Opinion
And the cry rings out, “A.P. did it!” I think
he’d be tickled. It’s an honor bestowed on each and every one of us on our way down to the cemetery. A.P. built most of the houses on the island. For 40 years he was the town builder, mason, plumber, architect, electrician and building inspector. Since his death he has become solely responsible for every single piece of bad building ever perpetrated on this rock. He has singlehandedly absolved every one of us of our sins. He is a saint, the patron saint of scapegoats.
I missed Angela Davis’s description last month of life on
Palestine’s West Bank when she was there on behalf of Jewish Voice for Peace. I did, however, read last week’s letters about her talk and Alan M. Dershowitz’s attack of her view of the inhumanity to West Bank residents. I add to the discussion now only because, just six months ago, I, too, was a visitor there.
I went there from Israel.
Last Friday, pressed for time, I
took the evening Cape Air flight to Boston, having enjoyed a few days alone after settling my daughters at their colleges on opposite coasts. Summer was over and I was of course sad to be leaving the Vineyard and already missing the people I didn’t have time to see and things I didn’t have time to do, feeling a bit beleaguered by all the “letting go” thrust upon me in one week.
The airport was so still and quiet I thought I had the time wrong, but the attendant said there were only two passengers.
Can’t get there from here. Bert and I said it first,
but Chappaquiddick truly took the sentiment to heart. Giving (or receiving) directions on Chappy is nothing if not impossible. Sisyphus himself would have said “aw, screw it” after the third run-through of the same direction to the same person.
There are markers on Chappy, real landmarks that denote location, which are fine if the location that you’re describing is within 10 yards of that landmark. Any further and you must rely on the ever-changing mailbox or disappearing street post.
While it would seem that plenty of folks know that James Dean got his first real show business break while on the Vineyard, surprisingly few know that the ferry Governor was in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentlemen with Deborah Winger and Richard Gere.
Two weeks ago I wrote a letter to this paper in an attempt to raise the level of concern about West Nile fever and other mosquito-borne diseases coming to this Island.
In my letter I urged a program of mosquito control which included aerial spraying and elimination of areas of stagnant water where mosquitoes breed.