On the Side of Angels

Lights, please. Every year Linus van Pelt asks for a spotlight and steps right in to quote the gospel of Luke and remind Charlie Brown that Christmas is not a time for fear, but of “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” To all people, the angels said, came a child.

New Era for an Old Broadsheet

Now begins a new chapter at the Vineyard Gazette, the newspaper of record for the Island since 1846 that was sold last week to philanthropists and seasonal residents Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg. There is much anticipation, excitement and interest, both inside the paper and out, over this moment and what it may mean for the future.

Property Value Reset

Falling property values are the quiet news of the day on the Vineyard, where assessors in every town are preparing revaluations. And while there has been no precipitous crash here and thankfully no foreclosure floods of the type that have been seen on the mainland, values have fallen significantly. This a direct reflection of a real estate market which is going through a significant correction amid ongoing reverberations from the economic recession.

It was thirty-five years ago that I wrote my first editorial for the Vineyard Gazette, an editorial so important that today no one remembers the message. The thoughts behind that editorial essay were of no particular significance, except perhaps to mark the beginning of a journalistic journey through a profoundly important period of Martha’s Vineyard history.

The County Conundrum

Does county government have a useful function anymore? Throughout the commonwealth the county form of government has gradually been phased out, and today only a handful of these white elephant governments remain. Dukes County is one. On the Vineyard county government has undergone evaluation twice in the past twenty years, and both times voters Islandwide agreed that it should continue, that its value as a regional government had the potential to be strengthened and broadened.

Roses in November

Autumn on the Vineyard this year has been an up-and-down tale of weather, as if the Island had been gripped by some environmental personality disorder, with cold rain for days at a stretch, then suddenly turning mild and sunny for many more days on end. The first killing frost arrived quite late last month, but we might not have noticed since the wind has been a near-constant companion, rattling the windows and at times the thoughts.