Opinion
In the aftermath of the Navy yard shootings, we see and hear the same accusations where innocent law-abiding people are made the problem, and, in typical knee-jerk fashion, must be dealt with by punitive legislation as the immediate solution.
As Martha’s Vineyard residents for over 30 years and now living here half of the year, we had to respond to Danielle Pergament’s recent myopic article in The New York Times. She paints a rather clubby and selective picture of the Island and misses a bunch of noteworthy locals.
I appreciate the prayers and kindness shown to me and my family during my daughter’s illness. So happy to be back on-Island. So grateful. The following by Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, captures perfectly my sentiment at this time.
As I joined the line waiting to enter the meeting room, I greeted and joked with some of the oyster growers in a manner customary among close friends. Like old friends coming together at a funeral, our jolly small talk denied the seriousness of the occasion.
The Irish have been scattered to the four corners of the earth since 1607 when the defeated Earls fled to Spain hoping to return to fight another day with the English armies overwhelming their country. By the 1680s, France had become their destination of choice, and all Irish children learn the story of Patrick Sarsfield who gave his life for his adopted country during the religious wars, mourning only that he was not dying for Ireland.
From the Vineyard Gazette edition of October 15, 1943:
Tuesday was Cranberry Day at Gay Head, and it is no exaggeration to say that virtually the entire population turned out for the annual visit to the wild cranberry bogs which has been the practice of the people of this place for untold generations.