In a speech last month criticizing a state bill that would permit local governments to impose lower speed limits, New Hampshire state Rep. Thomas Walsh joked about how it was “very tempting” to “run bicycles off the road.” Bob Manley, a resident of the Granite State, sent a version of the following letter to Walsh in protest, and we are printing it to draw larger attention to the blithe way that many Americans demean cyclisxts. The letter has been lightly edited for clarity.

Dear Rep. Walsh,

I am writing to you as a resident of New Hampshire and a frequent cyclist on our state’s roads. I was disturbed and outraged by your statement on the House floor on April 23, 2026. “It is against the law to run over pedestrians,” you said. “It’s against the law to run bicycles off the road, even though it’s sometimes very tempting.”

This is not a harmless remark. It is dangerous, irresponsible and completely inappropriate — particularly coming from the chair of the House Transportation Committee, a position responsible for promoting and protecting the safety for all road users.

As highlighted in a recent piece by Paul Susca and Amanda Gourgue of the Bike-Walk Alliance, New Hampshire faces a troubling and worsening pattern of fatalities that involve pedestrians and cyclists. These are not abstract statistics. These are human beings: neighbors, friends and family members whose lives are permanently altered or cut short altogether.

It is unacceptable for a public official to suggest — even in jest — that harming cyclists is “very tempting.” Doing so sends several dangerous messages: that the safety and wellbeing of cyclists and pedestrians are negotiable; that reckless and aggressive driving is acceptable; and that vulnerable road users do not deserve protection. 

Those of us who ride on New Hampshire’s roads already understand the risks. We experience close passes, endure hostility, and witness moments where a split second determines whether we make it home. We rely on our elected representatives to take these risks seriously, not diminish and normalize them.

Your role demands leadership, accountability, and a commitment to safety. Your comment suggests the opposite.

I urge you to publicly retract your statement, issue a sincere apology and reaffirm your commitment to the safety of all road users — especially those who walk and bike.

More importantly, I urge you to take meaningful action to improve safety on our roads, rather than dismissing or undermining efforts to do so.

We all share these roads. Every person on them deserves to get home safely.

Respectfully,
Bob Manley

EXETER, N.H. — Twenty-nine people from 18 countries became naturalized US citizens during a ceremony Friday at Exeter High School, where a federal judge shared an inspiring message wrapped in a piece of lesser-known local history from the American Revolution.

Judge Landya B. McCafferty, who presided over the ceremony, noted that New Hampshire enacted the first state constitution in January 1776 to establish a new democratic form of government, with its capital in Exeter, six months before the nation’s Declaration of Independence.

The royal governor had fled New Hampshire in 1775 as tensions rose and civil government collapsed, so a group of revolutionaries met in Exeter and drafted a constitution that sought to protect “the honest people of this colony” from being subjected to “the machinations and evil designs of wicked men.”

This temporary document — which remained in effect for eight years — accomplished “two radical things,” McCafferty said. First, it asserted New Hampshire’s independence. Second, it laid out a vision of democratic governance.

“Power in a monarchy flows downward, theoretically from God down to the king, down to the people,” McCafferty said. “This temporary constitution proposed a government that flowed up from the people to their representatives. And there was no king. The power came from the people.”

While many colonists who remained loyal to the monarchy regarded New Hampshire’s first constitution as treasonous at the time, McCafferty said, the document survived the Revolutionary War and came to inspire other state constitutions and the US Constitution that took effect in 1789.

“New Hampshire’s example of self-government persuaded other Americans that self-government, government by the people, could work,” she said.

With that history lesson in mind, McCafferty encouraged the 29 new citizens to commit themselves to productive civic engagement, by making informed decisions at the ballot box, serving as jurors with pride, and supporting their neighbors, whether by volunteering in the local community, raising children to be good citizens themselves, running for public office, or working in law enforcement or for the US military.

“We will be a better country because of you,” she said.

