CLOSE CALL

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I’m sitting in my room on this Friday night relaxing, listening to the rain outside. Next thing I know, I hear a sound of a loud revving engine right next to my house, possibly over it. Following the revving sound was a huge bang. I knew for sure that something had just crashed.

My roommate came running out of her room to tell me that a plane had just missed our house!

The current financial crisis reminds me of a discussion I had recently with a conservative friend of mine. We’ll call him Harry. Harry believes that the free market is a serene clean money machine that benefits everyone — unless you mess with it — in which case it coughs and sputters and is likely to give money to the poor and starving and huddling masses, those folks who did not earn it but rather just sat around drinking beer and smoking dope and waiting for welfare to come their way.

In his first State of the Union speech, Abra ham Lincoln declared that “the Union must be preserved.” One hundred and forty-seven years later, I ask, “Must it really?”

As a fairly progressive Democrat, I’ve made a point in the last year to listen to as much Rush Limbaugh as Air America, to watch as much Fox News as MSNBC. I wanted to find out how divided we are politically, economically and sociologically.

My conclusion: horribly, profoundly and irretrievably.

SACRED COW

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Reading about Bradley Square brings me back to fairly recent history on Martha’s Vineyard. Remember when the golf wars dominated the headlines, and allegations of conflict of interest assaulted the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and the Island conservation community?

I arose before dawn.

Raced to my favorite fishing spot.

The shore by the Vineyard Haven bridge.

I cast from 5 to 6 a.m.

No fish.

But I did see the 6 a.m. ferry depart.

Not a great start.

I was joined by a fisherman

Really dressed to fish.

Every item of clothing matched head to toe.

Waders and khaki shirts blended well.

I am sure if need be he could