Halftime
It’s just about midsummer, and Islanders should be at their maximum stress point, where demands on services, business, and on each other put us at the brink. Remarkably, the intersection — of seasonal...
View ArticleReflections of a visit to El Paso
I arrived in El Paso Monday, guest of the Plaza Classic Film Festival, as part of my book tour. The airport was like a ghost town, with not a soul in sight. Families were home, grieving. It was my...
View ArticleA top 10 event
Here are 10 takeaways from Beach Road Weekend while it’s fresh in our minds. Epstein was everywhere. Adam Epstein was committed to making Beach Road Weekend a success, and showed true leadership in the...
View ArticleAn aura of friendliness at M.V. Museum
There is something about museums which can be a tad foreboding. The very word “museum” makes you yawn and think of excuses to stay home and watch a ball game. Unless you are an art critic or a...
View ArticleState of the schools
Another school year is on the horizon, and the district has spent the summer cleaning and upgrading buildings, making necessary hires, and finishing up contract negotiations. I hope that all have had a...
View ArticleTaking flight
It’s coming too quickly now. Summer’s already accelerated pace, bookended by fireworks for the Fourth in Edgartown and the mid-August display in Oak Bluffs, has sped up even more in recent days. It’s...
View ArticleThe carbon-neutral express
Former Secretary of State John Kerry challenged Martha’s Vineyard last week to take the lead in the essential task of creating carbon-neutral communities. Speaking in stark, impassioned, and...
View ArticleSofia’s choice
“In the year since the Trump administration officially rescinded its family separation policy, more than 900 migrant children have been removed from an accompanying adult at the southern border.” – NY...
View ArticleWho is an American?
Like many in this country, I have been thinking about who is an American. This is especially true since we have long been discussing migrants crossing the border to escape oppression and violence in...
View ArticleProtect and serve
Police officers have to make split-second decisions, and those decisions can carry the consequences of life and death. Faced with situations where their own life is threatened, police officers are...
View ArticleTisbury needs to wake up
By Geoghan Coogan Ten years ago I started a term as a Tisbury selectmen. I was 32 at the time, had a young family of my own, and envisioned a substantial career as a member of the select board. As my...
View ArticleLeadership 101
By April Knight When a community like the Vineyard faces a crisis, a chain reaction occurs. Information, true or false, spreads from one group to another, like wildfire. Questions, accusations,...
View ArticleBritish and American constitutionalism, explained
Americans are watching the slow, steady meltdown of the British government under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been in office since July and may not be there by the time this piece appears in...
View ArticleNever forget
It’s one of those days when everyone who was alive can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news — the table at the Art Cliff Diner, staring in disbelief at the television in the...
View ArticleDon’t roll over
The recent public hearing on the 2020 freight schedule for the Steamship Authority was a bit of an exercise in futility. It did little to inform next month’s vote by the SSA board, which will consider...
View ArticleActing locally, thinking globally
“You say you hear us, and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing...
View ArticleStewardship at its worst
We have a housing crisis on Martha’s Vineyard, and while many altruistic organizations are doing yeoman’s work to solve it, they have barely made a dent in the problem. According to the MVC’s Housing...
View ArticleIn search of a smoking gun
Gov. Charlie Baker issued an unprecedented four-month ban of all vaping products last week, amid growing concerns about illnesses and deaths associated with vaping. Baker declared a public health...
View ArticleHistory and memory
For several weeks this past spring, letters galore appeared in the MV Times about two plaques honoring Confederate soldiers placed in 1925 in Ocean Park on the Soldiers’ Memorial. The Island chapter of...
View ArticleNo more denying it
In recent weeks, we’ve made a commitment as a newspaper to help our readers become more informed about the threat of climate change, and with it, sea level rise (see Greening Martha). Martha’s Vineyard...
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