A Man Called Crow
Listen here:
Maverick, mentor, conservationist and a man who loved a good story these are just some of the ways that people describe Howard "Crow" Dickinson who served in the NH General Court, also known as the NH House of Representatives for 38 years, and who died in 2014 at the age of 78.
First elected during the Presidency of Richard Nixon, Crow crafted landmark environmental legislation during his lifetime including New Hampshire's Current Use Law, responsible for the conservation of open land from one end of the state to the other. In the late 1980's Crow was a co-sponsor with me on the New Hampshire Rivers Management and Protection Program (RMPP) - New Hampshire's statewide version of the national Wild and Scenic Rivers act protecting critical shoreline resources for the benefit of present and future generations through a unique combination of state and local resource management and protection. The law also declared an immediate moratorium on the approval of new dams on the following rivers: Pemigewasset, Saco, Swift, Contoocook, Merrimack and Connecticut south of the Israel River in the Town of Lancaster.
Crow came from a family that valued education. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1958 and a master's degree in forestry from Yale University's vaunted Forestry program in 1966 - where Forestry as a profession came into its own following in the footsteps of the great conservationist Gifford Pinchot.
Dickinson's professional career began in international banking after a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, first as a gunnery officer on the USS Mississinewa and then with North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was while working as a consulting forester in the late 1960s that Dickinson realized that farmland and forest land were being liquidated and developed at an alarming rate. Property taxes at the time were being assed on a concept ironically termed "Highest and Best use" a real estate concept that framed the value of land based on its most lucrative use over the long term. That almost always translated into assessing the value of property as house lots. Ironically, taxing property this way inevitably led to the inflation of land prices on land that was never intended to be used for housing or commercial development. Later, as a legislator, crow worked to change the New Hampshire Constitution and pass the Current-Use Assessment Law, which mandated that land be assessed on the basis of its current use for "what it is rather than what it might be."
Now Crow was a Republican and I was a Democrat when we served together so naturally there was plenty that we did not agree on but we both viewed one another as the "loyal opposition" not as adversaries or enemies. Crow was an advocate of civility and cooperation - a trait far too rare these days.
Day Lilies in Fog
He was also a man who stood for what he believed and accepted the consequences. In 2005 Crow was removed from the Chairmanship of the House Resources Committee because he opposed the Budget crafted by the Republican Speaker of the House. I saw him shortly after this and shared the story of being removed from my committee for opposing elimination of citizen boards and commissions in John Sununu's efforts to reorganize state government.
His colorful life and even his passing at 78 in 2014 have contributed to making him a modern day New Hampshire legend. I caught up with some of Crows friends to reminisce with them about him, including several other legendary figures from New Hampshire's recent history.
I hope you will enjoy "A Man called Crow."
Don't miss this unique obituary of Crow written by his children with love, humor and pathos.
https://www.conwaydailysun.com/community/howard-cocks-dickinson-iv/article_6f1a7911-a03d-562b-88e2-8c8fe39827e2.html
Dreams Among Jefferson Lupines
Carol Leonard: Of Midwives and Bad Beavers
Riding the rails of life from Woodstock to Bad Beaver Farm, Carol Leonard's life continues to unfurl in miraculous ways.
I first heard about Carol Leonard from my Alice who described her to me as one of the most extraordinary people she had ever met. Anyone who knew Alice, knows that she did not use words like Iconoclast, trail-blazer, pathfinder, lightly, perhaps because she was just such a person herself, though she would have rejected the assertion by saying that she was just a "simple" person.
Carol Leonard is a New Hampshire certified midwife, the very first in modern NH history. She is also an extraordinary writer, now based in Ellsworth, Maine, where her family roots are deeply embedded in the history there.
Carol, a "foremother of the modern midwifery movement," was the first modern-age midwife certified to practice legally in NH and has been practicing for over the last three decades. She is co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) representing all midwives in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, serving one term as President of MANA. Her work to improve maternity care in Moscow, Russia, was featured on 20/20 and was written into Congressional Record. She has delivered approximately 1,200 babies safely in their own homes and as you will hear in this podcast and one to follow, she has midwived a good friend and a New Hampshire Icon - Crow Dickenson - through his passing.
Carol is the author of the best-selling memoir, LADY'S HANDS, LION'S HEART, A MIDWIFE'S SAGA, Bad Beaver Publishing, which was awarded the Mother's Naturally award of excellence for Outstanding Book, 2008.
Carol's book, BAD BEAVER TALES, LOVE AND LIFE ON A NEW SUSTAINABLE HOMESTEAD IN DOWNEAST MAINE, Bad Beaver Publishing is a heart-warming and often uproarious chronicle of she and her husband, Tom Lajoie's life-journey - building their dream homestead on 400 acres of wilderness in Ellsworth. Bad Beaver is a tree farm. Together Carol and Tom are doing sustainable timber harvesting. Tom has a saw mill and a 19th century shingle mill there. . . co-habited by somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 beaver and their respective ponds, lodges and habitat, which they argue about on a daily basis.
