PROFILE IN COURAGE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

President Obama can add another chapter to John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage; a man willing to risk his political future by upholding his own principles.

David H. Frantz

Vineyard Haven

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WELCOME, MR. PRESIDENT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter is addressed to President Obama and his family.

Our family has owned 85 Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs for many years. We have played tennis on the nearby courts. Three generations of our family have learned to swim here, and we have enjoyed fishing in these bountiful waters.

We feel that your family will enjoy the pleasure of this diverse community in Oak Bluffs. Welcome to Martha’s Vineyard.

Valdemar and Doris Rollins

Oak Bluffs

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HATE SPEECH

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Why is it acceptable for Eugene Rivers to say: “The Republicans are brain dead. This is just cheap-shot stuff because you ain’t got a brain”? Is that not an offensive, prejudicial statement about a large group of people who belong to a particular political party in our country? Is it not racist for Melissa Harris-Lacewell to suggest that “homegrown American terrorism” is going to come from “white folks who are angry”? Yet she is deemed the “hit of the crowd” by your newspaper’s reporter. This inflammatory rhetoric is hate speech and is sickening.

A conference on Race, Religion and Reason? I don’t think so.

Patricia Kilfoyle

Oak Bluffs

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STRIDENT AGENDA

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I read with interest your second annual Obama issue this morning. Last year, your pages were full of praise and over the top fawning of the president who graced our fair Island. This year, I detect an angry tone.

Your cover story is similar, detailing every possible angle of the Obama’s arrival at the airport. Then I read the story that blames the president’s troubles on everyone but the president. The story laments the current state of affairs for 30 paragraphs, managing to insult Americans at every turn. The story even trots out President Bush for a whipping.

The editorial, Summer White House 2010, continues your strident agenda by attacking folks who oppose this president, dismissing them as “shrill” and “talk radio” listeners and “Monday morning quarterbacks.” You even go after the liberal Boston Globe. Is nothing sacred?

In a final, shocking turn, you imply that the rising uneasiness with Team Obama, his tanking in national polls, could endanger his life, writing that: “. . . the tight web of security” around the president is “a stark reminder that the Island is not really so far removed trom the hard realities of a dangerous and unstable word.”

I take this personally. I did not vote for him. I attended the Tea Party in Boston this spring. I don’t like Obamacare. I will work hard to make sure he is not reelected . . . but I reject your insinuation that I — or anyone I know — would do anything untoward.

I’ve written to you before about crossing the line between journalism and boosterism. This year, you manage to both prove Obama is out of touch with America and to attack citizens who are listening and who want to be heard. We will be heard.

Have a great vacation, Mr. President. We will see you in November!

Peter Robb

Holliston

and Oak Bluffs

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SHAMEFUL VACATION

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

It is apparent the Obamas think they are heirs to the Kennedy throne. But we knew the Kennedys and they never acted with such insensitivity to the people they served. As the rapper song lyric says, “You can buy the gold chain, but you can’t buy respect.” You lead by example not lip service. If you plant a victory garden, show me the soiled hands of your labor. Shame on you to live like this when millions of people are losing their jobs, their retirement savings, and are becoming homeless.

Kenneth Congrove

Roseville, NEED STATE