Kuster’s decision to share her story was a selfless act

When Betty Ford was the nation’s first lady in the 1970s, there was no topic she wouldn’t talk about, including marijuana use, premaritial sex and her own long-running battle with alcoholism. It changed the national conversation about things that people were not predisposed to talk about.

That often happens when people who hold prominent positions speak out about topics that are, by definition, uncomfortable. Those conversations are one of the way we progress as a society. We’ve seen it with topics like child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault. Not talking about sensitive subjects doesn’t help anyone – except perhaps the victimizer.

So when Rep. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this week and spoke about her own experience as a victim of sexual assault, it was a tremendously selfless act.

Kuster deserves our gratitude for her willingness to share her deeply personal, painful story, and we hope doing so helps her deal with the trauma. We also hope it encourages other victims to speak up as well. Not everybody can talk about it on the floor of the U.S. House, but every victim deserves to be heard and to heal.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes – and no parts to spare

A graphic tweeted out this week by @NashuaFire is worth paying attention to. It breaks down – by body part – the injuries caused by fireworks in 2014.

According to the graphic, emergency rooms across the country reported treating 10,500 fireworks injuries that year:

• 36 percent of the injuries were to hands and/or fingers.

• 19 percent were injuries to the head, face or ear.

• 19 percent resulted in eye damage.

• 11 percent of the injuries were to the trunk or other area.

• 10 percent of the injuries were to the leg.

OK, amateur fireworks fans, ask yourself this: Which of those body parts can you afford to lose?

The graphic also points out that fireworks cause an estimated 18,500 fires each year.

We want people to enjoy themselves as the Fourth of July holiday approaches, but the tweet contains some good advice: Please leave the show to the professionals.

Campaign reporting system is an improvement – sort of

You might not care which political action committee donated to which candidate for governor or state Senate, but until recently the state of New Hampshire made it almost impossible to even know.

The campaign finance system the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office brought online earlier this year is an improvement – sort of.

The good news all of the information for the 2016 filing period is located in one place. If you want to find out where the New Hampshire Bankers Association got their money and which candidates they donated to, it’s a lot easier to find than it used to be.

But good luck finding out much about candidates’ expenditures and receipts at this juncture. There’s not much there, though the most recent deadline for filing was June 22.

Unfortunately, the filing requirements are sloppy and don’t require prompt reporting and the law still gives candidates and political action committees the option of continuing to file by paper.

The next Legislature should make it a priority to mandate that candidates for higher state office file campaign finance data electronically, and voters should ask candidates about it before the election.

In this day and age, anything less is an insult to voters.

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