Editorials
Murky Waters
It’s been a delicious hot spell, the days sunny but not excessively so and the nights cool. Perfect Island weather. Perfect for summer. Perfect for swimming.
High Marks for School Superintendent
The Search Begins in Oak Bluffs
Who would want to be town administrator in Oak Bluffs, anyway?
The question has become more than rhetorical with last week’s resignation of Michael Dutton, concluding a long-running drama that played out with all the inevitability of an Italian opera — the only surprise being how and when the end would come.
By DAN WATERS
To live in Christiantown is to abide by the laws, quirks and schedules of hundreds of other animals that share these primeval woods. If you are not a naturalist and a natural philosopher when you first move here, you will become one through regular contact with furry, scaly, fanged and feathered neighbors.
What Money Can’t Buy
Are we rich? Kids often ask the question, and answering it can be a complicated business, especially on Martha’s Vineyard. Of course we are, considering the living conditions of kids in much of the world, and even many Americans. Most of us have plenty to eat, warmth in all seasons, and the benefits of quality education and a beautiful environment.
It has long been evident that we need a new national anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner is tough to memorize and tougher to sing, and it celebrates a war we didn’t even win!
My candidate for a quintessentially American song, one that acknowledges pain as well as pride in our history, is City of New Orleans. Composed by the late Steve Goodman, who also wrote A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request, this bittersweet folk song grew out of a train ride from Chicago to New Orleans that Goodman and his wife took to visit his wife’s family.