Letters to the Editor
Published: May 6, 2010
Van tours are his business
To the Editor:
Regarding the Edgartown selectman's decision to postpone a van tour (l4 passenger) at least one season in order to survey their business community:
Martha's Vineyard Transport has been doing van tours as a charter company, and has brought thousands of people to Edgartown who spent money that day and returned in the future. The selectmen have blocked my plans to sell tickets in Oak Bluffs and increase the amount of people being brought to Edgartown. The selectmen say they want to take this summer to survey the business community for their opinions. The "business person" by definition wants more business, and to postpone a decision on my application for this reason is not logical.
The selectmen also want to survey the downtown homeowners to see if they would be against a ticket van tour driving by their summer homes. The van tours have been driving through the streets of Edgartown for many years without any complaints, and nothing will change except instead of averaging four people in a van there will be ten. The historical town of Edgartown belongs to all and not just the homeowners. I believe that if their peaceful lifestyle and their safety is not changed by these van tours, the homeowners would be glad to share this beautiful historical town.
Martha's Vineyard Transport is ready right now to create good paying jobs, bring money to businesses of Edgartown, and make the Martha's Vineyard experience better for many visitors, hoping they will return. The only thing preventing this from happening now is the selectmen of Edgartown. An immediate approval or at least a public hearing held in the near future would be the only fair way of dealing with this application.
Ron Minkin
Martha's Vineyard Transport
Unlucky Nantucket Sound
To the Editor:
The unfortunate aspect of the Cape Wind project is that it is a good project but in the wrong place. To put the project in perspective, there are only three buildings in Boston that are taller than the 130 proposed wind towers. The circumference of the blades is almost two football fields, and the generator on top of the tower is as big as truck. Most of the wind towers people have seen are significantly smaller. These are very big, and there are many of them. The Cape Wind project will not be a smudge on the landscape. Hold your thumb on the horizon and multiply that image by at least 130 thumbs and you will realize that a significant industrial site is being developed. Cape Wind's link to the grid will encourage even more wind power developers to hook on and build additional towers.
I am a retired chief executive officer of a large international electrical engineering company and was a leader in green power in Europe, Asia and Africa. I learned that being green also means being careful of the appearance of the places that are treasured by the community. Many of the comments that I have read seem to be hateful and aimed at a privileged few who live on Cape Cod and the Islands. Those comments are not valid. Nantucket Sound has only been a body of water for 20,000 to 30,000 years, or since the end of the last ice age. The Cape Wind project is the first time that man has proposed a major intrusion in this beautiful body of water since it was created.
The Cape Wind project will occasionally generate the same power as a moderate gas-fired power plant. The environmental impact of the Cape Wind project is massive compared to a conventional power plant. This nation needs bulk power in order to compete in the world market. Success as a nation is all about power. Wind and solar power have a place, but only nuclear and clean carbon based power can meet our national need for cheap and readily available power. The Chinese have a national program to develop nuclear and clean carbon power sources to compete successfully with the West. Conservation may be the most productive green power alternative. We, as a nation, need a rational energy policy, clearly understood and endorsed by the people, coupled with suitable protection for our national treasures.
It is ironic that the federal government announced approval at the same time that a very large group of 95 rare right whales arrived in Nantucket Sound. These creatures deserve the preservation of their habitat.
I fear that the equipment manufacturers and power developers have successfully intimidated the Obama administration to approve the Cape Wind project. Once those towers are built, they will be in Nantucket Sound for a century. During that period, other environmentally friendly power generation systems will be developed that will be far more efficient than wind power. People will be surprised when the project is complete and they see what we have done to Nantucket Sound. I had supported President Obama, but the desecration of Nantucket Sound will be his legacy.
It took the city of Boston many years to get rid of the ugly I-93 viaducts in downtown Boston and reunite the city with the construction of the Big Dig. Nantucket Sound will not be that lucky.
Charles Carlson
Newtonville, NY, and Edgartown
An honor to have served
To the Editor:
I am writing to inform the Martha's Vineyard community that I have resigned from my position of executive director of Women Empowered.
Over two years ago, when I was contracted by the board to take on the role of executive director, my goals were to: recruit and develop new board members, increase the visibility of the program to the community, develop a database system, increase the donor base, increase donations, create an annual event, increase clients and services.
I believe that together we have accomplished the goals.
Therefore, it appears that now is a good time for me to transition. My skill set is to work with entrepreneurial organizations that are either start-ups or ones that are in need of refreshing and revitalization to develop into emerging mature organizations. I believe that Women Empowered will continue to emerge as a mature organization.
Working with the Women Empowered staff, board and volunteers has been a very rewarding experience for me. It's tapped into my belief and passion that non-profit organizations can positively impact their communities.
I'd like to thank all of Women Empowered's donors, volunteers, Martha's Vineyard foundations and funders who have generously supported me and the organization in all of our undertakings. There is no way that the organization could have reached its goals without your continued contributions and sustenance. I hope that you will keep on supporting Women Empowered through your philanthropy and volunteerism.
