PROTECTING ANTIQUITY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

There has been discussion of late regarding the situation of the Mill Pond and Mill Brook in West Tisbury. That very stream, the pond and the mill are so very much a part of the Vineyard’s antiquity, that their significance should not, must not, be so easily discarded and forgotten. Fishing and farming were the very essence of the early Vineyard and the basis of its early survival. Not until after the Civil War did there arise the religious Camp Ground, the concept of vacations and tourism.

Rather than throw away our heritage, as some may have suggested, I would urge the preservation of our history, which has led us to become what we are today. So I would say:

Let the Mill Pond be; then go on to restore its good works. What an accomplishment it would be to again use the still operational spillway, replace the operating machinery and eventually go on to mill the Island’s own homegrown corn.

My optimism nourishes the concept that there may be sufficient interest on the Island to support such an effort. What a unique opportunity to bring alive something of our history, for living history and active experience must surpass imagination, and avoid the destruction of yesterday’s heritage.

John M. Boardman

Oak Bluffs

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MVC BUDGET EXPLAINED

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter was sent to the county commission and Island selectmen:

In light of recent public discussions about the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s budget, we would like to make sure that you are aware of the MVC’s budgeting process. The MVC finance committee consists of one member from each Island town and the county, and all members have an opportunity to provide comments as we shape the budget. We are very aware of the financial challenges facing the towns and other public entities. We are making every effort to keep our budget as lean as possible without reducing our important responsibilities to the Island.

We are now at a very early stage of the procedure the MVC follows to prepare and adopt a budget. Staff prepared a first preliminary working draft budget and the MVC finance committee, made up of a representative from each town and the county, provided initial comments. The preliminary working draft budget was revised to reflect comments from the MVC finance committee and was discussed with members of the All-Island Finance Association yesterday. Our goal is to complete a preliminary draft budget by the end of November, which will be forwarded to the individual town finance committees. We hope to meet with these committees in December. During the final two weeks of December, the MVC finance committee will review comments, recommendations, and any revisions, and will vote on the final draft budget to be presented to the full commission for consideration. The full commission will vote on this budget during the final weeks of January.

During the course of the past year, we asked Mark Morse of MMA Consulting Group, to review the commission’s compensation policies. With respect to the current salaries, Mr. Morse said: “I have reviewed your current salary ranges and compared the ranges to the comparative salary data that you provided to me. I believe that the ranges are reasonable, based on the data that I reviewed and on my general knowledge of salary trends . . . The current assignment of positions to salary ranges appears to reflect the responsibilities set forth in the job descriptions.” We also asked him to advise us on our use of a compensation plan based on merit rather than a grade-and-step system for salary increases. His conclusion was: “The compensation plan that the commission uses is the type of plan that we would recommend for a professional organization with a small number of staff members . . . I would recommend that you maintain the salary range plan.”

The formula for apportioning town assessments, set out by the legislature in the Martha’s Vineyard Commission Act, calls for the assessments to be divided based on each town’s equalized valuation. This means that in the current fiscal year, a property assessed at $500,000 would pay about $19 in property taxes to support the MVC, no matter in which town the property is located.

We welcome the opportunity to provide you with additional information in the future.

John Breckenridge

and Christina Brown

Oak Bluffs and Edgartown

The writers are clerk/treasurer and chairman respectively of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

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EXAMINATION OVERDUE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Edgartown is justified to challenge the unbalanced funding they have been contributing to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. Each town has the ability to benefit equally from the broad powers of the MVC, so they should all pay equally. But the MVC needs to examine their out-of-control budget and the way they do business. I would estimate that 80 per cent of the projects before the MVC could and should be handled by the respective local towns under their local zoning regulations. The MVC should be reserved only for major projects having a regional Islandwide impact and the MVC does not need to meet more than once a month. The staff should be cut to two people, and term limits of three years should be enforced for all voting members. Though there are many who feel the MVC should be abolished, I don’t; however, it must be scaled down and its budget could be decreased by 60 per cent, without any sacrifice to the goals of protecting our Island.

Paul Adler

West Tisbury

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MIDTERM COMMENTARY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Bettye Baker’s article entitled “Meditating on the Midterm Election” is the best commentary which I have read anywhere on the recent congressional elections. It is so tragically sad that so many millions of Americans who have and will benefit from the President’s brilliant agenda somehow have turned against him as a result of half-truths and outright lies which have been so cleverly broadcast by the opposition through Fox News, talk radio, and almost unlimited secret money. It is truly a threat to our democracy. She is also courageous enough to state the truth, that much of the mindless Republican opposition is rooted in racism. But Ms. Baker does not just wring her hands in despair. She lays out what the Democratic Party must do to defend itself and set the record straight for the benefit of a tragically misinformed general public.

I sincerely hope that this article receives the broadest possible circulation.

Alex Boyle

West Tisbury

and Chevy Chase, Md.

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Mr. CAMPBELL REMEMBERED

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

As one who served with the late Alan Campbell at the Tisbury School, I honor him as an outstanding principal by recalling his reflections as reported in an article that appeared in the Vineyard Gazette on June 16, 1998.

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“It’s been an interesting and exciting 26 years,” he remarked. ”I am proud of the staff of the whole school. My desire has always been to see the people who work under me do well. I think that there’s always been a certain amount of Marine Corps mentality in my approach, in that you encourage people to be leaders, as I was encouraged when I was 17 years old and entering the corps. It is not a top-down management style where I direct or micromanage people; it’s a style where I look for people to rise to the occasion and try to exercise those qualities.

“I think part of my style is to encourage people to continue taking courses and workshops and going to conferences, and as a result my teachers who are self-starters were able to accomplish great things. We have a staff of people who have major accomplishments; they’ve won national and state awards and are now recognized as some of the strongest people in their fields.

“We’ve also had success with improving the administration of the school. The staff have been empowered to make decisions that have helped to make decisions that have helped them to grow.

“We’ve encouraged innovative looks at curriculum and scheduling to better benefit the children and take advantage of their skills. We’ve developed a technology program that is state of the art; it’s truly outstanding. I feel very good about all of that.”

During his tenure, Mr. Campbell has helped the school evolve from a traditional, rigid institution into a modern open-minded center for learning. His guidance has allowed teachers and students to collaborate in planning trips and projects that reinforce the values of a small community school. He has seen his classrooms rise to the cutting edge of technology and communication. Though rewarding, this list of improvements and accomplishments is only part of what makes Mr. Campbell love his work so much.

“There’s a whole second part that’s more amorphous, but probably more pleasant for me,” he continued. “It’s the student achievement that I’ve been able to witness for 26 years. It’s the many special kids who have graduated from the schoo1 and have let me know how they’re doing in high school and college and when they become professionals and go on to careers. Even students who were not successful have come up and thanked me, and looking back in retrospect have said that they realize that our approach was in their best interests. They have thanked me for trying to help them. And a fascinating and wonderful part is that now I am talking with parents I had as students, whose kids are going to school here.

“The best part for me has just been the development and blossoming of an outstanding educational institution that culminated in being recognized nationally as a blue ribbon school in 1997. I am very proud. I think my style has always been one in which my pleasure comes from other people’s success more than my own. I have a strong feeling of commitment to the school and the relationships that have been built over the years. They are very important, and they will last a lifetime.”

Jim Norton

Vineyard Haven

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MOMENT OF TRUTH

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

There is something painfully disturbing about President Bush’s recent admonishing of having resorted to torture in order to protect America from evil in the world. What could be more ignorant or less rational? Another Viet Nam where we must burn the villages in order to save them. Thank you military intelligence, the biggest oxymoron of them all. What concerns me most is the numbness and apathy of fully brainwashed, propagandized, brain-dead Americans, watching their evening television news, who actually buy into this; it’s okay for us to torture, but no one else. Torture, wiretapping, patting down at airports . . . the list keeps growing . . . whatever it takes to keep us “free.” Who’s kidding whom? What free? The free we once were? Enough is enough. The more freedom they take from us in the name of fighting terrorism, the more we are losing the war. To win the war, we need our freedom back. This starts with us and what we once stood for.

The question is no longer whether or not we should investigate and prosecute President Bush for any involvement in torture. According to his own words in his new book, Decision Points, he openly admits to having authorized its implementation. Who knows what his reasons for such a bizarre announcement. And frankly who cares? Whether it was out of arrogance or guilt or shame or for redemption or, like David Letterman, reacting to the fear and threat of exposure and retaliation by others with knowledge, the question has answered itself.