Recently she has teamed up with Director and producer Kyle Lamont and the very talented team at Good to Go Studios LLC of Ellsworth, Maine to collaborate on a Podcast based on Bad Beaver Tales, It is a beautifully produced Podcast doing justice to the sensitive, funny and often profound writing of Carol Leonard.
The Episode of Bad Beaver Tales included in this podcast was written by Carol Leonard and directed and produced by Kyle Lamont of Good to Go Studios in Ellsworth, Maine. GoodtoGoStudios,com
You can subscribe to Bad Beaver tales -the Podcast - at the link below and leave a review.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bad-beaver-tales-the-podcast/id1504506154
kylelamont@goodtogostudios.com <kylelamont@goodtogostudios.com>
Winter is Here
'End of an era': Local statesman Crow Dickinson dies at age 78
Oct 9, 2014
Article in Conway Sun
https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/end-of-an-era-local-statesman-crow-dickinson-dies-at-age-78/article_f011ce47-e27f-59f6-a5c6-418c4f363a6f.html
Flames Reaching for a Painted Sky
George Epstein
Aug 1, 2003
“It was a total oversight and it was stupid”, said Conway state representative Howard “Crow” Dickinson. Crow, the longest serving member of the N.H. House, attempted to pass a carry-on through the metal detector at Manchester Airport only to have a gun found in a zippered compartment. Now you could put together a list of the 100 big issues facing America and New Hampshire, and Crow and I would agree on about four, but you gotta admire the big guy’s sense of responsibility.
He didn’t blame it on the valet’s packing skills, or on “Gestapo” G-man tactics, or even on laws that violate his right to bear arms. He knew he made a serious mistake and he fessed up. Just a couple of weeks earlier, this same Crow Dickinson was quoted as saying, “What we should have done long ago is fully fund the Augenblick formula and had we done that, it’s unlikely we would have had the Claremont lawsuit. Clearly we didn’t understand the issues. We made a mistake.”
Wow. Crow is willing to admit that the whole lunacy of the donor town system, the untold hours cooking up “needy” town formulas, and the millions in legal fees all were a result of the legislature and Governor Merrill making a “mistake”. Crow might not be the best traveling companion, but I will trust his forthrightness over that of any of his colleagues.
Compare the Dickinson mea culpa to our governor. Six months on the job and Craig Benson is already trying to avoid responsibility for legislation. The legislature finally writes the death knell for the donor town system but Benson lets it drift into law without his signature or his veto. The $158 million capital budget bill became law without Benson taking a position.
Benson refused to sign or veto the state’s construction improvement plan for the next two years, including over $100 million in bonding. HB 521 requires those convicted of drunken driving to attend an alcohol treatment program – Benson again out if ink. Then there is the authority of the Pease Development Authority to take over the Port of New Hampshire and the extension of unemployment benefits for long-time, laid-off workers. No signature, no veto, but a full-fledged law. Truman said, “The buck stops here.” Benson’s slogan – “It wasn’t my fault.”
Now let’s compare Crow’s sense of responsibility with our President’s. George W. Bush told a fib in his State of the Union address. So far, he has gotten the CIA Director to say it was his fault, told some White House aide to apologize, and sent Condileeza Rice into hiding – all to avoid responsibility for “sexing” up the weapons of mass destruction argument as the BBC calls it.
"The CIA's failure to watch-list suspected terrorists aggressively reflected a lack of emphasis on a process designed to protect the homeland," says the portion of the Congressional 9/11 report that Bush has permitted to be released. "The FBI was unable to identify and monitor effectively the extent of activity by al-Qaida and other international terrorist groups operating in the United States." The report also tells us that the CIA knew about the al-Qaida connections of two guys named al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi. They actually lived with a longtime FBI informant in San Diego, but the CIA didn’t share their info with the FBI and no one never suspected these two hijackers-to-be until after Sept. 11.
The greatest failure of American intelligence since Pearl Harbor and not one person has been fired – not one person has been disciplined. Most amazing of all, not one person has had the good taste to resign. Picture yourself as the head of the FBI or CIA or NSA or DIA or any of the other alphabets that employ thousands and spend billions each year to keep track of threats to the safety of America and Americans. Now imagine that it is September 12, 2001. Wouldn’t you at least publicly announce that you’re ready to be replaced as soon as the President can find a competent replacement?
Crow Dickinson deserves whatever the law requires for being negligent with a deadly weapon. But Crow also serves as a role model for a whole lot of people in public life who have made mistakes as big or bigger. He is prepared to look us in the eye and take his medicine – others should do the same.