I am sure that Women Empowered will continue to provide services to the community of Martha's Vineyard. I wish all involved great success with future endeavors. It has been an honor to serve as the executive director.
Sheila Bracy
Oak Bluffs
Mary Fuller remembered
To the Editor:
It's been two years since Mary Fuller's passing. She was my beloved mom, but there are still around some friends and folks who remember her as the beloved director of the Vineyard Haven Public Library, from 1980-1990. She had stated long before that there was to be no obituary. In grief and confusion two summers ago, I complied. As time has moved along, however, I have felt led to reach out to the Vineyard community, in response to many who have subsequently wanted more than our private West Chop service afforded.
I've thought so much about this so many times, and how inadequate almost any attempt could be. Having the privilege of living and working on the Island from 1990 to 1999, there are so many memories — the suppers she made, the wonderful conversation that always flowed about matters great and small, locales near and far. I remember our times with her beloved cat, Tisbury, so lovingly treated by the wonderful vet, Dr. Michelle Gerhard Jasny.
To see her at her desk long before the library's current incarnation, so willing to help her public, do research, assist in public issues, and to recall her good friends that were so helpful when she arrived full-time 30 years ago — Peg Cunningham and Barb MacInnes. I am sadly forgetting others she would want mentioned. Certainly foremost, even to the end, were the faithful Pam Shultz, especially. Also, Madelyn Blakely Heath, Clara Rabbitt, and Joan Didato.
When someone is irreplaceable, well, so many know in their own lives and families. She loved Felix Neck walks. It's been about 18 years since we last did that together, but on June 10, 2008, my wife and I retraced her favorite path. She had grown up at Hillside, the Watson place in Plymouth. Her wonderful dad, who I knew until I was ten, introduced her so caringly to nature. What better place than the Vineyard to fulfill this love.
She finally found true and devoted love here, though he passed away after a few years. In the 1980s, I saw the birds sing for her so many times, just as they did the May morning two years ago outside the window as her spirit departed. And time has stood still and been so hollow for me since. But there surely is a heaven above, and she's there if anybody is.
There were the four libraries she graced, starting when I was about seven. Long before the Americans with Disabilities act of 1990, she was concerned about the challenged. She fought to put a safety railing that helped many in Southwick, Conn. She became the mom many of my classmates missed when she worked at my grade school library. She helped them with their research, and when she left, it became a model school library. She honed her skills and truly became a leader in Westfield.
Mary rose to the challenge on-Island and loved every minute, even the hands-on repair and board meetings of the Vineyard Haven Library, the Shakespeare garden, the mural that still graces the portico, and now the lovely glass horse that hangs in the window near where the office was, presented by the skillful Dunkle family, Island artists extraordinary. Thanks, director Amy, and thanks to Julie Hitchings, for arranging for her collection of archaeology books and replicas to go to the West Tisbury School, where I so enjoyed teaching units with Julie. Mary fought for higher wages for her staff also.
She could field-strip a pistol blindfolded, fly a plane, and she saved her husband's life when their car veered off the road after he fell asleep. Although John Hersey, Bill Styron, Carly Simon, Walter Cronkite and others of our perennial luminaries were close acquaintances or good friends, it was the year-round patrons that mattered most to her, and she loved to serve.
Whenever I feed the birds and pat a pussycat, I smile, seeing her there. She loved me unconditionally and set a personal and professional example, without pressure, that I can only live up to, in God's grace and strength, and hope of seeing her again. "Bye and bye," as my grandmom always said.
Some thought her a tad slow and reclusive, but they will never know the loss and pain she had suffered by age 30. Much never got really easier — a leg and ankle broken never healed right; pain for 40 years; losing her folks early, her best friend, her husband; and her family far away. She was lonely, but really just more alone during eight years enjoying Havenside's view.
If you remember, will you celebrate a life well lived, with me.
Keith S. W. Fuller
Middletown, Conn., and Florida
Baffled
To the Editor:
Here is a quote from a recent Letter to The Editor: "I am saddened that Mr. Sepanara appears to care so little about the history and beauty of the Island community in which he chose to live," from Dionis Montrowl of West Tisbury ["Church/State not the issue," April 29]. It baffles me that anyone from West Tisbury could go on about community in a public forum. West Tisbury denies public walk-on access to Lambert's Cove Beach, a town park. If anyone from West Tisbury wants to write a letter about community, I would recommend that they, at the very least, acknowledge the injustice of their own town's beach policy. This way they can avoid me responding with a letter that closes with "end beach apartheid."
Erik Albert
Oak Bluffs
Volunteers made the difference
To the Editor:
A big thank you goes to the students, faculty and administration of the Oak Bluffs School, who cleaned up the long-accumulating litter along the path that goes through the woods behind the school.
As a walker and runner who frequently uses that path from South Circuit Avenue to Harthaven, it was dismaying to find the peaceful woods sullied by the whole variety of American consumable discards, much of it blown off the nearby school garbage containers.
So I visited Laury Binney, school principal, who told me that the entire school was about to launch an Earth Day group of activities aimed at making the children aware of our precious environment and the need to recycle and conserve. Last Friday, apparently, everyone did their share, because when my wife and I walked the path today it was delightfully clean.