Of course we should and we must prosecute. Our democracy and reason for being, our Constitution demands it. George W. Bush and others in his administration who went along with him have to be brought to justice. Now more than ever it is we who must stand up, for America, for ourselves, and show our leadership to the rest of the world. The fact that he took so long to admit to this, no matter what his status or personal belief and reasoning and justification and explanation, does not mitigate his actions and should never exonerate him. Did not Hitler and Hussein have their own reasons and justification for torture? Hasn’t everyone whoever turned to torture throughout history? We are left with no choice, not to forgive but to prosecute and punish to the full extent of the law.

Not prosecuting would make every citizen of this once-proud democracy guilty of the same crime. Worse, it would send a dangerous message indeed to other presidents in the future and potential criminals that some laws do not have to apply to all people; that some, if they merely feel they should be, are or can be above the laws. We elect our president and expect him to uphold and obey our laws, the country’s laws, our treaties, not spit on them nor decide to his liking which ones make sense to him when convenient. It is what makes us a democracy and not a dictatorial police state. Worse yet, not prosecuting would speak to an undeniable hypocrisy that we hold other sovereign nations to higher standards in leadership, democracy, morality and rule of law than we ourselves are capable, forever accusing them as we do of their shortcomings. We must think of this as a test of our own moral conviction and rise to the challenge of our own making.

Albert Einstein once said, “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

We cannot forgive a president simply because he was the president, who thought under the circumstances he could get away with it or that he was doing the right thing, ignorant and arrogant and irresponsible and unAmerican and criminal as that was. This is what we can expect of our politicians and his fellow colleagues. Cover for him, each other and their own crimes. We must be on guard and stronger, not allow him to “step down in shame” a slap on the wrist as token punishment. He needs to step down into a wagon that takes him away for life. We must prosecute relentlessly, across the aisle, anyone and everyone who was privy to this most heinous of crimes and did nothing to expose or stop it as well as anyone and everyone who does not come forward, who would obstruct the pursuit of justice towards this end. That a full-scale investigation and prosecution of torture might “hurt the morale” of the CIA is no argument in itself. It is simply more fear being thrown at the people, that we would not be safe but for the effectiveness of torture. From everything I’ve been reading about our CIA lately, more than a little humility and downsizing might be in the country’s best interest. My heart really bleeds for the CIA . . . and the KGB.

The question to be asking as citizens not only of this country but of the world is whether President Bush should be literally executed (for the death and pain he caused others) or spend the rest of his life in prison as a constant reminder to all world leaders faced with the same choices; not which punishment he would prefer but which makes the most sense and sends the strongest message. The egregious, universally accepted crime he committed is now, with his confession, a hard, cold fact not in any way mitigated by his admission (with or without remorse). We are not left with a “tough and difficult” decision. Sad yes, maybe for the disillusioned and demented who agreed with his policies. This is a no brainer, if anything a cause to celebrate the purging of a wretched and corrupt government. And much sadder for the nation should we fail to prosecute. It may be compassionless, but no more so than the crime to which our president has confessed. The situation is not unlike the Utah murderer, Gary Gilmore, and his “bluff” of the courts and the “mice and cowards” who were afraid to enact their own laws to his demise. The man has admitted to and is thus guilty of the most serious of all human crimes, authorizing and implementing torture, crimes far worse than Gary Gilmore’s. It’s time when all politicians must face the music. It comes with the territory and is part of the job, the down side, if you will, to the celebrity status they gain from winning our trust but then breaking it. The world is watching (and has been for some time). Our legacy and conviction and moral fiber, the future of our democracy and what we leave to our children hangs in the balance. Are we really the free and the brave, a land of law, or is it and has it been all talk? Our moment of truth, of real freedom, of real patriotism, is upon us.

Nick van Nes

West Tisbury

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ARMS TREATY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter was sent to Massachusetts Sens. Kerry and Brown:

It is time for the senate to cut bloated nuclear stockpiles and restore inspections of Russia’s nuclear arsenal by approving the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

Since it was signed in April, a vast array of experts — Republicans and Democrats alike — have lined up in favor of the treaty. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted that New START has “the unanimous support of America’s military leadership.”

Treaties require careful consideration, but at this point senators have all the information necessary to reach a decision on New START. The Senate has held 21 hearings and briefings on the treaty and the White House formally answered more than 900 questions from senators. In September, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended ratification with a strong and increasingly rare bipartisan vote of 14 to 4.

Please, let’s put politics aside and national security first by ratifying the treaty this year.

Chris Fried

Vineyard Haven

The writer is a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council.