George Epstein, chairman of The Echo Group, lives in Madison and can be reached at gepstein@Echoman.com.
First elected during the Presidency of Richard Nixon, Crow crafted landmark environmental legislation during his lifetime including New Hampshire's Current Use Law, responsible for the conservation of open land from one end of the state to the other. In the late 1980's Crow was a co-sponsor with me on the New Hampshire Rivers Management and Protection Program (RMPP) - New Hampshire's statewide version of the national Wild and Scenic Rivers act protecting critical shoreline resources for the benefit of present and future generations through a unique combination of state and local resource management and protection. The law also declared an immediate moratorium on the approval of new dams on the following rivers: Pemigewasset, Saco, Swift, Contoocook, Merrimack and Connecticut south of the Israel River in the Town of Lancaster.
Crow came from a family that valued education. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1958 and a master's degree in forestry from Yale University's vaunted Forestry program in 1966 - where Forestry as a profession came into its own following in the footsteps of the great conservationist Gifford Pinchot.
Dickinson's professional career began in international banking after a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, first as a gunnery officer on the USS Mississinewa and then with North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was while working as a consulting forester in the late 1960s that Dickinson realized that farmland and forest land were being liquidated and developed at an alarming rate. Property taxes at the time were being assed on a concept ironically termed "Highest and Best use" a real estate concept that framed the value of land based on its most lucrative use over the long term. That almost always translated into assessing the value of property as house lots. Ironically, taxing property this way inevitably led to the inflation of land prices on land that was never intended to be used for housing or commercial development. Later, as a legislator, crow worked to change the New Hampshire Constitution and pass the Current-Use Assessment Law, which mandated that land be assessed on the basis of its current use for "what it is rather than what it might be."
Now Crow was a Republican and I was a Democrat when we served together so naturally there was plenty that we did not agree on but we both viewed one another as the "loyal opposition" not as adversaries or enemies. Crow was an advocate of civility and cooperation - a trait far too rare these days.
Day Lilies in Fog
He was also a man who stood for what he believed and accepted the consequences. In 2005 Crow was removed from the Chairmanship of the House Resources Committee because he opposed the Budget crafted by the Republican Speaker of the House. I saw him shortly after this and shared the story of being removed from my committee for opposing elimination of citizen boards and commissions in John Sununu's efforts to reorganize state government.
His colorful life and even his passing at 78 in 2014 have contributed to making him a modern day New Hampshire legend. I caught up with some of Crows friends to reminisce with them about him, including several other legendary figures from New Hampshire's recent history.
I hope you will enjoy "A Man called Crow."
Don't miss this unique obituary of Crow written by his children with love, humor and pathos.
https://www.conwaydailysun.com/community/howard-cocks-dickinson-iv/article_6f1a7911-a03d-562b-88e2-8c8fe39827e2.html
Dreams Among Jefferson LupinesCarol Leonard: Of Midwives and Bad Beavers
Riding the rails of life from Woodstock to Bad Beaver Farm, Carol Leonard's life continues to unfurl in miraculous ways.
I first heard about Carol Leonard from my Alice who described her to me as one of the most extraordinary people she had ever met. Anyone who knew Alice, knows that she did not use words like Iconoclast, trail-blazer, pathfinder, lightly, perhaps because she was just such a person herself, though she would have rejected the assertion by saying that she was just a "simple" person.
Carol Leonard is a New Hampshire certified midwife, the very first in modern NH history. She is also an extraordinary writer, now based in Ellsworth, Maine, where her family roots are deeply embedded in the history there.
Carol, a "foremother of the modern midwifery movement," was the first modern-age midwife certified to practice legally in NH and has been practicing for over the last three decades. She is co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) representing all midwives in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, serving one term as President of MANA. Her work to improve maternity care in Moscow, Russia, was featured on 20/20 and was written into Congressional Record. She has delivered approximately 1,200 babies safely in their own homes and as you will hear in this podcast and one to follow, she has midwived a good friend and a New Hampshire Icon - Crow Dickenson - through his passing.
Carol is the author of the best-selling memoir, LADY'S HANDS, LION'S HEART, A MIDWIFE'S SAGA, Bad Beaver Publishing, which was awarded the Mother's Naturally award of excellence for Outstanding Book, 2008.
Carol's book, BAD BEAVER TALES, LOVE AND LIFE ON A NEW SUSTAINABLE HOMESTEAD IN DOWNEAST MAINE, Bad Beaver Publishing is a heart-warming and often uproarious chronicle of she and her husband, Tom Lajoie's life-journey - building their dream homestead on 400 acres of wilderness in Ellsworth. Bad Beaver is a tree farm. Together Carol and Tom are doing sustainable timber harvesting. Tom has a saw mill and a 19th century shingle mill there. . . co-habited by somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 beaver and their respective ponds, lodges and habitat, which they argue about on a daily basis.
