“What’s happening to New Hampshire?” a friend asked us as details of the Greenland police shootings emerged last Thursday night.

In one sense, it is good that the question is asked. In many other states, such horrific news is met by many with a shrug or a sigh of resignation.

New Hampshire is different. More people still care here. When something as horrible as the murder of a police chief and the shooting of four other officers occurs, people in New Hampshire want to know what can they do.

What can they do to comfort the grieving law enforcement community and the loved ones of Chief Michael Maloney? What can they do to help the wounded and their families? What can they do to lessen the chances of this kind of thing happening again?

To the first two questions, we would suggest prayers, donations to the 100 Club of New Hampshire, and to a special fund set up in the chief’s name The 100 Club raises money for the families of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty. Contact it at www.100clubNH.org or telephone 623-9000. The other fund is the Mike Maloney Family Trust. Checks can be sent c/o Optima Bank, 2 Harbour Place, Portsmouth, NH 03801.

We would also suggest that the next time you see a police officer, thank him or her for serving. The thanks can be as simple as a wave or a smile or a handshake. It will mean a great deal.

The third question’s answer, we think, is in part to keep on keeping on. That is, New Hampshire people have always been supportive of law enforcement and its needs, firm with those who break our laws, and skeptical when attempts are made to weaken them. New Hampshire people need to keep on doing those things.

But we would also suggest that the answer to keeping New Hampshire a safer place must also lie in a people who believe in and teach their children moral values and the Golden Rule and who lead by their own example and who are unafraid to demand that their public institutions do likewise.

Our own thoughts and prayers this sad Sunday morning go out to the family of Chief Michael Maloney, to the Greenland Police Department and community, and to the four officers who were wounded: Dover Detective Gregory Turner, UNH Police Detective Eric Kulberg, Newmarket Detective Scott Kukesh and Rochester Detective Jeremiah Murphy.