The Sound of a Sacred Place

As the sun rose in the crimson sky on Tuesday, two men sat in the bitter cold, watching it together. One is charged with protecting the natural resources and heritage of the United States of America, the other with the same duty to his people, the Wampanoag American Indians.

U.S. Department of the Interior Secre tary Ken Salazar made a big point of saying recently that wind development had to be done right and in the “right places.” No one can disagree with those sentiments, and they were certainly issued for public consumption. However, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which is under his control, doesn’t seem to have heard him, or perhaps just tuned him out.

HAITIAN RELIEF

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

On behalf of the Haitian people, I’d like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Vineyard Gazette, especially to Julia Wells and her staff, namely Peter Brannen, Cooper Davis and Mark Lovewell, whom I had a chance to meet.

From Vineyard Gazette editions of February, 1935:

Winter has continued to hold the Vineyard in its frigid grasp during the past week. Ice on fresh and salt water has begun to grow heavy. Drift ice in the harbors and the Sound massed together. The steamboats were delayed and began to use the Quicks Hole route, Woods Hole being closed by the ice pack on the bay side.

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Mental illness affects not only the person who is ill, but their families and loved ones as well. The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts is sponsoring a free family-to-family educational course for family members of individuals with a serious mental illness. The course has been given nationwide to over 100,000 family members since its inception. It is taught by two trained family member volunteers and is intended to help family caregivers cope with a close relative’s mental illness.

The Vineyard has a way of attracting people with big personalities and big ideas. Some stay forever, some make a mark and move on, but the biggest leave something behind that forever changes the place.

One of those people, Bob Windsor, died this week, but not before leaving a legacy of community radio that lives on today in WMVY.