Recently she has teamed up with Director and producer Kyle Lamont and the very talented team at Good to Go Studios LLC of Ellsworth, Maine to collaborate on a Podcast based on Bad Beaver Tales, It is a beautifully produced Podcast doing justice to the sensitive, funny and often profound writing of Carol Leonard.
The Episode of Bad Beaver Tales included in this podcast was written by Carol Leonard and directed and produced by Kyle Lamont of Good to Go Studios in Ellsworth, Maine. GoodtoGoStudios,com
You can subscribe to Bad Beaver tales -the Podcast - at the link below and leave a review.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bad-beaver-tales-the-podcast/id1504506154
kylelamont@goodtogostudios.com <kylelamont@goodtogostudios.com>
Winter is Here
'End of an era': Local statesman Crow Dickinson dies at age 78
Oct 9, 2014
Article in Conway Sun
https://www.conwaydailysun.com/news/end-of-an-era-local-statesman-crow-dickinson-dies-at-age-78/article_f011ce47-e27f-59f6-a5c6-418c4f363a6f.html
Flames Reaching for a Painted Sky
George Epstein
Aug 1, 2003
“It was a total oversight and it was stupid”, said Conway state representative Howard “Crow” Dickinson. Crow, the longest serving member of the N.H. House, attempted to pass a carry-on through the metal detector at Manchester Airport only to have a gun found in a zippered compartment. Now you could put together a list of the 100 big issues facing America and New Hampshire, and Crow and I would agree on about four, but you gotta admire the big guy’s sense of responsibility.
He didn’t blame it on the valet’s packing skills, or on “Gestapo” G-man tactics, or even on laws that violate his right to bear arms. He knew he made a serious mistake and he fessed up. Just a couple of weeks earlier, this same Crow Dickinson was quoted as saying, “What we should have done long ago is fully fund the Augenblick formula and had we done that, it’s unlikely we would have had the Claremont lawsuit. Clearly we didn’t understand the issues. We made a mistake.”
Wow. Crow is willing to admit that the whole lunacy of the donor town system, the untold hours cooking up “needy” town formulas, and the millions in legal fees all were a result of the legislature and Governor Merrill making a “mistake”. Crow might not be the best traveling companion, but I will trust his forthrightness over that of any of his colleagues.
Compare the Dickinson mea culpa to our governor. Six months on the job and Craig Benson is already trying to avoid responsibility for legislation. The legislature finally writes the death knell for the donor town system but Benson lets it drift into law without his signature or his veto. The $158 million capital budget bill became law without Benson taking a position.
Benson refused to sign or veto the state’s construction improvement plan for the next two years, including over $100 million in bonding. HB 521 requires those convicted of drunken driving to attend an alcohol treatment program – Benson again out if ink. Then there is the authority of the Pease Development Authority to take over the Port of New Hampshire and the extension of unemployment benefits for long-time, laid-off workers. No signature, no veto, but a full-fledged law. Truman said, “The buck stops here.” Benson’s slogan – “It wasn’t my fault.”
Now let’s compare Crow’s sense of responsibility with our President’s. George W. Bush told a fib in his State of the Union address. So far, he has gotten the CIA Director to say it was his fault, told some White House aide to apologize, and sent Condileeza Rice into hiding – all to avoid responsibility for “sexing” up the weapons of mass destruction argument as the BBC calls it.
"The CIA's failure to watch-list suspected terrorists aggressively reflected a lack of emphasis on a process designed to protect the homeland," says the portion of the Congressional 9/11 report that Bush has permitted to be released. "The FBI was unable to identify and monitor effectively the extent of activity by al-Qaida and other international terrorist groups operating in the United States." The report also tells us that the CIA knew about the al-Qaida connections of two guys named al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi. They actually lived with a longtime FBI informant in San Diego, but the CIA didn’t share their info with the FBI and no one never suspected these two hijackers-to-be until after Sept. 11.
The greatest failure of American intelligence since Pearl Harbor and not one person has been fired – not one person has been disciplined. Most amazing of all, not one person has had the good taste to resign. Picture yourself as the head of the FBI or CIA or NSA or DIA or any of the other alphabets that employ thousands and spend billions each year to keep track of threats to the safety of America and Americans. Now imagine that it is September 12, 2001. Wouldn’t you at least publicly announce that you’re ready to be replaced as soon as the President can find a competent replacement?
Crow Dickinson deserves whatever the law requires for being negligent with a deadly weapon. But Crow also serves as a role model for a whole lot of people in public life who have made mistakes as big or bigger. He is prepared to look us in the eye and take his medicine – others should do the same.
George Epstein, chairman of The Echo Group, lives in Madison and can be reached at gepstein@Echoman.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment