BETTYE FOSTER BAKER
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The 44th President of the United States of America is poised to set foot on our summer, or for others year-round, home. It will be an extraordinary moment for all of us whether we voted for him or not. He is our leader and due the respect given to head of state. He has accepted a mandate and mix of serious economic and political challenges exceeding any president in U.S. history with the exception of President Abraham Lincoln.
We welcome him and his family with open hearts and a deep appreciation that he chooses to come to this historic Island which in many ways is a microcosm of diversity, the dreams we share, the hopes we cling to.
President Obama’s visit is at once liberating for those who may have a brief opportunity to see this man who in his own right demonstrates that given the opportunity, a single idea of change can catch on, become a movement, a force for empowering the people to look beyond their own selfish greed, as difficult as that may be, to reach for that more perfect Union — that call to all to give more, share more, be more than the image in the foyer mirrors the affluent pass each morning on their way to work, and consider how our actions can make life a better place for each and every person who seeks a place at the table of progress.
There will be missteps, disagreements, cautions delivered by his most ardent supporters and I am one, but they will not be aired here on this Island. That’s for another day. As one of the Obama’s neighbors from Chicago’s Hyde Park stated as we chatted in the Steamship Authority lounge in Woods Hole, along with his wife and family this past week, “He’ll get to that — give him time.” Another conversation at a Chilmark party this past week near his vacation spot revealed a giddiness reserved, yes, for rock stars. Our Obama is family. He’s one of us.
“One of the things I love about him,” said Peggy Byrd Mazard, vice president of integrated marketing at TV-One, “is he likes to hang out with the people.” She’s right — he is the new generation of leaders, with Blackberrys in hand, determined to stay in touch. He has been known to make a “death-defying life-leap,” as Rudyard Kipling described one of his characters in his writings, out of the White House and over to John’s Chile Parlor and a few hamburger spots of his choosing in D.C. The gentleman is fearless and we love that about him too! Though no public events are scheduled, he just may take one of those “leaps” over to the Inkwell, where the Polar Bears have been swimming at 7 a.m. for 60 years, or to Farm Neck Golf Club where Clinton took more than a few swings with Vernon Jordan, or the basketball courts in Niantic Park where a Spike Lee sighting is not unusual, or one of our swanky restaurants on Circuit avenue. If he comes to Oak Bluffs, I can assure you, music or not, there will be dancing in the hearts of many people!
On August 19, just before dusk, hundreds will race toward the Tabernacle in anticipation of the most magical evening on the Island. At the appointed time, a person who has been kept secret all year will light the first lantern and as if a magic wand has been waved, lanterns on porches surrounding Trinity Park will be lit in one continuous movement of lights encircling the Camp Ground and the magical evening known as Grand Illumination Night will begin. If you’re on the island you should not miss it.
When Jeremiah Pease, the Methodist preacher who founded the Wesleyan Grove camp meeting association, lit the first lantern in 1835, to provide light for the evening meetings, he could hardly imagine that in 1869 it would evolve into a way of greeting the governor of Massachusetts and a celebration signaling the end of summer. Today, in this fairytale village of tiny gingerbread, carpenter gothic cottages reminiscent of children’s books, lanterns from places as far away as China, Japan, and Honolulu and as close as San Francisco and New York will be lit. Some lanterns have been handed down in families for years, purchased on Circuit avenue decades ago where they were sold in abundance. Each of these multicolored jewels will be carefully unwrapped and hung high on the eves of high-pitched roofs and bounce gently in the evening breezes as wide-eyed children gaze at the majesty of it all. You may want to arrive early and take a stroll around Trinity Park and enjoy the decorations (4 or 5 o’clock) before the crowd arrives. Be there on August 19 by 7:15 p.m. if you want a seat in the Tabernacle. Many will sit on the grass. The program begins at 7:30 p.m.
The many activities going on this week include guest speaker Dr. Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard University at the annual interfaith service of Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs on Sunday. She chairs the committee on the study of religion in the faculty of arts and sciences. Her sermon title is Faith to Faith: Summer 2009 in America. Her book, Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras, explores issues of Christian faith in a world of many faiths and won the 1994 Melcher Book Award of the Unitarian Universalist Association and the 1995 Louisville Grawemeyer Book Award in Religion, given for a work that reflects a significant breakthrough in our understanding of religion. In 1991, Diana launched the Pluralism Project to document and interpret the growing presence of the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Zoroastrian communities in the U.S. This research project has involved students and professors at Harvard and in a dozen affiliate colleges and universities in research on America’s new religious landscape. The service starts at 10 a.m. with organ preludes by Garrett Brown commencing at 9:40.
On Saturday, August 15 Yale Law School professor, Stephen Carter, author of the Emperor of Ocean Park, will sign his new book, Jericho’s Fall from 7 to 9 p.m. at Cousen Rose Gallery. Collages by James Denmark and oils by Robert Freeman will be on exhibit.
On Augu 18 at 10 a.m. at the Tabernacle, learn how to paint a custom lantern for Illumination Night. The cost is $15.
The Annual Agricultural Society Fair, founded in 1858 and incorporated in 1859, will offer a special 2010 celebratory calendar which celebrates its 149th year. All photographs in the calendar were taken by Julian K. Robinson, well-known Island photographer. There is no doubt that these calendars will become a collector’s item, filled with masterful photographs of various animals and activities that take place. This year the fair is Thursday through Sunday, August 20 to 23.
On Friday, August 21 and August 22 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. the Black Inventors Showcase Exhibit is being sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Have you heard the expression, “It’s the Real McCoy?” Those words refer to black inventor, Elijah McCoy who patented more than 50 inventions. Adults, teens, children should all come out to a highly educational program that will teach how these inventors contributed to the industrial and cultural development of the nation. Get a head start on school projects and learn how more than 80 black inventors and over 100 inventions that have improved the quality of life around the world.
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