On Nov. 4, we have an opportunity to vote yes on Question Three and end the suffering of greyhounds in Massachusetts. Question Three is a humane proposal that will phase out greyhound racing in Massachusetts by 2010.

Election Day 2008

Vineyard voters go to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots for President and Vice President in an election that is by any measure historic. The country is in turmoil, with the economy in a deep crisis that even the best and brightest financial experts cannot completely unravel, unemployment is soaring and confidence in elected leadership is ebbing lower than a full moon tide.

The main theme and rallying cry of this election has been change, and whatever the party affiliation, few can argue with that.

Based on my personal experience, I believe that the most important task of our state representative is to protect the integrity, independence, and local control of the Steamship Authority. It is the trump issue in the current race to fill the seat being vacated by Eric Turkington.

Our state representative may be only one of 160 in most legislative matters, but in cases of Steamship Authority business our elected voice really matters.

A bit of the spectral from early Gazette editions:

Near the north shore of the Island just inshore from Cedar Tree Neck is what is left of the Crying Swamp. Here today is a small cranberry bog, surrounded by swamp bushes just like a hundred similar spots on the Vineyard.

Years ago even grown folks hurried past the place with a feeling of dread after dark. To all the neighborhood the swamp was known in a queer, supernatural way.

RED STOCKING TIME

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The smell of newsprint is hard to describe — pungent, inky, old, dusty — all of the words fit but none is exactly right. And that is frustrating because the smell of newsprint is the smell of words.