Opinion
Two days before my longtime friend, Stan Hart, died, I had the distinct pleasure — and pain — of paying him a final visit. He was hooked up to an oxygen tube and was very frail. But he was very brave as well. He had wanted the Vineyard Gazette to interview him for a story in the paper about the publication of his two new books that he could see while he was still with us. The paper came out last Friday, with a fragile photo of him taken by myself holding those two books. And then Stan died the next day.
Under threatening skies and a stiff, southerly wind, over 100 hardy souls convened at Menemsha Beach to celebrate the life of Dan Aronie, who died early this year at the age of 38 after a lifelong struggle with diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The gathering included a formal Jewish eulogy followed by short speeches filled with anecdotes about Dan’s life, some joyful, others tearful. Dan’s parents, Joel and Nancy, and his brother Josh were present, along with many of Dan’s caregivers and members of the Aronie extended family of friends.
Pay the Price
This week, as estimates of the cost of cleaning up the massive oil slick off the Gulf Coast stretched above ten billion dollars, with no clear way to stanch the pollution now visible from space, irreparably harming marine life and devastating the regional economy there, Cape Wind announced a deal to sell half the power generated from its planned turbines in Nantucket Sound to the energy delivery company National Grid. The cost of our monthly electricity bills would increase by less than two dollars.
Public Health: Conversation and Opportunity
The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital’s new building project has seen four years of publicity, from a high-profile capital campaign to government approvals to actual construction to a gala opening last month.
I was driving along the West Tisbury-Edgartown Road when I noticed a police car parked just below the rise of a hill. It was an obvious speed trap. After I had driven out of sight I reached down to flash my lights at an oncoming driver. This is what I have always done. The unspoken law of us, the drivers, versus them, the police, seems to require it.
A Story That Changes Lives
By Jessie Chandler