Ellen Kolb

Against human trafficking: from small steps to big strides

Human trafficking is a bad thing. Agreed? Okay. Now try putting specific public policies in place to address that fact. It can be achingly difficult work. That’s why I’m cheering for a bill that is quietly making its way to New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte’s desk. It’s been a long time coming. (Update: Governor Ayotte signed the bill on August 17, 2026.)

“Relative to licensing requirements for massage therapy establishments” is a yawner of a title for the bill numbered HB 1469. There’s a lively intention behind it. It’s aimed at phony “massage parlors” that are fronts for sex trafficking. House and Senate conferees recently agreed on language for the bill, and so its path is cleared for consideration by the governor.

The New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police came out in favor of this bill, recognizing how hard it can be to shut such establishments down. This bill takes an administrative approach by requiring state-supervised licensure of massage establishments, with standards for licensing. Owners failing to get a license could be charged with a misdemeanor.

One law addressing one aspect of one type of human trafficking seems like a small step. But it is a step.

Read the rest of this post at Braided Trails.

Header image by Jill Wellington/pexels.com

Good gatherings, good books: “Evangeline” and “Pray With Us”

Writers and readers will flock together, given the chance. I’ve enjoyed two recent events featuring good books by authors whose work makes my shelves fuller and my horizons broader.

“Evangeline”

This year’s Catholic Literature Conference in New Hampshire (presented annually by the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH) featured a presentation on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Evangeline. Based on the 18th-century expulsion by the British of the French-descended Acadians from what is now Atlantic Canada, it’s a haunting and poignant tale of a woman’s lifelong search for her beloved, a man from whom she was suddenly separated by deportation.

I read only a small portion of the poem many years ago. Professor Joseph Pearce’s lecture and reading at the conference brought the story back to life for me. Fortunately, included in my conference packet was a splendid gift: a new edition of Evangeline, published by the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (ACS Books). Introductory essays by Pearce and Christopher Check place the poem in historical and literary context. Evangeline is presented in a fresh and inviting way in this beautiful little volume. I’m rediscovering an underappreciated classic.

“Pray With Us: a Saint for Every Day”

cover of book "Pray With Us" by Belinda Terro Mooney

I caught up with Belinda Terro Mooney at the recent Catholic Writers Guild conference in Chicago. Her latest book is Pray With Us: a Saint for Every Day (published by Our Sunday Visitor). More than another lives-of-the-saints, it’s a calendar-based guide for daily prayer. There’s a page for each day of the year, with a brief biography of a saint or background of a feast day. Each biography is followed with a prayer that refers to the particular ministry or charism of the saint (or Blessed).

This is a convenient volume to keep on hand in the home, but it would also be a good addition to a parish or school library. Belinda writes as a guide, making introductions between readers and their brothers and sisters in faith who have gone before them. Her book is suitable for reading aloud with the family, for personal prayer and study, and for sharing with anyone who wants to learn more about Christian living.

This post is part of the Open Book linkup led by Carolyn Astfalk at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com.

Celebration as NH gets its first Safe Haven Baby Box

On a drizzly May day, dozens of people gathered in a fire station’s bay in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, in an atmosphere that defied the grey weather. We came for dedication, blessing, gratitude, and remembrance.

The reason was a new installation in the station’s eastern wall: a Safe Haven Baby Box, designed so that an infant can be surrendered anonymously and safely through a door on one side of the box, to receive care and fostering on the other side. The box is designed so that a signal alerts the station’s firefighters when a child is placed inside.

In one way the project was a tribute to Baby Grace, the baby in the pond. In another way it was an act of hope and faith: hope that the box will never be needed, and faith that if it is, a child’s life will be saved.

New Hampshire’s original safe haven law was passed in 2003. Any police station, fire station, hospital, or staffed church can take in an infant surrendered in accordance with the law. Now, the Baby Box offers another way to surrender a baby safely and anonymously.

“Hope and resilience for our entire community”

First responders were there for the dedication, including some of the police and firefighters who responded when Baby Grace was found in Pine Island Pond. Leaders of Pennacook Pregnancy Center were there; the Center funded the project. Father Jason of nearby St. Joseph Cathedral offered a prayer of blessing. The mayor gave heartfelt remarks.

Manchester New Hampshire's police chief, fire chief, and mayor at a press conference — Manchester NH Fire Chief Ryan Cashin, flanked by Police Chief Peter Marr (l) and Mayor Jay Ruais (r), at the dedication and blessing of a Safe Haven Baby Box. “I can’t thank everyone here enough.” Photo by Ellen Kolb.

Silence fell over the firehouse when it was Fire Chief Ryan Cashin’s turn to speak. “Every fire station in the city is a place where the community can feel safe, knowing we are here 24 hours a day, and this Safe Haven Baby Box further demonstrates the commitment by the city of Manchester providing a secure option for vulnerable infants, making this fire station a true Safe Haven. While we cannot change the past, our commitment is to make the future safer and stronger. Today I pray that the efforts by the City of Manchester, Pennacook Pregnancy Center, Safe Haven Baby Boxes [among others]…will inspire hope and resilience for our entire community. I can’t thank everyone here enough.”

This is an excerpt from a report for paid subscribers to Braided Trails on Substack. Please visit that site to learn more.