To the Editor:
Rich Thompson’s letter begins with “inescapable math” and ends with accusations of theft and kleptocracy. But you cannot steal from the public what the public never owned.
For this 71-year-old Islander, with a long memory and a belief that facts still matter, what’s troubling is how quickly history has been abandoned for hysteria.
The Cape Poge families Thompson calls the “lucky 11” have been there nearly a century. Long before The Trustees charged people to drive across their land, these families willingly shared it. Some even donated land for conservation. They asked for responsible stewardship and respect for their property rights.
That was generosity. That was permission. It was never surrender of ownership.
And for decades, it worked.
So what changed? Not the families. Not their rights. The Trustees changed. Leadership shifted, operations expanded, and Mother Nature reshaped the coastline. Beaches disappeared. Routes narrowed. The land couldn’t accommodate what it once had.
Rather than educate the public and cooperate with neighbors, the Trustees chose confrontation and litigation against families who made access possible.
The Trustees appear to have learned something. With Schifter, they recognized his property rights and negotiated an acceptable arrangement. Imagine that. Asking permission works better than making demands and suing when told no. It’s unfortunate the Trustees had to learn that lesson the hard way, after destroying their relationship with the Cape Poge families — some of whom had donated land to the very organization that is now suing them.
And the torch-and-pitchfork campaign against those families hardly encourages anyone back to the negotiating table.
Why did two judges reach different conclusions? One ruled before trial; the other after hearing evidence. A preliminary assessment isn’t a final determination. That’s litigation, not conspiracy.
William Gazaille
Edgartown
