I have recently been the recipient of one of those fantastical e-mail chain letters being broadly circulated these days titled Who Is Barack Obama? Full of untruths, it anonymously warns us about Obama’s secret allegiance to radical Muslims’ beliefs, and while attacking Barack’s Christian faith and deep patriotism, the e-mail assures us that its assertions are all supposedly verified by the rumor site snopes.com. This is untrue: a check on that Web site refutes the e-mail.

As a teacher of history I studied many presidencies.

25 Years Ago

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of February, 1983:

Primary Colors

On Tuesday voters in Dukes County will go to the polls to cast ballots in the race for the Presidential nomination which has so electrified the nation.

In recent decades primaries have become humdrum, predictable affairs and more often than not voters may not have bothered to cast ballots, believing — perhaps correctly — that none of it mattered.

But not this year.

In recent years, the faces of foreign workers on H2B visas have become a familiar part of the Vineyard’s seasonal employment mix. Indeed, their names are known and remembered by people who frequent particular restaurants or come back to certain inns.

That is no coincidence. Vineyard employers who have tapped into the program for a source of reliable seasonal workers often bring back the same individuals year after year.

The Island has lost another wonderful treasure.

Peter Williamson, the former chief of police in Oak Bluffs who died Jan. 23 left a legacy that goes way beyond his contributions and service to people on the Island.

Forty years ago I became a part-time police officer on the Oak Bluffs police force, working for Peter. I was the first of a line of summer police officers who either graduated from the same school, St. Michael’s College in Vermont, or were friends of ours who went on to become members of the force for varying periods of time.