Opinion
November Blooms
No doubt encouraged by the mild late fall weather, flowers are still blooming around the Island. Stray purple asters pop up in farm fields here and there, staying low to the ground as if to guard against Jack Frost’s incoming assault. Dahlias are down for the winter in Island gardens but a pot of chives recently divided thinks it might be springtime again and is making small purple flowers, perfect for a salad at suppertime after chopping wood for an evening fire.
Calling Comcast: Service for All, Please
Comcast reported another good quarter this month, announcing a 4.7 per cent increase in profits on revenues of $14.3 billion. Even though it lost 165,000 cable television customers nationwide, it gained 261,000 broadband Internet subscribers. In addition to being the nation’s largest cable TV provider, Comcast also happens to be its largest Internet services provider.
The idea for OWS MV (Occupy Wall Street- Martha’s Vineyard) first appeared as an image of a can rolling down a hill. The hill was the enthusiasm I felt all around me as people took to the streets to restore our democracy. The can represented a simple idea — a photograph of people congregating in some visually iconic place to support the Occupy movement in each of the Island‘s six towns. Let’s publish these photographs, I thought, wherever appropriate — on Web sites, on social media like Facebook, in newspapers.
Three weeks ago, my 16-year-old daughter asked me what the Occupy Wall Street protests taking place in Zuccotti Park and all over the country meant. To better answer her, I visited the park and spent time talking to many different protestors. There was a very inviting and spirited energy the night I visited. The group was frantically cleaning the park in hopes of not getting thrown out the next day. At one point I was even handed a mop to help.
QUESTIONABLE CONDUCT
Editors, Vineyard Gazette
If the Martha’s Vineyard Commission was ever well-served by Mark London, that is no longer the case. His attempted gag order in the matter of the highly controversial roundabout is an insult not only to the commissioners whom he serves, but to the entire Vineyard community as well. In sum, he directs commissioners to freeze time as of the closing of the public hearing, and thereafter, to stick their heads in the sand.
Lyme Under Study
More than thirty, less than ten thousand. The precise number of people living on the Vineyard who have contracted Lyme disease is unknown, but it is certain that the number is higher than the thirty cases of Lyme disease here recorded by the Centers for Disease Control last year. Far higher.