Never forget
The following editorial was first published in The Times on Sept. 20, 2001, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Political organizations such as ours — diverse, dispersed, and democratic — regularly defeat efforts to apply clear-eyed...
Narcan is the new EpiPen
While we have been consumed with the evolving COVID virus, the economy, and Afghanistan, drug overdoses were up 30 percent this year in the U.S., accounting for 93,000 deaths. From Los Angeles to the...
Make it happen
The death of Hannah Malany lozzo, a 20-year-old woman from West Brookfield on the Island for a family vacation, has once again stoked the desire to ban mopeds.
In 2017, the issue was at the...
‘Jaws’ fan caps off a Vineyard visit
Just when you thought it was safe to ride the No. 5 bus from the Aquinnah Cliffs …
Let me rephrase. It is perfectly safe to ride that bus, as well as all of the...
August’s four critical news stories
Martha’s Vineyard Times readers should be aware of how four crucial reports, released last month, relate to one another. They are: 1. the Martha’s Vineyard Commission report recommending a “carrying capacity” study of the...
Making progress
We were chatting with a source the other day when he told us something very impressive. At this moment, there are affordable housing projects either in development or actually being constructed in all six...
Donald H. Lyons: An appreciation
Curiously, the ministry of a small town newspaper to its readers is not so very unlike the ministry of a small, like-minded congregation united in need. Bear with me on this. In each case,...
What’s truly ‘contemptible and dangerous’
Last week, Tisbury town administrator Jay Grande took the rare approach of issuing a press release to criticize our reporting on the David Thrift case. Grande knew the story was coming for months. We...
Rule by the minority
When voting is not only mistrusted but threatened, a democratic order may well fail. That seems to be the goal of many people who continue to question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election....
Pull the trigger: Get the shot
No, the vaccine isn’t some conspiracy engineered by Bill Gates. The government isn’t injecting you with a microchip in order to track you. And while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not...
Clarity in the smoke
I recently enjoyed a stretch of time up in the mountains of Northern New England. At the very end of the trip we spent a couple of days in a particularly remote spot. One...
An Island emergency: Not enough bike helmets!
Martha’s Vineyard is suffering from a critical shortage of bike helmets, a situation that is nothing short of life-threatening. According to my own painstaking research, approximately 47.6 percent of on-Island bike riders have not...
Needs improvement
At last month’s board meeting, Steamship Authority general manager Robert Davis was lauded for his efforts over the past year. Davis received high marks for his ability to handle the curve balls thrown at...
Is history a value?
I’m an architect from Florence, Italy. I have been coming to the Vineyard every year since 1994, and since then, I have become fascinated by the local architecture, so different from the stone Palazzi...
Can’t have it your way
The Massachusetts Public Records Law is clear. All government records are presumed to be public, but cities and towns are allowed to withhold certain documents based on exemptions. Personnel records, for example, can often...
Reforming the Supreme Court?
A little-noticed action by the Biden administration, but one with potentially sweeping consequences, was the formation last April of a 36-member bipartisan commission to study the Supreme Court.
Disgruntled Democrats led the effort after President...
Be kinder than necessary
We have a reminder for everyone: Use your manners.
A story in the New York Times about a Cape Cod restaurant that closed down for a “day of kindness” for its employees got a lot...
The unvaccinated find themselves increasingly isolated
This past week I spent time coaxing a neighbor into going to the emergency department because he was having trouble breathing, and felt like he was dying. I assumed COVID, given his symptoms and...
Abuse of power
Hours after The Times reported about an incident involving Tisbury select board chair Jeff Kristal allegedly ordering a traffic officer to target a business owner and his customers, he was at a select board...
Joyful noise
There are folks on Twitter who call them the “fun police” — those people who seem to complain when someone proposes something different and enjoyable in a town.
Last week, the fun police came to arrest...