’Tis the season
Pink & Green Weekend has come and gone in Edgartown. Back Door Donuts is open. So is DQ. And a host of other seasonal restaurants and businesses too numerous to mention here have either reopened or...
View ArticleWill Roe be preserved?
Suddenly, abortion and abortion rights are back in the center of discussion. Lost for the moment are local worries like the destruction of the Mill House or town budgets, or national ones like the...
View ArticleStop (& Shop) and think
There are people still bitter about the way the Stop & Shop renovation project in Vineyard Haven ended in May of 2014. And there are people still cheering a perceived victory against the big...
View ArticleClosing the chasm
It took a while, but this chasm has finally been closed. After months of debate, some of it with ugly racist undertones that could have created a deep Island divide, the Oak Bluffs board of selectmen...
View ArticleEnd expropriation and exploitation of Native American lands
From the very first moments that whites entered New England and the “New World,” they began their centuries-long sordid expropriation and exploitation of native American lands — a phenomenon that...
View ArticleNew beginnings
The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Class of 2019 graduates Sunday afternoon. Charter School students have already graduated. Vineyard students who make the daily ferry ride to Woods Hole will...
View ArticleIs felony murder fair and just?
Consider this scenario. Two people plan a bank robbery. One sits outside in the getaway car while the other one gets the money, but also fatally shoots a teller. Captured after a police chase, both...
View ArticleCustomer deserved better
What happened to Frank Cray can only be described as awful. Headed off-Island for a doctor’s appointment he waited three months for, he got an unwelcome surprise as he drove onto the Island Home ferry...
View ArticleAn update from Beacon Hill
Building on our success last session in passing 11 bills through the House, we kicked off the new year by filing 26 bills and cosponsoring 240 more in the first month of the new session. We wrote bills...
View ArticleGet the lead out and release documents
The U.S. Coast Guard needs to acknowledge its lead problem at the government housing it owns at West Chop Lighthouse. The Coast Guard should also be working to reassure Island residents about other...
View ArticleThe relevance of the Declaration of Independence
Parades, flags, fireworks, parties, outdoor picnics, all are part of Fourth of July celebrations. In some places, the Declaration is read aloud. In others, it is printed in local newspapers. All of us...
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Exclusive rights, and wrongs
This was the feel-good story of the month. We covered it, the Vineyard Gazette covered it, and other news organizations big and small attempted to cover it as well. But missing from the photos of Gwen...
View ArticleUnion-busting lands on Martha’s Vineyard’s shores
Once upon a time in America, there was an 11th Commandment that declared, “Thou shalt not scab!” Then, many had read novelist Jack London’s definition of a scab, which ends: “Esau was a traitor to...
View ArticleGet them back to work
As the strike by Vineyard Transit Authority full-time bus drivers extends to nearly two full weeks, it’s impressive just how much attention the small but spirited group of drivers has received. There...
View ArticlePlaying his racism card
We’ve been understandably disappointed with President Donald Trump’s sharp attacks on the media — calling us “the enemy of the people” and denigrating the good work of journalists at every turn. Those...
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A mile in their shoes
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View ArticleTime out
In 1729, the great English satirist Jonathan Swift published “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen [Burden] to the Publick.” With tongue in cheek, Swift...
View ArticleLeaps of faith
Lost in our stories on the 50th anniversary of the crash at Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick that killed Mary Jo Kopechne, and the 20th anniversary of the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his...
View ArticlePrecious and few
Vineyard Haven desperately needs parking, particularly in-season parking. Every day at The Times, we do what we call the parking lot shuffle. “Who owns the black Toyota Tundra? Could you move it...
View ArticleReflections on the free black seamen of Martha’s Vineyard
I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Carnegie exhibit on whaling and Vineyard history during my annual visit. I applaud the effort of the Vineyard Trust in Edgartown to create a new and valuable...
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