Bettye Foster Baker

508-696-9983

([email protected])

The Weather Channel experts kept warning that a mighty storm was coming our way. They called it Earl. Would there be a direct hit on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket or not? They didn’t know. Their predictive models which they follow religiously were not perfect. We all waited. What to do? It seems to me that the seemingly contradictions in the words of Shakespeare uttered by Hamlet ultimately solved the problem: “If it be now, tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now, if it be not now, yet it will come; the readiness is all.” George R. Stewart applied this rationale in his book, Storm.

The readiness was all for us. So we evacuated on Thursday, a beautiful day, no storm in sight, no high waves, no rain. But all was not that simple. Ferry reservations were made before we knew where we were going and the only imperative was to get off the Island. My husband followed some of his rules of risk he learned from somebody years ago. Never risk more than you can afford to lose. In this case your life. Always consider what is to be gained or lost. Quantify it if you can, and always weigh the probabilities that the event will occur.

So, one day before the state of emergency alarm was sounded on the Island, it was clear to me that living 82 steps from Nantucket Sound was not the place to be. So we evacuated Thursday.

For my husband it was a time to seize the opportunity to go to Williamstown, visit my daughter’s alma mater, Williams College and the nearby Clark Art Museum. I thought, “No. Too far,” I said. “Surely it’s not going to be that bad. I’ll find a resort . . .”

So, the windows were boarded, hanging baskets and porch furniture securely battened down and we joined the few who ferried off the Island. My neighbors, whose families have summered here for well over a century in the same cottages, were probably convinced that we were wimps, after all, they survived Hurricane Bob, so what was the big deal with Earl? I was too busy to answer that question had it been posed. What I did know was good food, room and maid services would be too sweet to pass up, so we headed west and ended up in the medical center and college town of Worcester, though I would have preferred a quaint, bucolic resort which eluded me on the Internet. We settled for a hotel near Saint Vincent Hospital and the Tribeca restaurant didn’t disappoint, but the stay was not without its problems.

Upon arrival, I immediately settled in with a light, three-olive martini and anxiously turned on the television to get a status report on the storm. To my amazement the Weather Channel was not available at that hotel! No problem, I thought. I’ll use my computer. I discovered there was no Wi-Fi connection available in the room and I would have to go to the business suite. It was back to the television. I would find MSNBC. There would be no question they would be covering the storm, I speculated. So I began channeling up and down to locate MSNBC. To my chagrin and mounting distress, MSNBC was also not in the hotel’s channel line-up! Now, I was really steamed given the fact that Fox News and Fox sports were fully operational. I called hotel services: “I cannot seem to find the Weather Channel,” I complained.

“We’ll send someone up right away,” the person said.

“And MSNBC,” I continued, rather unpleasantly, “Here we are,” I said, “In the midst of one the most serious storms since Hurricane Bob with no ability to learn what is happening to my house, my neighbors, my Martha’s Vineyard? Let alone the world. Get me the manager,” I demanded. The manager came on-line and I expressed my consternation to him and I mentioned a letter of complaint would be going to his CEO and Board and the FCC. He advised someone would be coming immediately.

By this time, a technician knocked, entered, and confirmed what I already knew. “Oh, Ma’am, I’m sorry,” he said. “We don’t have either channel.”

My solution was simple: Move to another hotel wherever it was. So, I informed the manager we would be leaving. I began calling other hotels to learn if they had the weather station and MSNBC in their TV listings. After calling at least four other hotels in the area, I learned not one, not one hotel carried the weather channel or MSNBC, but all carried Fox News.

I forgot the storm and the Weather Channel. Now, it was all about blocking signals of the liberal programs and denying fair and balanced news coverage. Surely, the cable company had not conspired to exclude MSNBC and my progressive pundits. Surely, they were not denying visitors access to certain news outlets. That old “fighting spirit” resurged in me again, and I could only think of all those folks bringing their kids to college and how un-American it was not to have balance in news broadcasts.

By now, I had called all hotels in the area and decided there was no freedom of choice to be had in television news and commentary in Worcester hotels. I needed to start writing complaints. It was shortly after that decision that the phone rang. The owner of the hotel was on the line. He advised that both the weather channel and MSNBC news were now available. I took in a deep breath, thanked him and realized that my complaint had to go forward, but not that day. I settled, in watched both channels and at a more profound level understood that those who do not fight to maintain their freedoms will lose them. Not having access to MSNBC and other media outlets is no different from that of Communists countries and other dictatorships who control information. Next time you stay in a hotel or resort check out the television line-up and see if you’re living in a democracy. For those who get their news over the Internet and think they’re not affected, don’t fool yourself, you are. Those denials of information, wherever they occur, impact on all of us profoundly and completely.

Arriving back in Oak Bluffs, I returned to two voice mails from the emergency management system advising we go to the Oak Bluffs Elementary School with water, food, and snacks. This would not have been a good choice for me. Given the same circumstances I will opt on the side of safety, but search a little longer for that bucolic spot I failed to locate.

Festivities around the Labor Day weekend included another stellar evening at the annual White Party, hosted by an extraordinary group of friends: Radio station owners Cheryle Wills, of North Jersey and Barbados, her husband Walker Lowe, Cheryl and Kern Grimes, of West Tisbury and Boston, Ken Hudson, his friend Pat Varnell, and finally, hosts Terry and Wayne Embrey. Wayne played professional ball with the NBA, and was the first African American general manger of the Milwaukee Bucks, and later general manger of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Mycki Jennings of Oak Bluffs and New Haven, Conn., hosted a luncheon in her lovely historic Vineyard home in honor of Annette R. Streets, wife of The Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Streets. Rev. Streets spoke Sunday at Union Chapel’s final service for the summer. Annette Streets is an international organizational management consultant for Streets and Associates, LLC and has just returned from South Africa where she consulted with a variety of NGO’s. She graciously complimented the attendees for their warmth and the unique welcoming culture of the Island. Attendees were Dr. Bettye Fletcher Comer, Deborah Finley Jackson, Kathy Harrison, Ronnie Lytle, Patricia Downing, Hattie Brown, and Rose Marie Davis.

Grandparents take a special pride in the accomplishments of their grandchildren and Ezola and Earl Adams are no exception. In a recent conversation with Ezola, she told me that she would be attending parents’ weekend at the Air Force Academy for her granddaughter, Elyse Adams, who attends the Air Force Preparatory School on the campus of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her excitement and enthusiasm for this event was palpable.

Elyse is one of 240 cadet candidates. Like the main academy, the prep school is organized like a military unit. During parents’ weekend, Ezola and Earl learned all about the academic program, and the rigorous military training and athletic conditioning requirements designed to develop the character and skills necessary to be successful at the academy. They had the opportunity to see the parade, football, and soccer games.