Over 40 per cent of the income of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services comes from state contracts. We are very thankful that we have just come through the state budget cuts relatively unscathed. However, in order to maintain the quality of services we provide to the Island community we must be constantly vigilant.

Voters in the Barnstable legislative district, including Martha’s Vineyard, have an opportunity to vote in favor of establishing a single payer system for health care for the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Please look for the public policy question on your Nov. 4 ballot regarding health care as a human right and vote yes (Question Five in Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury, and Question Six in Tisbury).

On Tuesday the voters of Dukes County will find a question on the ballot asking for approval to make an important change to our county government. The question and answer below may be helpful.

Q: Will I be able to vote to abolish county government?

A: No. The charter study commission, after 18 months of study, recommends retaining county government with minor changes.

Q: What will I be voting on?

PEACE THROUGH PRAYER

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A vote for Sen. John McCain is a vote to give our nation an opportunity to rethink the abortion issue and to have a change of mind and heart. It is not easy in the political climate of the Vineyard today to say, “Vote for John McCain.” It is never easy to go against the mainstream. But in the name of democracy and in the spirit of tolerance, each voice needs to be given a chance to be heard.

October Days

A screech owl has been trilling outside the farmhouse this week, his voice soft and full of vibrato in the gathering darkness. Late autumn has arrived slowly this year, like a modest young girl at the ocean’s edge, reluctant to shed her terrycloth beach robe. Warm, Indian summer days lured us out onto the pond to dipnet for scallops with an old friend. We shucked the day’s catch with the sound of the Red Sox in the background, pennant hopes still alive.

Jobless

The Vineyard has long lived with labor shortages. Help wanted is the usual cry of small business owners here. Even this week, with the swirl of news around the acrobatic stock market, and climbing rates of unemployment and foreclosures across the state and the nation, it is worth noting that employment on the Island remains relatively strong.