On Friday Vineyard school children walked to the sea, to the water’s edge where they set an appropriate tone for this long holiday weekend. There were recitals of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address in Edgartown. In Tisbury students tossed flowers in the harbor and to the sea beyond. And Chilmark children listened to the Coast Guard tell them first hand stories on the significance of Memorial Day.

The importance of Memorial Day lies not in the bustle heard in Island streets, but rather in the soft words spoken at memorials and in salutes to those lost. The sounds of silence will rise from the missing, from the millions who cannot be with us to celebrate the coming of summer on this holiday weekend.

And so on this Memorial Day holiday weekend we bid welcome to our returning seasonal friends and to strangers from afar, and we wish for all a good and prosperous summer ahead.