To the Editor:
One of the wonderful things about Martha’s Vineyard is the meaningful interactions that take place between individuals of different cultures. I had such an interaction recently when I was sitting on a bench after breakfast with my family, at the airport. It occurred during the recent Father’s Day/Juneteenth weekend. I sat thinking about the delayed emancipation of slaves in Galveston, Texas. As a Black man and the father of two children, these two days merged and
occupied my thoughts.
The thoughts were interrupted as I noticed an elderly gentleman approaching me. He had a slow, but difficult gait, very similar to my own. As he approached, I wondered if we might be the same age. We certainly had the same gait. When he finally got to the bench where I was sitting, he greeted me with a hearty, “Good morning!” I replied, “It certainly is a good morning, and a good morning to you!” We then engaged in an elderly fist bump! As he walked away, I still felt the “good” of our brief interaction. I called out, “God is good!” He stopped, turned back toward me, and slowly walked back to the bench. He stood in front of me and slowly pulled up the sleeve of his shirt to display two sets of numbers on his forearm. He replied, “Yes, God is good.”
Whether it be a town in antebellum Texas or in Nazi Germany, or whether it be surviving slavery or the Holocaust, freedom is good, and this was a really Good Morning.
William (“Doc”) McLaurin
Vineyard Haven
