Category Archives: public life
Positively Pro Postcards
Back in early February I blogged about writing postcards to Democratic voters. At that point, I was writing for my seventh campaign, for Conor Lamb, running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District. This was, by my count, the 54th … Continue reading
New Station on the African-American Heritage Trail
NOTE: I sing in the M.V. Spirituals Choir, part of the U.S. Slave Song Project, and also manage its website. This post is a reprint of one I posted there yesterday. If you’re on the Vineyard and like to sing, … Continue reading
Rally for Gun Safety
Note: This post first appeared on the new website of the Women’s Committee of We Stand Together / Estamos Todos Juntos (WST/ETJ), which I manage; it has been updated and revised. If you live or spend time on the Vineyard … Continue reading
Not Stranded
For days I’d been planning to head off-island this past Sunday afternoon for State Rep. Dylan Fernandes’s 2018 campaign kickoff in Woods Hole. The venue, the Captain Kidd, is an easy walk from the ferry dock, so no big deal, … Continue reading
Z is for Zoning #AtoZChallenge
When I moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 1985 I was as ignorant about zoning and land-use planning as I was about refuse disposal. (See “Unsustainable” for more about that.) My education started PDQ: In January of my first winter, I … Continue reading
X is for Xenophobia #AtoZChallenge
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “xenophobia” as “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.” The American Heritage Dictionary agrees but adds the emphasis on “different countries or cultures”: “Fear of, hatred of, mistrust of, … Continue reading
W is for Wintertide Coffeehouse #AtoZChallenge
When I discovered, and promptly threw myself into, Wintertide, it was strictly a winter thing. It happened at the off-season youth hostel. Now I can’t remember whether this was during my first year-round winter (1985/86) or my second. I’ve been … Continue reading
U is for Unsustainable #AtoZChallenge
Warning: This is a rant. T/read cautiously. “Sustainable” is all the rage around here. Support sustainable agriculture. Buy island-grown. Reduce your carbon footprint. Recycling is practically a religion. Ditto “rescue” — of animals and the environment. (I was about to … Continue reading
L is for Lesbian #AtoZChallenge
WARNING: The first several paragraphs of this post rely heavily on “Gay on MV,” a personal history that I posted here in June 2015. This post, in keeping with my theme for the A to Z Challenge, focuses more on … Continue reading
G is for Grapevine #AtoZChallenge
The Grapevine was the name of a Vineyard weekly that preceded the 1984 birth of the Martha’s Vineyard Times. There was no official connection between the two, but into the 1990s people sometimes referred to the Times as the Grapevine. The connection was … Continue reading