The milestone also delivered a sense of relief to those who began pursuing citizenship years ago, before the current Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

“I was a little bit worried in the beginning,” said Maria Caroline Bertocchi of Milford, N.H., a native of Brazil who embarked on the naturalization process in 2021. “But now I’m totally relaxed.”

Bertocchi, 28, attended the ceremony with her husband, two children, and an entourage of in-laws celebrating the occasion.

“I feel like, ‘Oh my God, finally this process is over, and I can stay here with them,’” she said. “For me it means a lot.”

Randerson Michel Caracas Soares, who is also from Brazil and living in Milford, attended the ceremony with his husband and said he is grateful to reach the conclusion of a journey they began about four years ago.

“I feel like I have more freedom right now,” he said. “I can find better jobs here, opportunities. … We picked the United States because it’s the best country in the world.”

This story appears in Globe NH | Morning Report, a free email newsletter focused on New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles elsewhere. Sign up here.

Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.

New Hampshire is full of historic homes, barns and churches that are at risk of falling apart. These structures often need a contractor who understands historic building techniques like timber framing or slate roofing, but there’s a shortage of people who know how to do that work. Advocates fear that gap could mean many historic buildings falling into decay or eventually disappearing.

“Whether it be stonework or blacksmithing, timber framing, window glazing, wooden shingles – all these trades are in demand,” stone mason Kevin Fife said. “But there’s less and less people that do it.”

Fife is one of the people who volunteers for a program that is trying to train more young people for careers in these historic trades. The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s Career Exploration in the Old Building Trades is a week-long program where high school students can spend their winter or spring break learning these skills hands-on.

Joshua Adams,17, signed up for the workshops during New Hampshire schools’ vacation week last month. He took Fife’s workshop on how to build a dry stack stone wall, meaning one without mortar or cement holding the stones together.

“I wasn’t really too sure about this one,” he said. “But I’m having a wonderful time here with the stone wall building.”

Joshua is in the construction program at the Concord Regional Technical Center where he learns electrical installation, plumbing and welding, but he’d never learned about some of these historic trades. He was interested in a barn repair class he took, where he learned about old-school timber framing and how buildings were once constructed without nails – just wooden pegs keeping the beams together.

He said he expect that learning these kinds of historic building skills could line him up for a lot of jobs.

“Around here, especially in places like New Hampshire and New England, there’s so much historical stuff,” Joshua said. “I used to go to historical places, museums, with my grandfather all the time. There was just so much work to be done, but I think people just aren’t pursuing it.”

Regional industry surveys show young people aren’t joining the historic trades workforce nearly as fast as tradespeople are retiring. That means the people who still do this work often have years-long waitlists for clients, which could lead to some people deciding that repair work isn’t worth the wait.

“That can mean loss of old windows, loss of old plaster, loss of an old porch that really gives the building its character,” Jennifer Goodman, executive director of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, said. “On another level, we can see that there could be demolitions and total loss of buildings if there aren’t enough people around to do this work.”

The Canterbury Shaker Village is one of the places that will be hiring the next generation of tradespeople. The village was settled in the 1700s by followers of the Christian Shaker movement. The structures across the village – now a museum – date back centuries and are in constant need of maintenance.

To build the preservation workforce, the Preservation Alliance workshops are open to not only construction and carpentry students, but also people who are new to the building industry entirely.

Rowan McGrath, 18, said he knew how to use a drill, but not much more about construction. A computer engineering student at Concord Regional Tech Center, he is attending the spring workshops to give him career options in the future.

“AI: it’s a big thing that’s going to probably take over tech,” Rowan said. “So [with these skills] I have something I can rely on as a backup, and it makes pretty good money.”

Fife, the stone mason, said this line of work is rewarding. He’s made a career of maintaining the stone structures people put together centuries ago. He grew up in Canterbury, and his family goes back generations here.

“I like to do it the traditional way because that’s a part of our ancestry, our heritage, and that’s why people come to New England,” Fife said. “It’s just more fitting.”

If there are enough people who can do the work, they can keep history standing a bit longer.