Commentary
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the oldest and largest United States grassroots based civil rights organization. It was founded on Feb. 12, 1909, by a multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of progressive thinkers and activists of varying political and religious backgrounds including Ida Wells Barnett, W.E.B. Dubois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, and William English Walling. They came together and all were committed to forming an organization dedicated to answering the call of justice.
KEEP HOSPICE SEPARATE
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
I am not surprised to hear that the Vineyard Nursing Association is adding Medicare hospice services, even though they have been assuring the board and directors of Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard for several years that they are not. It is vital to recognize the difference in the level of care being offered by the VNA and Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard. It would be better for this community if these apples are not all in one big VNA basket.
Trail of Lawsuits
Moshup Trail is an ancient place, named for the legendary giant of the Wampanoags, the indigenous people of the Vineyard. Its windswept, salt-blasted heathlands are rare and unlike even any other rare place on the Island. The clean air is washed with salt and the light that plays across the trail has a quality all its own. Perhaps it is the absence of trees, the extreme western exposure, or the spirit of legendary giants.
How Old Are You?
From a February, 1991 Just a Thought column by Art Railton:
You’re getting old if you can remember when:
You came to the Vineyard on a steamer, not a ferry, and she landed at Oak Bluffs. But not in a slip.
And a few folks, the rich and adventurous, arrived by seaplane, flying from Woods Hole and landing in Vineyard Haven harbor.
And if you said you were going to the “crick,” you didn’t have to explain where it was.
Even when the snow flies and there is a bitter cold blast of wind from the north, when icicles hang from the roofs, Island workshops are busy.
At John Thayer’s Vineyard Haven workshop near the shore of Lagoon Pond, the garage door rattles loudly when a cold easterly breeze blows across the pond. A westerly wind rattles the back door. Mr. Thayer makes custom furniture and cabinetry.
Ice Bound
From the Gazette editions of February, 1934: