TURBINES NOW

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

You can’t help but notice all the current discussions on wind towers and wind energy, so let’s not waste any more time. Instead of wasting years defining and creating new land or offshore wind regulations, let’s get smart right now. The proponents and opponents of wind towers and turbines should be given equal opportunity to present their views in possibly three educational seminars this fall here on the Island. Following these seminars, the Island residents would cast a vote on whether we should allow any further private wind towers on the Island, whether to only allow community owned wind towers, or possibly elect to place all wind towers offshore, or even on our surrounding uninhabited Islands. Once this vote is taken, possibly this November, then we can focus and formulate regulations streamlined to address what the Islanders will allow. It is important we vote now so our planners can focus on what regulations might ultimately be needed.

Paul Adler

West Tisbury

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PREDICTIONS FOR 2012

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Many conservative pundits are happily predicting the downfall of the current Democratic administration and victory for their side in the 2012 elections. If so, perhaps we can read our tea leaves to identify some members of the administration whose triumph in November 2012 will be heralded, in a fair and balanced way, on America’s News Network:

President — Sarah Palin; Vice President — Glenn Beck; Secretary of State — Newt Gingrich; Treasury — Ron Paul; Defense — Rush Limbaugh; the new Department of Evangelism — Mike Huckabee; Speaker of the House — Michelle Bachmann; and other right-thinking patriots in those key posts for which they are best suited.

The year 2012 is also the one in which the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world. Have a nice day!

W.R. Deeble

West Tisbury

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TRUSTEES TURMOIL

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Mr. Kennedy asked people to consider his stewardship over 20 years. What a pompous thing to say! I interpret that to mean, I haven’t made many mistakes in 20 years so trust me on this one.

Chris Kennedy failed Dave Babson — badly. As a result, a very capable young guy lost his job, is forced to move his family from a place they all love, and suffered an indignity that will last a lifetime. Ironically, The Trustees of Reservations lost a natural leader with a wonderful upside and great potential as a property manager. A real gentleman and a class act, something the Trustees appear to need at the top.

Mr. Kennedy is right about one thing though; there is another side to every personnel story that they hear. Too bad we’ve only heard the Trustees’ side.

Ron Domurat

Edgartown

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FOR PATRICIA NEAL

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Chance meetings with Patricia Neal were always an event, whether she was greeting passersby on the sidewalk or — attired in bright flowered dress and broad-brimmed hat — dramatically entering the dining room of the Daggett House restaurant. She was friendly and engaging, yet always the movie star, with a theatrical flair. My wife, Sandy, first encountered her many years ago in an aisle of the old Edgartown A& P. With a sweeping gesture, Miss Neal declared passionately, “I LLOOOVE their lentil soup!”

In October 2005 we went to Miss Neal’s benefit yard sale, where she graciously opened her home and, for a small donation to Vineyard House, autographed photographs in her sunroom and posed for pictures with her guests. She gave each person in the long line her full attention for a few minutes. We told Miss Neal that we loved her feature films but that we especially treasured The Homecoming (1971) — the holiday television special that inspired The Waltons. Miss Neal, who played a rural Depression-era mother of seven children waiting for her husband to get home in a dangerous Christmas Eve snowstorm, agreed it was a wonderful program. When I told her that we had just purchased a DVD of the show from Amazon, she called out to her assistant to jot down the information and order her a copy. I interrupted to explain that if you entered simply “The Homecoming” on Amazon, the Harold Pinter play of the same name appeared. Miss Neal’s distinctive husky voice filled the room: “Be sure to write ‘The Homecoming,’ STAAARING PATRICIA NEAL!”

Patricia Neal was down to earth, generous, brave, and enormously talented. Her theatricality was never proud or self-promoting. She made you feel instead that any moment could be unexpectedly grand.

Wes Mott

Oak Bluffs

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MORALLY DEFENSIBLE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Your front-page interview (August 13 Gazette) with Peter Beinart about the Israeli policies he deems “morally indefensible” reports that he “would like to see Obama take a stronger stand — giving support for example to a unity government between Fatah and Hamas.”

Hamas is a terrorist organization that, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, hardly a pro-Israel bastion, is committed by its charter to “the destruction of Israel, the replacement of the PA with an Islamist state on the West Bank and Gaza, and to raising ‘the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.’” According to the same source, “Hamas is believed to have killed more than 500 people in more than 350 separate terrorist attacks since 1993.”

Hamas in Gaza bans women from riding motorbikes, and it jails gays, according to an Associated Press dispatch.

Mr. Beinart, and your article, dwell on Israel’s supposedly morally indefensible behavior. But what is moral about the American policy recommended by Mr. Beinart, which would further empower the anti-gay, anti-women, and anti-Jewish terrorist group Hamas, posing a threat to both Israel and to Palestinian Arabs who don’t want to live under Hamas’s extremist rule?

Ira Stoll

West Tisbury

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PATH REOPENS

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter was sent to Aquinnah selectman Jim Newman from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah):

Thank you once again for your continued efforts in seeking alternative and respectful ways to address land use and other issues between the town and tribe. We appreciate your willingness to enter into meaningful discussions and consultations, to achieve reasonable resolutions to apparent or perceived conflicts. To that end, the tribal council has taken the following steps regarding the footpath access. In an action taken by the tribal council pursuant to the discussions held at the regularly scheduled tribal council meeting on Saturday, August 7, and the specially called subcommittee meeting held on Monday, August 9, at the tribal office regarding pedestrian access to the beach along Vineyard Sound, the tribal council has decided the following:

The tribal council will permit the town temporary foot access across the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) trust lands on a designated path leading from Clay Pit Road to Vineyard Sound. In order to facilitate this action, the tribe’s natural resources department staff will temporarily remove the brush barrier in order to clear the footpath for ease of access. We hope this helps to provide a workable interim solution for you to present to the balance of the board of selectmen. And we hope that this gesture also demonstrates our commitment to an open and cooperative government-to-government relationship with the town. We look forward to continued discussions with you regarding clarification on this, and other issues in the future.

We thank you again for your efforts, and the honor and integrity with which you serve the town of Aquinnah.

In balance, harmony and peace.

Cheryl Andrews-Maltais

Aquinnah

The writer is chairman of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe.

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I was surprised by the small turnout at the Tabernacle two weeks ago when a California organization called Not For Sale did a compelling presentation on the worldwide human trafficking problem. I thought there would be more people on this Island who would want to know more about this terrible problem. As the presenters explained, there are over 27 million people enslaved around the world. They also stated that 17,000 new slaves are brought into the United States every year. This problem is growing and heartrending.

There is a group forming on the Island to help address this horrific issue. If you want to be a modern-day abolitionist please call 508-627-8918 and leave your name and phone number. You can make a difference.

Jeff Winter

Oak Bluffs

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PERFECTLY SCRIPTED

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

If you are a business owner or charter fisherman you probably have noticed that the weekend crowds are growing larger, the lines are longer at restaurants, shops are crowded and more anglers are chartering boats. What we are seeing is a deluge of boaters using the moorings provided by our harbor master, Charles Blair. The weekend spending frenzies that ensue are more ravenous than the appetite we saw from the movie Jaws decades ago. In our version of Jaws, the harbor master helps rescue the Edgartown economy by bringing in droves of cash spending sailors.

As director, Mr. Blair sets the scene by using all town moorings and available private moorings to fill the harbor with families cruising to Edgartown for lunch, dinner and shopping. The cast includes the harbor master’s hard-working, courteous, capable and professional assistant harbor masters managing an onslaught of overnight mooring reservations, distress calls, runaway boats, visiting flotillas, a multitude of yacht club sailors with concussions and a visit from President Obama.

Our movie has a happy ending when the citizens of Edgartown gather at North Wharf and all the boaters, business owners, politicians and charter captains cheer the triumphant harbor master and staff to say thank you!

The End.

Paul Mellen

Duxbury and Edgartown