On Sunday, Sept. 23, the Mink Meadows Golf Club is hosting its second annual tournament to benefit Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard. CBS News correspondent Morton Dean will serve as one of the hosts of the event.
Anyone interested in learning more about ticks and tick-borne illnesses should mark their calendars for Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. On that evening the Vineyard Haven Public Library is holding a forum entitled Island-Wide Boards of Health: How to Protect Yourself from Tick-Borne Illnesses.
This Sunday Steve Maxner, a Viet Nam veteran and environmental activist, will speak at the Unitarian Universalist Church on the topic, About Protest. Mr. Maxner recently paddled a yellow kayak near the award ceremony at the Monster Shark Tournament in Oak Bluffs. His small boat carried the words, “Killing Sharks for Fun and Prizes is a Crime against Nature Shame on Us.”
There are many benefits and hardships from living on an Island. I would like to expound on one of the benefits which we experienced at our annual fundraiser this past August. I am referring to Rising Tide Equestrian Center’s party that was held on Wednesday, August 8. There are over 200 nonprofit organizations here on the Vineyard, and most of us rely on the generosity of Island residents and businesses to help us make our yearly financial budgets. Especially in this time of economic uncertainty, fundraising is a real challenge. Many businesses are asked many, many times for support from all of us in the nonprofit sector.
On three occasions this summer, either my wife or I required emergency service from the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. These visits were not because of accidents with easily identifiable problems but were caused by sudden symptoms which, in two cases, required much testing.
It was the night of Sept. 11 when the president was mourning losses with families at Arlington Cemetery and elsewhere, and simultaneously dealing with world events in the disaster in Libya, and the outbreak in Cairo. And Mitt Romney took to the airwaves. With limited information, he chastised the president for not condemning this immediately
A note to Gazette readers and letter writer Larry Lewis. If more attention was given to energy conservation and efficiency in this wasteful society we live in, the need for problematical wind turbines would be lessened. Coincidentally, saving energy rather than making even more, will go much toward reducing CO2 emissions and addressing the climate crisis. A major contributor to climate change is the epidemic of carelessness, especially in the United States, regarding the use of energy already being generated.
I am writing in response to the recent decision by the Oak Bluffs selectmen to not allow the voting citizens of the town the opportunity of expressing their views on the issue of making the annual Monster Shark Tournament a catch-and-release-only event.
Sail Martha’s Vineyard has lost a dear friend, wise counsel and loyal supporter with the passing of Tom Hale. Tom was an integral part of the Vineyard’s waterfront as a sailor, boat builder and owner of Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard, but he was also a distinguished author, historian, curator and artist. Through the books he wrote, the stories he told and the boats he designed and built (full-size and model), he promoted and perpetuated the Island’s seafaring past and advocated for its future. He will be sorely missed.
Comcast’s final offer requiring individual Chappy homeowners to pay $3,800 up front to receive cable service is the best evidence that the corporation has no intention of servicing our island. So we continue to be part of the 19 million Americans where high-speed Internet is not available, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Has Comcast negotiated with transparency with the all-Island town committee dealing with this issue? Edgartown’s Pam Dolby doesn’t think so. She has asked Comcast for “some type of proof that this project will cost $1.58 million.” Comcast spends billions in deals with NBC Universal, GE and other acquisitions, but plays financial hardball with us. Chairman Brian Roberts, in a recent interview about his corporation, said, “What do we stand for? What are our values?” I think we know. Bob O’Rourke Chappaquiddick
