KEEP THE SS-A TEAM

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following letter is addressed to the Steamship Authority administration:

I am writing in utter dismay at the news that the airport SSA office will be closing. I cannot imagine not having the convenience of this office, as this team of employees is so stellar and the location is accessible. I have worked with this amazing team for years, among those years quite a few hours of crises, and they have always been so accommodating, understanding, expert in their field, and really go-to people. I have seen the best of the SSA in this collection of people that is so good at their job, and I mean really good. So I cannot imagine life without them and would want you to set them up in another office as quickly as possible after the closing of the airport office.

It strikes me as a terrible burden to have to go to the offices in Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven to buy my tickets for going off-Island. Neither one of these offices is easily accessed, especially in the summer, nor is either one of them conveniently out of the fray and centrally located. We Islanders need all the convenience we can get with our life here dependent on a ferry, and to make us have to go to the offices in Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven would just be smacking of the absurd and certainly not Island friendly. Parking alone would be daunting! Never mind having to deal with the masses, standing in line for so long during the summer and not having the personal touch this team has been so able to give.

So please, please do not consider placing this burden on us by not finding a centrally located office for us to use and be able to get to without all kinds of havoc. Please do not send us to Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven, and please try with all your might to keep this A team intact for us . . . at a location that would be easy on us Islanders.

I can only hope that you realize the gravity and sincerity of my plea, and I am sure that I speak for all year-round Islanders and summer residents as well.

Doris Ward

Edgartown

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WHEELCHAIR (UN)FRIENDLY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I have visited the Vineyard, and loved it, for 40 years, staying in touch during my time away from the Island with a subscription to the Gazette. This June, for the first time, I came in a wheelchair.

More than half of my old haunts and favorite stores were inaccessible to me. Very few doors on the Island are wheelchair accessible. And when my husband lifted the chair up the steps to get into one store after another, it was difficult if not impossible to get through the aisles. In Rainy Day the employees were good enough to travel ahead of me, moving racks and displays out of the way — but that’s no way to shop. It was discouraging beyond description. The public rest room in Vineyard Haven was a nightmare. Even with a ramp, nothing about that rest room could be described as handicapped friendly. There were no handrails anywhere in the facility.

There are some buildings that have made accommodations. The Black Dog Tavern, for example, has two ramps: one to get you into the front door, and a second, removable one, to get you up the steps into the restaurant itself. We stayed (with a party of 19) at the Winnetu, which is accessible throughout the property and was very welcoming; we’d certainly go back again.

I realize that the buildings and the streets are old and heavy with character, and that renovations are expensive. I wouldn’t want the character of the Vineyard changed. However, if businesses could put a very small sign in the window with a wheelchair on it, we would know that they are the ones who can accommodate a wheelchair. I promise you — every single person who comes into your place of business in a wheelchair would rather be walking on his or her own two feet.

Gloria Pennington

Orlando, Fla.

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TO THE RESCUE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A much-belated thanks to the police and EMTs who helped me when, in the middle of the night, I suffered a bad medication reaction. I was taking a new med for a neurological condition with (now known) severe side effects. The rescuers were compassionate and professional and I am grateful that our Island has these dedicated people to step in and render aid. I am fine now and that drug has been deep-sixed. Thanks a million to all.

Dagmar Dockery

Vineyard Haven

RISE AND SHINE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

If you missed the Rise Vineyard performing arts recital June 25 and 26, at the high school Performing Arts Center, you missed a completely fabulous show from start to finish.

The entire Rise staff, the technicians, plus the music, costumes and all of the performers were beyond compare. What talent! Thanks for a wonderful show.

Bob Gardner

Edgartown

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9/11: REAL CONTROVERSY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Happy Fourth of July everyone. The good news is that the 9/11 controversy is alive and well here on Martha’s Vineyard. That’s good because if there’s a problem, any problem, we want to be able to talk about it, not run from it. The bad news is there are still too many people, people calling themselves Americans, who don’t seem to understand or worse, don’t care to understand, what the real controversy is all about. We are led to believe it’s about truth versus conspiracy theory. Wrong. The real 9/11 controversy is about the investigation itself and how we are supposed to and expected to find the truth: whether or not our system of justice should adhere to highly evolved principles of proper investigative methodology and protocol or be willing and able to shortcut such principles in the name of expediting justice. We know that the 9/11 commission was unauthorized to communicate directly with detained “suspects” who we also know had been tortured (water boarded) by the CIA. (Can you imagine a police investigation where the police were not allowed to question their own suspects but had to rely on coerced confessions brought to them?)

The reason cited in a joint letter by ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney: “It would interfere with ongoing interrogations.” We also know that torture is illegal, not just because it is inhumane but because it yields such unreliable (say-anything-to-stop-the-pain) results. We also know that there was a tremendous amount of evidence (go to ae9/11truth.org) of controlled demolitions which was summarily dismissed and not considered by the 9/11 commission, assigned to investigate the tragic event, simply because it did not match and agree with the CIA’s top-down report.

That’s evidence which was withheld. But evidence itself is not conspiratorial and can’t be made to disappear, no matter how inconvenient or painful or shameful or, yes, potentially, treasonous. The dictionary tells us that evidence is nothing more than an indication. Evidence might be misleading, true. It could be planted to throw off or confuse an investigation. It could be fabricated with false testimony by a witness. But in a proper, thorough investigation it must be chased out, not dismissed, as the 9/11 commission admits doing. All evidence of what happened and how it happened must be considered in order to accurately and properly determine who performed the crime and why. These are simple facts about 9/11, not conspiratorial notions. Facts. Any one of which would shut down a case immediately in our normal court system.

So why, for one of the largest crimes in the history of our nation, should we be willing to accept such deviation and improprieties, from investigative procedure and methodology and established law? The Super Bowl doesn’t change its rules for the biggest game of the year. To do so would be meaningless. It calls in its best refs for the most stringent adherence to the rules. For the highly civilized people we claim to be and take pride in being, we are, first of all, a land of law. We look to our institutions and bureaucrats and elected officials to uphold the law. We expect them to obey the laws, our laws, in running this country, not assume the power to be above the law or break the law in order to protect the law. To do so would be nonsensical. It is what leads to and defines police states and dictatorships. We accept the conspiracy argument to our own peril and ultimate downfall. We are shamed into thinking that anyone who doubts our government and the integrity of the people who run it must not be truly American themselves, even when blatantly it is they and not the people who have abandoned the very principles that are supposed to keep us united. Let them feel the shame for having done so, not you for calling them on it. Next time you hear the word “conspiracy theorist,” get in their face and stay in their face. Let them know they must have the strength to stand up for their own rights and their own freedom rather than continue to let their neighbors do it for them.

Nick Van Nes

West Tisbury

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NEW ARMS NEEDED

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The great thing about Chilmark Sunday Softball: You can keep playing it as you get older. Most of the players are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and some really old guys in their 70s still play. Dan Pinck, relief artist, is an octogenarian. But where are the young dudes that used to play? Hans Solmssen, Peter Simon and Jimmy Waller were in their teens when they joined the fun. I know Saturday night is party time, but in the olden days we could party all night and show up on Sunday to play ball. Is it that iPods and computer games have taken the place of bats and balls? Do dads and moms still play catch with their sons and daughters? Is it that baseball no longer interests today’s kids? They would rather be doing other things than running the bases on Sunday morning?

In any case, we need new young blood at our softball games. The old knees and hips are wearing out. Bring on the replacement parts.

Bill Edison

Menemsha

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CREATURE FEATURE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

It is all well and good to be concerned about the probable presence of coyotes on the Vineyard. Yes, our native species could suffer disastrously from this new and unprecedented threat. I am, however, wondering if our priorities aren’t a bit skewed. Surely there are other invasive species we ought to be more worried about?

Like those giant squid. Ever been out at Wasque on a full-moon night and seen them flopping and humping their way up onto the beach? There they lay, still as logs, until, say, a deer ventures too close. Then snap! Like a whip a tentacle lashes out, coils about its prey, and drags it into the beaky mouth. Crunch, crunch, gone. The squid seem to favor larger hoofed prey. Ever wonder why there aren’t any moose on the Island? I don’t.

Or the pterodactyls. Thank goodness these are rare. So rare, in fact, that some benighted souls think them extinct. Ha! Silently gliding on the upwelling warm-air currents, they cruise the Vineyard skies in near silence. Then suddenly, they stoop and strike, and wham! There goes your bicycle.

Pterodactyls are really dumb.

Or Bigfoot. That guy really ticks me off. Overweight, hairy, and short-tempered, he mingles with the beachgoers at South Beach. You never know he’s there until, Hey! Who drank all my beer?

So yes, coyotes. Be on the lookout. But let’s keep our eyes open to our other dangers. Let’s not stick our heads in the sand like ostriches.

Oh yeah — the ostriches here! Don’t get me started on them!

David P.B. Stephens

Lafayette, Calif.,

and East Chop

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REMEMBERING GRANDMA

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I am desperately seeking a letter submitted in the early 1980s, describing a woman who used to stand at West Chop and wave her scarf at the departing Islander ferry as we left for home off-Island. This woman was my dear grandmother, and this is a memory I want to share with my daughter and new grandson. Can you help me please? Or any other readers, I would greatly appreciate it.

Laurie Noonan

Vernon, Conn.

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BAND PLAYS ON

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

T hey came from near

They came from far

They came from over the sea

To our small little town on an Island

With a harbor on the beautiful sea.

We bring you music sophistication

Sophistication acoustically

It shall roll loud and clear

For all to hear

Just listen and

You shall see.

Music came like thunder and rolled

Across the bay

The windows rocked,

the houses rolled

Never ending and intruding

most disturbing

This sophisticated music

acoustically.

Who are these people,

why are they here?

Telling us we must have music

acoustically.

Do they care about our

little town with

A harbor on the bay?

Sounds like sophistry to me.

It seems this is the only town on our

Island Martha’s V

That allows this type of music

So they must come here you see

To play music acoustically.

Oh no, I say it isn’t fair

For two different rules

here and there

One for the sea and one for the lane

So play inside as loud as you can

With all openings closed

no need to be still

Rock on rock on as loud as you will.

This poem is atrocious

The thoughts most sincere

Relax read it and think

till you are clear

Agree or disagree

That is your right

But please, please

Do not sell our birthrig ht.

Barbara Hoyle

Oak Bluffs