Bit Part on a National Stage

Election Clerks

Early Tuesday morning at the polls in West Tisbury a young woman carrying a box of muffins politely threaded her way through the line of voters that snaked out of the public safety building onto the sidewalk. The muffins were for the poll workers who had been there since before seven o’clock. As if reading the minds of all who stood outside on this mild autumn morning, most on their way to work, one voter turned to another and said, “Aren’t we lucky to live here?”

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.

Jobless

The Vineyard has long lived with labor shortages. Help wanted is the usual cry of small business owners here. Even this week, with the swirl of news around the acrobatic stock market, and climbing rates of unemployment and foreclosures across the state and the nation, it is worth noting that employment on the Island remains relatively strong.

October Days

A screech owl has been trilling outside the farmhouse this week, his voice soft and full of vibrato in the gathering darkness. Late autumn has arrived slowly this year, like a modest young girl at the ocean’s edge, reluctant to shed her terrycloth beach robe. Warm, Indian summer days lured us out onto the pond to dipnet for scallops with an old friend. We shucked the day’s catch with the sound of the Red Sox in the background, pennant hopes still alive.

Luxury Advertising on Wings

Question: Why does the Martha’s Vineyard Airport need luxury advertising?

Answer: It doesn’t.

Better question: Why does the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission believe it should consider luxury advertising as a way to generate extra revenue?

Answer: It shouldn’t.