Essay

“We can’t recover from this history until we deal with it.” –Bryan Stevenson, Equal Justice Initiative  I don’t think it was until I stood under a lynching tree in Selma, Ala., that I really stepped into...

May 5, 1970, I was walking from my dorm down a causeway to the campus at Rochester Institute of Technology. A friend coming the other way put up the alarm: “Have you heard! They...

This week, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Jane Goodall, the famous and compassionate scientist/environmentalist, commented wistfully during an appearance on the PBS NewsHour: “We are all interconnected, and if we don’t get...

Furnishing lunch for kids stuck at home during the pandemic may sound simple, but for remotely working parents it isn’t always. Time to prepare meals for kids, let alone providing activities for them, can...

I would like to take a moment to share some of my reflections over the past few weeks as I have watched COVID-19 rip through the world and begin to descend on our beloved...

“Girl on the Run,” is inspired by and commemorates the 100 years of suffrage and International Women's Day, March 8.  The 100 years since suffrage have spawned amazing changes in America for women. As with...

Coronavirus, COVID-19, is causing travel to come to a halt across the world. Schools around the globe are canceling trips domestically and internationally in fear of students contracting the virus. After Martha’s Vineyard Regional...

We all share that profoundly insightful skill of a Monday morning quarterback. However, we all also share a very unclear and often unreliable crystal ball.  I served for ten years in a leadership role of...

In previous essays, we described the aging phenomenon in the U.S., and reported on how it affects Martha’s Vineyard. Between 2010 and 2016 on the Vineyard, there was a 63 percent growth of the...

Vineyard residents and visitors today are whisked between the Vineyard and the mainland in as little as 12 minutes, thanks to more than a dozen smaller-size passenger electric and hybrid fast passenger ferries that...

I am thankful that the clam harvest is so good this year. The past 30 years have seen a decline and rebirth of clams for Island residents. I think it all started with the...

Ten more working farms grace our fields and roads. Each new farm includes several affordable homes — not tiny homes — but modest guesthouse-sized structures, ranging from 700 to 1,100 square feet, with net-zero...

My name is Esther. It’s 2030; I’m 80 years old — like lots of Vineyard residents these days — and I treasure living in this aging-friendly Island community because: We’ve come a long...

I count myself as among the very fortunate to have been a close friend of Ward Just. He was a lot of things: astute, observant, wry, witty, and self-deprecating. He was also a gentleman...

We’ve decided to make “The lives they led” an annual celebration of the lives of Islanders who died during the year. We have included those who lived for at least some time on Martha’s...

It is late December 2050, and we on Martha’s Vineyard have seen so many changes over the past three decades! Back in 2020, I was finishing up a 30-plus-year career as a coastal land...

Updated, 5 pm, Monday, Jan. 13 As we turn the page on another decade and welcome the year 2030, we’ve made tremendous progress in the health and wellness of MVY — thanks to community partnerships,...

Few foresaw the waste crisis that plagued Massachusetts in the 2030s. By 2029, global recycling markets had collapsed, and every Massachusetts landfill was closed. All state waste was exported to distant places like Alabama...

What a difference it has made, since the Vineyard officially exited the United States and joined Canada. The free healthcare has been wonderful, as has the affordable college for our kids. And our fellow...

The 2020’s will be a banner decade for food equity and community development here on Martha's Vineyard. While our ability to serve Islanders in need with healthy, wholesome food will undoubtedly increase, it’s my...