Opinion
The country and the world marked Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday on May 3 with a well- deserved bash in Madison Square Garden, and many local parties, to pay tribute to a beautiful human being. In his later years Pete has been recognized as an icon of peace, justice, the environment and the powerless. Because I have had a long association with him beginning in the late 1960s, and particularly during the 1970s, I was asked to make some remarks at our local event, at Featherstone on Sunday. Here’s some of what I said.
The film is a musical. Shortly after the movie begins, a brave but nervous girl walks onto a nearly completed stage. High overhead workmen are rigging electrical wire and so on. In a bored voice an assistant director says, “Okay, kid.” A pianist launches for the 89th time into the audition song. And there it is! A voice that comes along once in a generation.
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
Of anyone that I know, Michael McManus deserves an addendum to his obituary, especially after seeing his photo published two weeks ago, taken about 25 years ago. The current photo, taken by my son Christian Billotto, is the Michael that we all knew.
This time last year I was adding the final touches to my solar car. My partner, Lucas Amarins, and I were fixing a few engineering problems, enhancing the appearance, and testing it out on the Tisbury School blacktop under the watchful eye of our helpful science teacher, Mrs. Gatchell. We named it Ra, after the Egyptian Sun God, and in test runs it worked great (aside from the minor issue that it kept careening off to the right, causing multiple collisions with the other cars).
Around the globe, people were shocked by the recent attack by Somali pirates on the U.S. cargo ship the Maersk Alabama, and the abduction of Capt. Richard Phillips. The story was riveting. Who knew there were still pirates?
Pirates have always prowled the ocean. As Capt. John Smith wrote in 1630: “As in all lands where there are many people, there are some theeves, so in all Seas much frequented, there are some Pyrats.”
The image of course that springs to mind is more romance than horror, colored by Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Editor’s Note: It’s not sophomores this week — it’s juniors and seniors. Guest columnists are members of the Irish History and Culture class at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. They write about their trip to Ireland over April vacation.
Ireland — I’ll Be Back
By Troy Small