Shows how a group of volunteers can make a real difference. Thanks again, Oak Bluffs School.
Steve Auerbach
Oak Bluffs
Swish, swish, swish
To the Editor:
Good morning, Mom, Dad, and Brother Ian. Dress quickly now, we have a long day ahead.
Ah neat. Help mother make snacks, pack the bottled water. Find the beach towels, the lotion, pack it all in the green tote for a fun day at the beach.
Hello, the ticket agent is nice, and the waves today are good. Dad gets a great spot on the Vineyard ferry.
Good morning, sea gulls, loose dogs, day-trippers, weekenders and Islanders. All aboard for the Vineyard and a fun time on the beach.
Look, wow, in the distance. What is that? Mom says windmills on the wind farm. Someone the next row back says a nasty.
I say no, they're pretty and functional; listen, and hear that rhythmic swish, swish, swish. I say it's adults working with nature for a change.
Here on the beach with Mom, Dad, and Brother Ian, the water's clear, the waves constant. And there in the distance small white objects, assuring me and others that tonight, as we sleep soundly, power is flowing from each windmill.
Clean power now, free of pollutants, bountiful, free power. Just from a swish — swish — swish.
James Cage
Oak Bluffs
Better than chowder
To the Editor:
Congratulations to Jim Gordon of Cape Wind. With all the red herrings tossed at him in the last nine years, a lesser man would have made fish chowder and called it quits.
Ken Rusczyk
Oak Bluffs
A standard for appreciation
To the Editor:
This is a letter of heartfelt thanks on behalf of Habitat for Humanity of Martha's Vineyard and the Island Food Pantry volunteers to David and Joanne — the owners of Chesca's restaurant on North Water Street in Edgartown.
On Monday, May 3, Chesca's owners and staff treated our volunteers to a generous and delicious buffet of food and good, good cheer, enjoyed in an elegant atmosphere. Chesca's annual volunteer appreciation dinner has set the standard for local businesses by giving back to those individuals who invest considerable time and resources toward improving the lives of fellow islanders. Habitat for Humanity of Martha's Vineyard and the Island Food Pantry are honored by Chesca's gesture and thankful for the opportunity for combined non-profit fellowship. Please support Chesca's and any local business who invest so generously in the needs of our many important island nonprofits.
Neal Sullivan
Vineyard Haven
Bees are the canaries this time
To the Editor:
I'm a local beekeeper. Everyone has been asking me lately about the honeybee, and when asked, I look at the questioner and wonder if they could handle the truth of the matter. I feel the CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder is the result of three basic reasons: overwork, environment, and greed. The bees are dying because of insecticides and corn syrup. The commercial beekeepers are completely robbing the bees of honey
and then giving them corn syrup, which kills the healthy bacteria in the intestines hence making them poop themselves to death. Not only is their diet killing them, but by nature they are known to work only six months out of the year and not the entire year. Who would imagine that this little insect would have so much significance to our own world? And really, who cares, as long as we have almonds on the table.
Consumers don't care about the bees anymore than they care about the fact that corporations have this country hostage.
The country's moral decay is manifested in its physical decay, and it is no coincidence that our infrastructure is overburdened, outdated, and in dismal repair. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it, because it has been decades in the making. Americans insist on living in the past, and that will be our doom. In no period in American history has democracy been in such peril, and special interest groups such as the tea party group are completely off-line as to what the real problem might be. Take a look at corporations, and you will find a power that is holding this government hostage. I doubt that anyone would have the knowledge to even find them because most are largely anonymous.
Here on the East Coast, and especially Martha's Vineyard, we have a golden opportunity to do something better for the environment, but that will never happen because of the eastern bullheaded mentality surrounding change, and not just change, any kind of change. This will be our ultimate undoing, and it doesn't have any thing to do with ignorance, but everything to do with greed.
Fred Thornbrugh
Vineyard Haven
Overjoyed by paper step
To the Editor:
I was overjoyed when I read that a market would take the risky initiative to place a fee on paper grocery bags. I remember when I was younger that a cashier would first greet my mother with a hello, ask her if she was able to find everything she was looking for, and then if she would like paper or plastic.
In the economic crunch that many businesses seem to be facing, it is now a request that the customer must make to receive paper bags. The reason behind this shift, as stated, is that a paper bag costs 6.5 more cents than a plastic bag, however, it is environmentally much more sensible. So it is a noteworthy step that Cronig's Markets made to provide only paper bags. Now that they have decided to charge 5 cents per paper bags, customers will think twice before leaving their house about their choice of using reusable bags.
Many stores local to my home have begun to offer a 5 cent return for plastic bags that are brought back to be used. This does not eliminate the use of plastic bags from landfills and other waste streams. I also think that people will think more about being charged an extra 5 cents as compared to receiving an extra 5 cents in return. For one reason or another, the human mind is more worried about not being charged extra than to perhaps be refunded. It is for these reasons and the positive benefit of paper to decompose that I give Cronig's Market props for pricing paper.
Nicole Cardish
Poultney, Vermont
