Vineyard Boomer

Be Careful Trump Supporters. Dancing in the End Zone Can Draw Flags.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen President-elect Donald Trump embark on an unprecedented “Thank You Tour” to those states where the blue walls were broken.  I am not sure what these victory laps are meant to achieve except to feed the insatiable narcissism that lives deep in the heart of our next President.

I know of more than a few folks who supported Trump in the campaign and for the most part all have been respectful.  Perhaps it is because they acknowledge that the winner of the presidency tallied almost three million votes less than his opponent, or maybe it is their hope, as it is mine, that this nation – as divided as it is – can find a way to mend itself. 

Still, there are a few yahoos out there who simply can’t help themselves. You know who they are.  They could be the obnoxious passenger on a Delta flight, or those who cower in the cover of darkness with cans of spray paint desecrating temples and mosques with swastikas.  We’ve known that these people always existed, but our President-elect has now given them license to run amuck.

It isn’t those people on the fringe that concern me.  They will always walk among us.  What I find particularly repugnant are those comments that come from seemingly intelligent people who just can’t keep themselves from dancing in the end zone.  In the NFL, that brings a penalty.  In the real world, the penalty could mean something a lot worse.  As Abe Lincoln said, “A house divided among itself cannot stand.”  We have much to prove to ourselves to ensure this doesn’t happen here.

Fortunately for me, I am getting these emails from only one source.  But given that they come from the keyboard of a friend I have known for forty years or more, they are particularly disturbing.  The comments, of course, are not his.  It is always easier to quote someone else (see Abe Lincoln, above).  Still, they are for the most part, frankly silly.

Consider the following. Daniel Greenfield, a Shilman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, who proclaims to be a “New Yorker focusing on Islam” wrote a piece that had a tinge of a blend of Don Quixote and Horatio Alger when he referred to the election as a “revolution”.  Seriously.

He writes: “It’s midnight in America.  The day before fifty million Americans got up and stood before the great iron wheel that had been grinding them down.” 

“Sons who didn’t see a future for themselves.  Daughters being afraid of being murdered by the ‘unaccompanied minors’ flooding their towns.”

Then of course, there were kudos for the white working class who stood up against its oppressors by electing a billionaire.  A billionaire, who indeed is draining the swamp in Washington.  After all, he needs more room for many more reptiles.  And yes, by cutting taxes on everyone, including the wealthy, more jobs for those who have been ground down will be the foregone conclusion.  Of course.

Greenfield’s rhetoric, like sadly so many others, serves to widen the divide that exists.  The next four years will be challenging if the likes of Daniel Greenfield continue to spew.  And it will seem like a lot longer than four years if others glom on to the ever growing rhetoric of the Alt Right.  May God Help America.

You Start Dying Slowly...

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and diplomat who died under questionable circumstances during the Pinochet coup of Salvador Allende in 1973. He began writing poems at the age of 10 and he was once called “the greatest poet of the 20^th century in any language.” Here is one of his poems that speaks to all generations, but as a Boomer I found that it uniquely resonated with me.

You start dying slowly

You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, If you do not listen to the sounds of life, If you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly When you kill your self-esteem; When you do not let others help you.

You start dying slowly If you become a slave of your habits, Walking everyday on the same paths… If you do not change your routine, If you do not wear different colours Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly If you avoid to feel passion And their turbulent emotions; Those which make your eyes glisten And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love, If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain, If you do not go after a dream, If you do not allow yourself, At least once in your lifetime, To run away from sensible advice.

 

Best Books of 2015

Welcome to 2016!  And for the 10 million or so Baby Boomers who turn 65 today, Happy Birthday!  It’s hard to believe that the 3.5 to 4 million of us born in 1951 have made in this far.  But here we are. And here is my book list from 2015.  Unlike last year, I included all the books I read…the good, the bad and the ugly.  Fortunately, nearly all were good.  Some very good.  All on this list are rated on a five star basis. So without further adieu, here goes…

Heretic:  Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (#1)

With the memories of Paris and San Bernadino still fresh in our collective conscience, reading this book (the last of the year) was timely.  It is also well written and informative.  And yes, a bit frightening too.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali a Somali born activist speaks to her experience of being raised in a traditional Muslim family, her decision to abandon Islam and the belief that real reformation is needed.  The need to cherish the value of “life before death” is the central theme and a good one. 

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The Global War on Morris:  A Novel (#2)

OK, I’m not all that funny and I’m not Jewish, but Steve Israel is both.  OK, I said the same thing last year about Billy Crystal’s book.  But unlike Crystal, Steve Israel us a US Congressman who is also a very witty writer.  Our hero, the never-make-waves pharmaceutical salesman Morris Feldstein unwittingly takes on some terrorists who seem to lose their enthusiasm for self-martyrdom.  A light-hearted look at one of the world’s biggest challenges, if that’s possible.  Israel makes it work.

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The Nightingale (#3)

This is a well-written novel about two sisters who suffer the ravages of World War II in France.  If you liked Ken Follett’s Century trilogy, you will like this book.  I liked it much more. Unlike Follett, author Kristin Hannah narrows the scope of her story to the lives on Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac.  The result is a much richer read as her characters develop more fully and again, unlike Follett, more believably. «««««

The Wright Brothers (#4)

We all know the story of the Wright Brothers and how they were the first to fly at Kitty Hawk in 1903.  Vineyard resident David McCullough tells the backstory in a way that only he can.  Rich in detail, the Wright Brothers come to life in a way that tells us more about these early 20^th century American heroes as only McCullough can.

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Whistle Stop:  How 31,000 Miles of Train Travel, 352 Speeches, and a Little Midwest Gumption Saved the Presidency (#5)

Count me among those who find that the current process to elect a President an assault on the senses.  If you long for the pre-Twitter days when strong campaign speeches and a lot of pressing the flesh were the calling cards of a candidate, then you will love this story about Harry Truman.  What makes this a great read is that the story is true.

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The Martian (#6)

For me, this is of those rare cases where the movie was better than the book.  The book was good, but for a non-technical person like me, it carried a bit too much data.  Still, author Andy Weir made our hero astronaut Mark Watney funny and likeable under extremely dire circumstances.

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The God Delusion (#7)

Richard Dawkins, an avowed atheist and pre-eminent scientist speaks to the irrationality of the notion of belief in God and how it has caused grievous harm to society.  And yes, of course he’s right.  But his compulsion to wash all believers with the same cloth is a bit of a reach.  His points could be made without preaching about why atheism works.

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The Girl on the Train (#8)

If you’re in the mood for a good mystery/chiller, then you will like this book.  Our heroine (Rachel) is the girl on the train and her infatuation with a presumably happy couple she sees everyday serves as the backdrop.  The fact that Rachel has plenty of warts (alcoholism and other issues) makes her real and the book a fun read.

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Dead Wake:  The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (#9)

I knew that the Lusitania was a luxury liner that was sunk by a German U-Boat and it likely precipitated the United States entry into World War I.  What I hoped for when I read this book was to learn more about the story and the people involved.  How could this happen?  How could it be allowed to happen?  While there is an occasional drag to author Erik Larson’s story, there is much to be learned about a very interesting time in world history.

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The Johnstown Flood (#10)

This is the book that started it all for David McCullough.  His first work, published in 1968 tells the amazing tale of the Johnstown flood of 1889.  Some of the survivors were alive when he wrote this which makes the story of this disaster that took place 126 years ago compelling.  There were many stories of many people, and there were times when I felt I needed a scorecard to keep up. 

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Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (#11)

I am a big fan of Doris Kearns Goodwin and still have a few more of her books to read.  Thus far, I would rank what I have read as follows: No Ordinary Time:  Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt:  The Home Front in World War II (1), Team of Rivals:  The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2), The Bully Pulpit:  Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (3).  They were all great and I almost could have listed them in any order.  This book on LBJ doesn’t fall into that class.  The story was well told, but the book was much longer than it needed to be.

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The Racketeer (#12)

John Grisham always tells a good story and this one was indeed enjoyable.  Still, he deviated from his normal story line, which to me means that his stories are believable.  This one was not, but still fun.

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The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship (#13)

I read this book because I am a Red Sox fan and I loved another book by the late David Halberstam - Summer of ’49.  This book tells a more intimate story of players on my father’s Red Sox team:  Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Ted Williams.  A good book, not great.      

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81 Days Below Zero (#14)

Okay. This book was “okay” by war story standards, but it didn’t capture my attention as other stories of World War II have.  Yes, the story was amazing, but it dragged a bit.

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Many Lives Many Masters (#15)

I have to admit, I really enjoyed reading this book, which prompted me to read another book by Brian Weiss – Same Soul Many Bodies.  The reason two books these rank lower than the rest is that upon retrospection, I am not sure what to make of these claims of past life experiences.  He does make a good case for it.  Maybe I am just not ready to hear it.

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Same Soul Many Bodies (#16)

See above.

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Bull Mountain (#17)

Interesting story.  But if this were made into a movie, it would be in the “B” class.  Lots of violence and degradation were central to the story.  Not my style.

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Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas (#18)

Have you ever ordered Chilean Sea Bass at a restaurant?  Sounds nice, but in reality the fish is actually known as Patagonian Toothfish.  That much I remember from this book.  Another story about survival on the high seas, but frankly given that the author is one of the survivors I am not sure about the authenticity of the story.

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The Plane That Wasn’t There:  Why We Haven’t Found Malaysia Flight 370 (#19)

I must have been in the mood for a good conspiracy book, and this seemed to for the bill.  The author writes the book under the theory that the Russians somehow stole the aircraft and redirected it.  The story was a real reach and when wreckage started to wash ashore in the southern hemisphere after this book was written, it pretty much shot holes in the story.  You can pick it up for free with Kindle unlimited.  Enough said.

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Edward W. Brooke, Senator, Trailblazer and Vineyarder

One summer day in 1963, I was walking with my mother along the sidewalk of Lake Avenue where it bordered the harbor in Oak Bluffs.  In those days, the Island Queen docked there, not at the mouth of the harbor where it does today.  When mother spotted the then-Massachusetts Attorney General Ed Brooke (and Oak Bluffs resident) coming ashore, she asked him if he would pose for a picture with me, which of course, he did.

In many ways, it was a very different time.  While the cold war was in full swing, President Kennedy… no our own Massachusetts born, Catholic and handsome Jack Kennedy, brought the world back from the brink of self annihilation the prior fall when Krushchev blinked to end the Cuban Missile crisis.  And of course the world would forever change again in November when the American version of Camelot would come to a sudden and sad ending.

But on this bright summer day at Oak Bluffs harbor, life was good and I had about 15 seconds of fame.  Not bad for an eleven year old who stood next to a political trailblazer.  A few years later the Attorney General would be our U.S. Senator, becoming the first African-American to be elected to the Senate since reconstruction.  Sara Brown writing for the Vineyard Gazette on January 9 told the story of a moderate politician who fought hard for affordable housing and civil rights.  He was also the first Republican Senator to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.  On January 3, Senator Brooke died at age 95. 

Brown writes: “In those days, candidates could run on both party tickets, which Senator Brooke did in 1950. He won the Republican nomination for state representative and lost the Democratic nomination. He continued as a Republican. “I was impressed with the moderate Republicans in Massachusetts,” he told the Gazette in a 2007 interview.  “They were the progressive party.”  In the interview, he recalled the landscape when he was elected.  “They said Brooke is a Republican in a Democratic state, he’s a Protestant in a Catholic state and he’s a black in a white state, he’s a carpetbagger and he’s poor,” he said. He added:  “I said, ‘I plead guilty to all of that, now go out and vote for me.’  “But I never felt overt racism during my whole political career in Massachusetts. I wanted to prove that white voters will vote for qualified black candidates.”

In 2008, many white voters did vote for a black candidate electing him President and they did it again in 2012.  Still, racism appears live and well in America.  The “Black Lives Matter” movement (and counter movements) that followed controversial Grand Jury decisions in Ferguson, Missouri and New York and the knee jerk backlash against Muslims following the Charlie Hebdo massacre reminds us that the world we live in is a much different place.

In 1963, meaningful Civil Rights legislation yet to be passed and countless race riots were yet to ignite.  But for politicians to claim they were bi-partisan mattered little to the electorate.  It was not considered a political quality, it was an expectation.  Indeed, were it not for the concerted efforts of many conservative Congressional Republicans, the Civil Rights Act would never have passed.

And back then, on a sun-splashed  summer day in Oak Bluffs, hope for a better world existed – at least through the eyes of an eleven year old.

Ken Follett Calls It A Century In Edge of Eternity.

After a two year hiatus, Ken Follett stepped up to the plate to deliver his final installment of the Century Trilogy, Edge of Eternity, and he hit it out of the park - sort of.  If the goal here is to attract readers and sell books then it was a five star effort.  The history buffs among us were waiting patiently to revisit a past that most of us remembered and many truly experienced.  Those who have steamy drug store paperback novels on their book shelves would find it entertaining too.  And of course, there are many who like a little of both.  If the goal here is to sell books, then it was mission accomplished.

But was this his best effort of the trilogy?  It’s hard to say.  Most everyone who fared well with high school history likely found Fall of Giants and Winter of the World entertaining, and probably historically accurate.  How would we know otherwise?  Yet, the boomers among us (many of whom actually experienced the 60’s and 70’s) might look at a few of Follett’s interpretations of the period with a jaundiced eye.

