Fighting for the frontline
More than 300,000 healthcare workers and first responders in Massachusetts have stepped up to the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19. They suit up in scrubs or uniforms, leave the comfort of...
View ArticleConnecting the dots: The pandemic and climate change
This week, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Jane Goodall, the famous and compassionate scientist/environmentalist, commented wistfully during an appearance on the PBS NewsHour: “We are all...
View ArticleEmergency rental relief
At the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard (PEMV), it was business as usual… making well researched grants to a myriad of qualified Island nonprofit organizations and awarding scholarships to...
View ArticleCongressional action, congressional deadlock
One remarkable outcome of COVID-19 is the recent congressional cooperation. Since March 6, the body has passed four major measures, costing trillions of dollars, to help small businesses, people out of...
View ArticleWhat’s in a mask?
Masks have surged to the forefront of public attention propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The technical specifications of protective masks, formerly matters of arcane knowledge dimly known to many...
View ArticleRemembering Kent State
May 5, 1970, I was walking from my dorm down a causeway to the campus at Rochester Institute of Technology. A friend coming the other way put up the alarm: “Have you heard! They are killing students in...
View ArticleBack to print
Today’s edition of The MV Times follows a six-week suspension of print publication. In mid-March (seems like five years ago), faced with the almost unfathomable uncertainties of Island life following...
View ArticleMisplaced outrage
Jim Malkin, the Vineyard’s new representative to the Steamship Authority board for a little more than two months, has already made some waves — and for that the entire Island should be grateful. Yes,...
View ArticleMemorial Day paradox
It’s Memorial Day weekend, and the Vineyard is observing this national holiday which asks us to remember the deaths of fallen American soldiers. In an odd coupling, this is also the weekend when we...
View ArticleThe coming climate
One possible good outcome of the pandemic and its impact on the economy is having the cleanest air and water in decades, thanks to the reduction in vehicle traffic. Unfortunately, this transformation...
View ArticleThere when we need them
The Steamship Authority likes to use the moniker “lifeline to the islands,” and with good reason — the ferry service was created by legislation for just that purpose. It’s the only way to get a vehicle...
View ArticleHealthy appreciation
This week, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital began accepting patients for some elective procedures, a return to a bit of normalcy in a place that’s been thrust into the frontline of a worldwide pandemic. As...
View ArticleRefuse to look away
You are used to seeing our staff editorials in this space. In light of the events in Minneapolis and around the country over the last week, we felt it was appropriate to use this page for an essay by...
View ArticleThe Trump social media executive order
Last week, Twitter added fact-checking labels, then a warning, to several tweets by President Trump. The president responded by signing an executive order that sought to limit what social media...
View ArticleShift the focus
Food trucks and where they can — mostly can’t — be located is the issue that has grabbed the attention of Tisbury’s select board. While Edgartown has been meeting and working with the town’s...
View ArticleA week of wins and losses for transgender rights
This week’s landmark Supreme Court decision outlawing employment discrimination against LGBTQ Americans simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is undoubtedly cause for...
View ArticleSpread cheer, not the virus
Hello Martha’s Vineyard visitors, we’ve been expecting you. We welcome you every year through our ferry terminals, our public docks, and our airport. We embrace the additional traffic at Five Corners...
View ArticleAn open letter to Michelle Obama
Dear Ms. Obama, I take you at your word that you have no wish to be a candidate for vice president on the ticket with Joe Biden. No one can fairly blame you. You have already given eight years of your...
View ArticleLet us breathe
My reaction to President Trump‘s walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square was outrage. I know that historic church well. I was married there many years ago. It is called “the Church of...
View ArticleReflecting on voters’ choices
Election season is finally over. After being delayed for more than two months because of the pandemic, the last voters from West Tisbury cast their ballots on Thursday, with hand sanitizer in high...
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