Category Archives: public life
An Open Letter to Senator Susan Collins
Dear Senator Collins: You don’t know me. I’m not even a constituent. I grew up in and have lived the last 30+ years in Massachusetts. Like many another New Englander I think of New England as home. Though these six … Continue reading
Grayroots Rule
Of course I knew fashion designer Lorraine Parish by name — didn’t I pass her stylish shop every time I drove in or out of Vineyard Haven? But Fashion and I don’t exist on the same planet, so even though Martha’s … Continue reading
Primary Day at the Polls
Tuesday’s primary election didn’t eat up all of my day, but it consumed most of it — especially if you include going to see RBG, the acclaimed documentary about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at the Vineyard Haven library at … Continue reading
Of Primary Importance
Way back in the spring I wondered whose bright idea it was to schedule the primary for the day after Labor Day. Good grief, thought I, we’ll still be catatonic from summer and who has time to think about politics when you’re … Continue reading
Voting Pep Talk
Long time ago, like in 2012, I blogged “Should We Be Required to Vote?” My answer was no. It’s still no. At the end of that blog post I wrote “People fight hard and even die for the right to … Continue reading
Channeling Frederick Douglass
I just got back from participating in the annual reading of Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” speech at the Inkwell. Abigail McGrath of Renaissance House organizes it; Makani Themba stage-manages. There were 30 readers … Continue reading
Finding Light in the Darkness
Originally posted on hecatedemeter:
If it feels like the dissolution of much of what we hold dear about the United States is accelerating, that’s because it is. This has been a particularly dire week: SCOTUS has decided that racial gerrymandering,…
Families Belong Together
The Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council has called for a standout at Five Corners at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 30, to oppose the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their asylum-seeking parents at the southern border. All welcome — … Continue reading
Registering Voters
Yesterday — a perfect sunny, almost summery Saturday the likes of which we’ve seen few of in recent weeks — I spent six hours at the West Tisbury library sitting behind a “register to vote” table. This was part of … Continue reading
Democratic State Convention 2018
Right up to almost the last minute I was thinking of skipping the 2018 Massachusetts State Democratic Convention. Last year’s convention, my first, was eye-opening in all the wrong ways. You can read all about it, and about how I … Continue reading
From the Seasonally Occupied Territories . . . 