled

Those who count on us
the children, the aged, the disabled
unable to speak for themselves
those not sitting at the table

We are their guardians
the stewards of their lives
we should be better than this
in this nation of such riches

Parens patriae, all of us caring
the covenant we owe them
to provide for their needs
never to be left behind

None of the cuts to come
should fall on the helpless
those unable to care for themselves
Those needing the State for protection


March 11, 2011
calling on the NH Legislature
and the Governor
to spare those without a voice
those who need us
from the severe budget cuts
that are currently planned
in HB1 and HB2, etc.
&
in part based on the testimony
http://www.nhepiscopal.org/index.php?view=article&id=125:testimony&tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=
of The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson,
Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
March 10, 2011

---------------------------
If this were your child, your sister, your mother

Think about these people
the ones they care for
the stories they are telling
their crying out

Not as strangers
as members of your family
changing the names
to the loved ones in your life

If this were your child,
your sister, your mother
would you make the same choices
for those who would share your table

Would you cut the services
would you trim that budget
if the person you were hurting
were in your family

For we are one people together
in covenant relation
the social contract breaking
right before our eyes

Yes we are our brother’s keeper
the ones they count on
to live in freedom
sometimes just to survive

The choices easy
when they are merely strangers
numbers on a page
costing the State money

But what if this is your child,
your sister, your mother
would you forgo new taxes
at the cost of their lives

March 13, 2011
------------------

Personal Witness

Standing before the Legislature
on the hallowed ground
the Statehouse plaza
the people gathered ‘round.

Standing to testify
to offer their personal witness
the pain in the offing
if the cuts stand.

Needing to start over
to throw out the budget
to come to consensus
on the priorities of this time

To care for our neighbor
to lift them up
offering hope even in trying times
not casting them off

March 31, 2011
Rally for New Hampshire
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=196585980375491


Copyright by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage.