Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
March 2 43 33 .19
March 3 46 33 .16
March 4 51 38 Trace
March 5 42 30 Trace
March 6 43 22 .00
March 7 48 26 .00
March 8 54 44 .00
Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 47º F.
The first time I marched in Washington, D.C., for women’s rights I was in a stroller being pushed down the National Mall. The next time I was 16 years old, in a wheelchair with a broken foot, but still determined to participate in the March for Women’s Lives, the same rally for reproductive rights I had been too young to walk in before.
My sign was made from a piece of discarded cardboard and a ballpoint pen. I carved my message deeply into the board, as if to leave a scar: What’s Next, the 19th Amendment?
Suspended in that hazy frontier between sleep and awareness, I came awake at 3 a.m., not with the realization that something didn’t smell right, but rather that I am dying. I had been skunked. Inside my apartment, from under the floorboards.
Between rubbing my burning eyes into a bloodshot jelly and struggling to find a breath’s worth of oxygen, I hatched what, at the time, seemed a brilliant plan: I smeared toothpaste in my nostrils and hid under my comforter.
A gibbous moon appears near the bright planet Saturn on Saturday night. The two rise in the eastern sky after 9 p.m. The bright star Spica, in the zodiacal constellation Virgo, is nearby. The three celestial objects form a triangle. The moon is roughly 225,000 miles away, Saturn is 837 million miles away and Spica is over 250 light years away.
Information is the currency of democracy, Thomas Jefferson famously said.
And open access to government records is key to obtaining information, a requirement so basic we sometimes take it for granted.
In fact, various state and federal laws, including the Freedom of Information Act, are the tools ordinary citizens and the news media rely on to make sure their right to see public documents is protected. Like any laws, these need to change with the times.
From a 1958 essay by Onslow Robinson:
Where was the Oyster Shell Road? What part of Vineyard Haven was known as Down the Neck? And did you ever hear of the Pine Tree Club?
JUNE D. MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks2004@yahoo.com)
Many Aquinnah residents are returning from their travels. As a matter of fact, there were more residents out of town during the month of February than those that voted at the primary on Tuesday. Everyone is returning from exotic places like Taiwan, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, California, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Florida and beyond.
Ernie May Named Coach
The Martha’s Vineyard Sharks have signed Ernie May as head coach for the 2012 baseball season, general manager Jerry Murphy announced this week.
The Sharks will be running personal and group clinics this summer that will be supported by the players and Mr. May’s coaching staff, starting with free team clinics on June 10 at three different fields on the Vineyard for the six teams in Little League and for each team in the newly-formed Junior League.
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
(slaterjn@comcast.net)
Chilmark, as I write, sits serene and warm under a beautiful full moon that is rising out of what, to me, is West Tisbury. Our town seems so lively now that the vacationers are returning and the sun has come out again with the promise of warmth. Don’t forget to change the clocks this weekend.
JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
(alleys@vineyard.net)
Well, the month of March came in with some rain, wind and a touch of snow. It was cold earlier this week, but as we approach spring in just 11 days we are sure to get even milder temperatures and warmer sun. The daylight is getting longer each day. By Sunday, sunset will happen around 6:30 p.m. as we moved our clocks ahead one hour.
