O P I N I O N

THE SOAPBOX

Stand up. Speak up. it’ your turn.

As a state representative from Manchester, I’m proud that my family and friends and communities across New Hampshire have been making huge sacrifices to keep each other safe during this pandemic. I applaud the Manchester school board for making the difficult decision to conduct nearly all learning in remote format for the first quarter.

My three kids are sad that they won’t be seeing their friends and teachers from Smyth Road in person every day, and they are going to miss out on things like popcorn day and Roadrunner Rallies. And of course, I and all the other parents I know are scrambling a bit to figure out how to supervise remote schooling and still get our own work done. But we all understand that it’s what we need to do to help keep our friends and neighbors healthy. We’ve been lucky and worked hard to ensure that community spread in NH has been pretty low relative to the rest of the country, but we’ve seen that without the right safeguards and resources, even one gathering can lead to an explosion of cases. The Trump rally planned for Friday night in Manchester is a recipe for disaster.

A huge gathering of people who don’t take this virus seriously, who aren’t being required to take any precautions, and who in many cases are coming from other states with more significant COVID spread, could threaten everything we’ve worked for and put our city and state at risk. The fact that Donald Trump is able to come to the state for a potential super spreader event at all, let alone this close to some schools in the state reopening, shows terrible judgment and reckless leadership.

Governor Sununu needs to stand up to Trump and tell him that our state will not host a rally until COVID is under control so we don’t undo the progress we’ve made. More than that, we need real leadership from Sununu to provide the information and resources that we need to safely return to school and community life. Our school committees throughout the state are struggling to come up with plans for how to protect our students and teachers. But none of them are epidemiologists, and few have the time or access to the information they need to make these life and death decisions. It’s unfair and irresponsible for our governor to pass the buck to the local level instead of making hard choices and doing the work to make sure we have the funds and supplies that we need to resume schooling safely.

I’m grateful to State Senator Dan Feltes for providing a comprehensive school reopening plan that would help our students, teachers, and community leaders. He has consistently stood up for public health over politics, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to vote for him in our upcoming primary elections. Manchester citizens are doing our part – we deserve a governor who will do his.

Beg to differ? Agree to disagree? We welcome your thoughtful prose on topics of interest. Send submissions to carolrobidoux@manchesterinklink.com, subject line: The Soapbox

Dr. Jacqueline Chretien is a state representative for Hillsborough District 42 (Manchester Wards 1, 2, and 3), a PhD bioscientist, and a mom of three students at Smyth Road School.