Bettye Foster Baker
By BETTYE FOSTER BAKER
The Cottagers, Inc. 28th Annual House Tour, titled Architectural Treasures, Past and Present will be held on Thursday, July 15, rain or shine. In the fine tradition of distinctive homes associated with the tour, five residences will be featured.
Boston Globe op-ed columnist Derrick Z. Jackson is on the Island for his photography exhibit, From Iowa to the White House.
It shows at Cousen Rose Gallery from Thursday through Sept. 11. Sponsored by the African American Museum of Boston, the exhibit is free and open to the public — but the photos, signed by Mr. Jackson, are for sale to benefit the museum’s youth programs. He will appear at the Oak Bluffs gallery on Thursday, August 27 and Friday, August 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to meet visitors.
IN SEARCH OF OUR ROOTS: How 19 Extraordinary Americans Reclaimed Their Past. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Crown. January, 2009. 424 pages. $27.50.
President Obama has inherited the most challenging global economic crisis in the nation’s history. If we thought for one moment that we had the luxury of political drama offered up by Republicans and those few Blue Dog Democrats who have become oppositionists, we are sadly mistaken as daily Americans lose jobs by the thousands. The time to pull together as a nation is now if indeed we are true patriots and can bring ourselves to put the country first.
Certain aspects of the Wall Street meltdown are not unlike the great Ponzi scheme foisted on investors by Charles Ponzi who promised a 75 per cent return on investment in 45 days and 100 per cent return in 90 days to investors in Montreal in 1919. Just as the floor fell out from under those duped by investors, it was predicted by many economists who were watching this unprincipled scheme that the same would happen on Wall Street, where mortgages were sold down the line, each taking a cut until the money stopped flowing and collapsed into the mess we see today.
It was hard to believe on a casual drive through the Camp Ground down Jordan Crossing and around Trinity Park encircling the Methodist Tabernacle on Tuesday afternoon, the day before Illumination Night, that some 24 hours later cottages on these same streets would be dressed in their finest lanterns and lit to the highest heavens in what has arguably become the most enchanting night on the Island — Grand Illumination Night.