Voters in the Barnstable legislative district, including Martha’s Vineyard, have an opportunity to vote in favor of establishing a single payer system for health care for the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Please look for the public policy question on your Nov. 4 ballot regarding health care as a human right and vote yes (Question Five in Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury, and Question Six in Tisbury).

On Tuesday the voters of Dukes County will find a question on the ballot asking for approval to make an important change to our county government. The question and answer below may be helpful.

Q: Will I be able to vote to abolish county government?

A: No. The charter study commission, after 18 months of study, recommends retaining county government with minor changes.

Q: What will I be voting on?

Over 40 per cent of the income of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services comes from state contracts. We are very thankful that we have just come through the state budget cuts relatively unscathed. However, in order to maintain the quality of services we provide to the Island community we must be constantly vigilant.

Based on my personal experience, I believe that the most important task of our state representative is to protect the integrity, independence, and local control of the Steamship Authority. It is the trump issue in the current race to fill the seat being vacated by Eric Turkington.

Our state representative may be only one of 160 in most legislative matters, but in cases of Steamship Authority business our elected voice really matters.

L ast week, Mother Nature spent a lot of energy reminding us she was around. It was a nagging reminder, omnipresent and persistent. It’s the wind I’m speaking about, of course. Joining with her ally, the moon, Mother Nature nudged the ocean over seagirt Island roads and tossed it over the seawall in Oak Bluffs, impeding our mundane progress on errands. This wind had a particular character. Rather than giving us pelting rains and thunder storms, Mother Nature brought a boring norther — attitude rather than tantrums.

PEACE THROUGH PRAYER

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A vote for Sen. John McCain is a vote to give our nation an opportunity to rethink the abortion issue and to have a change of mind and heart. It is not easy in the political climate of the Vineyard today to say, “Vote for John McCain.” It is never easy to go against the mainstream. But in the name of democracy and in the spirit of tolerance, each voice needs to be given a chance to be heard.