A light, peaceful snow draped the West Tisbury School last Friday morning. If principal Michael Halt sees snow again in the coming months, it may be a world away, perhaps from a remote outpost in the central highlands of Afghanistan or the jagged Hindu Kush.
Down an unplowed path in West Tisbury behind an ox pen sits a house at the edge of the woods. The bitterly cold morning has not yet broken and the snow is glowing a pale moonlit blue, but inside the lights are on and the tenants are restless. Bob Woodruff is preparing his team for the 50th annual Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count, delayed this year until Jan. 5 by the weather.
He slaps an aerial photograph of the Island on his kitchen table and surveys it like a military general.
A week ago Ted Bayne, a member of the board of directors for the Vineyard Energy Project, got a call from a producer at CNN. She wanted to talk to him about being number seven on John McCain’s hit list.
“It was news to me,” said Mr. Bayne.
“Putting America to Work,” the oversized green sign announces at the razed ferry terminal near the North Bluff in Oak Bluffs, a site now littered with orange cones, hydraulic equipment and rubble. It is perhaps the most visible presence of federal stimulus money on the Vineyard, but the Island has been affected in many other ways both conspicuous and subtle by the recent influx of cash.
Trivia jockey Dan Cassidy posed the killer question: “What is the only state capital that borders another country and is accessible only by sea or air?”
The contestants’ tables buzzed. What’s Washington’s capital? Olympia? Why isn’t it Seattle? Don’t get distracted. Is Olympia on the ocean? No idea. What about Alaska’s capital? That’s too easy. Or is it? Hmm, maybe Anchorage is correct. Wait — is Anchorage the capital? Or does Juneau sound right? Time’s up, get the card in!
Last Thursday, past and current members of the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Dispute Resolution celebrated their 25th anniversary in the one place they have been so effective at keeping people out of for years: the Edgartown district court.
Formerly the Martha’s Vineyard Mediation Program, the organization trains mediators who try to facilitate peaceful resolutions between opposing parties in a confidential, constructive and empathetic fashion, before either party resorts to formal litigation, which can often turn recriminatory and divisive.
