The Gazette has been pretty fearless in exposing dredging errors, environmental threats and the like on the Vineyard, but I wonder if you would consider also covering the lawsuit against Pie in the Sky Bakery in Woods Hole that the Martha’s Vineyard Saving Bank is carrying out?

Very often I consider in private how idiosyncratic Island people and culture are. The shark tournament held in Oak Bluffs every year is a case in point. How can Island people, surrounded and sustained by the ocean itself, how in the world we can sponsor a shark-killing tournament with bloody carcasses for all the world to see this waste of good fish flesh and this spectacle of killing the big watch dogs of the seas?

Shark populations worldwide are in grave peril. Many species of open ocean sharks are in danger of extinction. The spectacle of the Annual Oak Bluffs monster shark tournament unnecessarily contributes to declining shark populations and is an assault on the natural world. This unremitting display of cruelty and disregard for clear conservation imperatives undermines the spirit and character of our Island community. The town of Oak Bluffs justifies this catastrophe by promoting the message that killing sharks for fun and prizes is good for business.

I was enjoying your editorial, Common Purpose, until I got to the paragraph that expressed your support of ObamaCare. I could not disagree more. When the deeply-divided Supreme Court ruled ObamaCare constitutional, it became the biggest tax increase in U.S. history. The new health care program, now dubbed Obama tax, signals the largest expansion of government since the New Deal.

Words of John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and many folk singers echo around this troubled world. Holly Near is on a nationwide tour including San Francisco, Chicago, Concord, Nantucket and here in The Old Whaling Church on Sunday, July 22. Her songs of peace have inspired many for over 30 years. Our 50 to 60-year-old daughters alerted us to her music and we have been Singing for Our Lives ever since

The Steamship Authority’s vessel Martha’s Vineyard now sports a vintage whistle, the pleasing sound of which harks back to a time of proper ships, staterooms and service to Nantucket and New Bedford. We listen for the departure whistle from Vineyard Haven as the Martha’s Vineyard sets sail to go about her appointed rounds, including her later stops at Oak Bluffs.