Is the Island school’s strings program inessential to educating our children, as Tisbury All-Island School Committee representative Colleen McAndrews claims? (Public School Budget Soars, Oct. 25.)

Only if critical skills such as persistence, collaboration, creativity, discipline, confidence, communication, a sense of beauty and the ability to listen are inessential.

There is a sign at First Bridge on the Beach Road that says no jumping or diving. The sign, of course, is a joke. You can’t drive past the bridge in the summer without seeing 20 or 30 kids standing on the bridge railing preparing to jump.

Here we go again. Will the Vineyard Haven DPW not rest until this connector road system is passed? Please, I appreciate Fred LaPiana’s work, but it is time to put this piece of his retirement plan to rest. Since when does a town commence such a large project on the verge of the director’s departure to Florida?

As someone who voted in favor of the marijuana dispensary ballot initiative, I have been surprised to learn how flawed the regulations are, what few safeguards are in place to assure a commonsense approach to allow the drug to be available.

The Gazette’s front page piece on cyber-bullying last week dramatically illustrated the terrible impact cyber-bullying can have on our teens if allowed to proceed uncensored in a toxic environment under the cloak of anonymity.

We have been coming to the Vineyard in October for the last 28 years, due to the generosity of my husband’s cousin and the use of her small home. For the past two years, we have rented a house. This was our first vacation since my husband retired and we were staying for the glorious month of October in our favorite place in the world. We bring a kayak and bike and a truckload of supplies and we always go home with more than we bought as we spend Saturdays at garage/estate sales.

Our dog Cloverdale was run over by a delivery truck on Oct. 17. My husband was present at the time and immediately called for emergency help to the Comcenter.

During World War II, I was not too young to appreciate the wonderful cooperation between the two political parties in Congress. It seems as if we should have been thanking Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini for that gift of our togetherness. Better than that, though, perhaps we the people should declare war on our representatives in Washington and insist that they work together on the issues rather than separately. We should urge the Congress to try to compromise more.

Heidi Schultz
West Tisbury

The West Tisbury School U.K. eighth grade fall exchange concluded with the annual soccer match. This year, the British beat the U.S. team, but there’s always next year.

The SAT tests are this Saturday, Nov. 2, and the next one is Dec. 7. Now, thanks to the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Leadership Initiative, the ACT test also will be available.