Because so many Vineyarders have been stirred up by the Cape Wind Project and because our various governing bodies are wrestling with the issue of residential wind turbines, isn’t it time we had a rational, non-emotional discussion of the future of wind power on our Island?

I don’t think the statute of limitations for many of my adventures this summer has quite yet passed. Thus an autobiographical essay published in a community I’ve come to know over the last three months and to which I plan to one day return naturally has to be somewhat censored. As I write this, I debate the prudence of publishing the story of my arrest after celebrating its removal from my record. I was arrested for trespassing, swimming in a pool after hours.

Melinda Loberg was sworn in as a Dukes County commissioner Thursday after a 4 to 3 vote by the county commission on Wednesday night. She will fill the seat left vacant by Paul Strauss, who retired earlier this summer.

“This is not what I saw myself being at this time in my life,” Ms. Loberg said on the phone yesterday. “But I was encouraged by folks in the community who I respect.”

Ms. Loberg, a resident of Vineyard Haven, has come to the Island for summers her whole life; she moved here full time in 1999.