Word: vineyard
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There's no escape from the Island or the routine, and that's what makes Vineyard life perilous. Rational means-and-ends decisions are impossible because there are no ends. If one person offends another, they rarely "never speak again." It simply can't be avoided. They are trapped on the Island...
...fogged-in ports shouldn't have mattered to any of the Gazette's readers, because who in good sense would want to leave the Island? The Vineyard has everything--fresh seafood, clean air, unspoiled beaches, and such interesting people. There are year-round celebrities, like James Taylor, Carly Simon, and James Cagney, but these keep a lower profile than the brash intruders like Frank Sinatra--who arrives annually in yachts 100 feet long and longer. And there are intellectuals to provide some sophistication, ranging from Doris Kearns to Ewart Guinier '33, from Rev. Harvey Cox to Roger Baldwin...
...Islanders do their best to pretend the "summer ginks" do not exist, or that they are at least only peripheral to real Vineyard life--the delicate small town give-and-take at which people who live on an island are expert. Of course the Islanders couldn't live without off-Island money, and the island's main business is construction of homes for off-Islanders. But this only deepens the resentment, and the determination to glory in insularity...
There are other small towns and islands where life is as intense and personal as on the Vineyard, and the delightful, dangerous sensation of security in uniqueness is not unique to the Island. There are closed circles everywhere, whose members govern more with mercy than justice, and not out of evil intent. Compassion is easier, and often unavoidable on an island where everyone knows everyone...
...were recognized as people, just plain folks, bombing them would have been harder. The same generosity that produced the Nixon pardon might be extended to less well-known criminals. Blacks entering Boston schools might be recognized as not just "black." There is surprisingly low racial consciousness on Martha's Vineyard...