Commentary
Monday morning, just after dawn at Cedar Tree Neck Sanctuary. The dense forest canopy refracts the early morning sun into a thousand butter yellow shafts of light. The shards fall randomly and at odd angles in the hushed woodland, illuminating the gnarled ancient trunk of an elephant gray beech tree here, a patch of soft emerald moss underfoot there. The terrier races down the Irons Trail path, stopping to bury her nose in a muddy place by the stream, still fat and gurgling in a cool summer with so much rain. A blue jay scolds from overhead.
Lady Idina Sackville was born in the 1890s to parents who had married for convenience: he for money and she for his title of Earl De La Warr, one of the oldest families in Britain with few achievements to their 800 year-old name but the gift of it to the state of Delaware. The marriage didn’t last.
Summertime. It’s easy to forget in this lovely, windblown spot that even here, even now, children go hungry. In a startling story earlier this month, the Gazette reported that food-stamp use at Cronig’s Market increased by 500 per cent this year.
Reality is hard to escape. Out here in the cool Atlantic or in the most claustrophobic inner-city neighborhood, there are 36.2 million people in the United States who are hungry, 12.4 million of them are children.
CONFESSION
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
I am writing to confess a sin of omission. Last week we distributed our summer newsletter in your paper. The newsletter described the effects of the recession on the Vineyard and highlighted nonprofits that have gone the extra mile to help the community get through this crisis.
One effect of the recession was the Oak Bluffs School closing for the summer due to budget cuts, and this meant the YMCA camp lost its venue and had to close for this summer.
There was barely an empty seat in the Old Whaling Church Monday night. As the hour neared eight o’clock, a crowd of spectators began a game of musical chairs as they attempted to find an unfilled space close to friends or family. But in the end, finding a seat didn’t much matter — not with so much time spent in standing ovations for the musical performances.
John (Jack) H. Ware Jr.: 1919-2009
It is often said there is no more noble calling than public service. Certainly that is true in this Island community where the quality of life rests so heavily on the selfless work of so many volunteers and public servants. Those who devote time to the service of others, from the political arenas of town halls to the corridors of our Island hospital and beyond to the work of Community Services, deserve the gratitude of all Vineyard citizens.