Now that we’re all recovering from Alan Dershowitz’s latest political-self-righteous-publicity storm (let’s just dub this one Hurricane Joe, for Joe McCarthy), it’s time to get to the real heart of the matter, the real injustice that’s occurred on the porch of the Chilmark Store on Martha’s Vineyard. While Dershowitz claims to have been “shunned” by his friends who used sit on the porch with him every summer day, eating lunch and pontificating about life and politics, the real victim is me. I’ve been shunned for years from participating, never once been asked to pull up a rocking chair and partake in the discussion. Dershowitz doesn’t seem very concerned with my civil liberties, my right to enter the conversation.

Of course, we only have to look at the demographics to understand why: the porch people (this is what my friends and I call them) are made up of rich people from the worlds of show business and business. I, a lowly public school teacher who teaches for the Department of Education in New York City, am not deemed affluent enough, not high up enough in the echelons of the corporate world. My life style is, alas, plebian.

Mr. Dershowitz and the rest of the porch people have the rare opportunity to stand up for their principles and make this Island great again. I implore them to come together and discuss the issues that are separating them. I then beseech them to create equality on the porch where anyone from the famous to the blue collar worker can gather, open-faced like a sandwich, to mirror a society that so many of us wish to have. Creating a forum on the porch could set an example for the rest of our divisive country. If you want to represent those of us who have no voice, then save us a seat. I’m sure if we share a meal together and talk, whatever our political affiliation, that our constitutions will be the better for it. Maybe the store will name a sandwich after you.

Scot Nourok

Chilmark