Emma Goldman was a woman who championed women’s rights to contraception, workers’ rights, homosexual rights, and who spoke against militarism, capitalism and religion.
These days, much of what she stood for is mainstream, or at least within the ambit of mainstream debate. But back in 1919, her views and her philosophy, anarchism, were enough to have her repeatedly jailed and, ultimately, deported from the United States to where she was born in Lithuania, then part of the Russian empire.
Just a year ago, we had what President Obama called a “teachable moment” in race relations. That was in the wake of the arrest of Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr., a well known Vineyard summer resident.
You remember it, of course. Professor Gates, probably the nation’s foremost black academic, was arrested in his own home after Cambridge police responded to a suspected break-in.
The grass growing up through the pavers, the three plastic pots sprouting weeds, the weathered facade, peeling paint and unswept sidewalk of the Golden Dragon restaurant on Water street, Vineyard Haven, do not promise a fine dining experience.
Nor, for that matter does the interior, with its ill-assorted collection of tables and chairs and decor including a Coke machine with spare stock stacked beside it. But it’s the outside which so concerns the Tisbury selectmen.
Before the government can tap the phone or read the e-mails of an American suspected of having terrorist links, it must get the approval of a federal judge. But if they target the same person for death, no such review pertains.
And that deeply concerns Vicki Divoll, a former CIA officer and Senate Intelligence Committee lawyer, who now teaches U.S. government and the Constitution at the U.S. Naval Academy, and who will speak on the subject of targeted killings of Americans by the Obama Administration, tomorrow at the Chilmark Public Library.
Pat Tillman taught his comrade in arms Russell Baer a couple of important things.
In life, Mr. Tillman, the football star who walked away from a multimillion dollar career with the NFL to go and fight for America, taught Mr. Baer not to prejudge people.
When he heard the star player was joining his unit, the second platoon, Alpha company of the second 75th Ranger regiment, for the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Baer expected him to be “some jock meathead” with a huge ego.
The year was 1978, and Martha’s Vineyard confronted a big decision about its character. It could take a big step toward becoming part of generic America or fight to maintain its individuality.
A property had come up for sale on Vineyard Haven harbor, and the multi-national purveyor of junk food, McDonald’s, was lined up to build its 5,110th restaurant on it.