Conservatives are likely taking issue with Follett highlighting the shortcomings of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  And to add insult to injury the lead fictional character on the political right (Cam Dewar) is portrayed as a dishonest, self-serving lackey of the most famous of the right wing bad guys, Richard Nixon.  He couldn’t find any women to take to bed, except the dimwitted woman he married who appeared more interested in leaving Poland.  And yes, he was ugly too.

Meanwhile, starring for the progressives we have the handsome, athletic and intelligent George Jakes. This scholar-attorney-Congressman has it all.  And of course, the women in his life are equally bright and beautiful.  And the same goes for the well-intentioned Russian twins, Dimka and Tanya Peshkov.  The bottom line here is that if you are a mover and shaker and seated left of center on the spectrum, you get all the good looks and brains.  And of course, you get to have more sex.

Speaking of which, Follett seems more willing to take his readers to a place where some might ask – “Do I really need to know this?”  If this were a movie, it would get an “R” rating.  If Follett wrote something more “PG-13”- like, it would have worked better for me.

Still, as it is with most Follett books, it entertains.  As his characters develop, some take on the characteristics of real life personalities.  George Jakes reminds us of Congressman John Lewis, Evie Williams is the Jane Fonda stand-in and the rock band Plum Nellie is an amalgam of a number of groups that were part of the British Invasion on the 1960s.

He does a nice job of bringing the reader into the moment as well - his depiction of the August, 1963 March on Washington is a fine example  (however, it would have been nice to see a better follow-up with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 during Johnson era).

If you grew up in the 1960s and cut your political teeth on the Cold War, Civil Rights, Viet Nam and the rise and fall of Communism, this is a nice trip down memory lane.  You might even learn a few things along the way.

The Story of the Whaleship Essex, Inspiration for an American Literary Classic

In the early 1960’s, a sperm whale washed ashore in Oak Bluffs.  It was a bit of an anomaly since it was the 5^th largest sperm whale ever measured in the northern hemisphere.  More so, sperm whales were rarely seen in the North Atlantic.  Hunted to near extinction by New England whalers, pods of sperm whales were more difficult to find by the 19^th century.  It was during this time that whaling was at its peak.  New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and especially Nantucket became major centers of commerce.  The ships they sent to sea often went for years at a time and travelled to wherever whales could be found.

The discovery of petroleum in the 19^th century coupled with the dwindling whale stocks brought a steady decline in the industry and today most of the world’s nations are working to restore these goliaths of the deep.

When the whale washed ashore in Oak Bluffs, it sparked an interest for me in whaling and I often wondered what it would be like to take a “Nantucket sleigh ride”, which is what happens when a whale is harpooned and takes his tormenters for a treacherous romp through the waves.

A few years ago, at the suggestion of my Vineyard Comcast Technician, I read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.  The tale told by Nathaniel Philbrick rekindled for me my childhood fantasy of the sleigh ride.  I couldn’t put it down.  It tells the tale of a group of whalers who depart Nantucket in 1819 with the hopes of bringing home a boatload of spermaceti, the name given to the produce provided by their prey, the sperm whale.  What happened to the crew became the inspiration for Herman Melville when he wrote his classic Moby Dick.  The reason was simple.  The Whaleship Essex was the only ship known to be attacked and destroyed by a sperm whale.  And if the attack wasn’t bad enough, the torture endured by the Essex crew has the makings of a modern day reality show/horror movie that includes weeks foundering in the sea near the equator in the Pacific, starvation, dehydration and eventually (gulp) cannibalism.   It was hard to envision.

So I had to admit that when I heard that the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse was set to show The Whaleship Essex last June, my wife and I set out to see it more out of curiosity.  After all, how could a small community theater tell a true disaster story on a small stage?  Well, they did.  And they did it so well. 

Written by New York playwright Joe Forbrich, the stage version takes a few liberties when recreating Philbrick’s work, yet it is a story well told and leaves the audience caught up in a time of long ago.  Actors singing sea shanties and dialogue that finds a way to bring viewers to a time before they were born had its impact.

The play deviates from the book, by necessity, in its non- telling the story of the Quakers, their arrival on Nantucket and emergence as the whaling industry leaders of their day.  The story of the spiritual conflict that might have existed with a group of peace loving church members with those of their flock who sought what might have been the violent extinction of our planet’s largest animal is a story for someone else to bring to stage.

This was a story of human tragedy and triumph.  George Pollard, the captain of the Essex was admirably portrayed by Brian Keane, who at first we are led to believe, plays a double role.  In fact, his role at the opening and at the end is both the captain of the Essex and the town watchman, who is tragically one in the same, as the disgraced captain of the ill-fated vessel lives out his days roaming the street on Nantucket, swinging a lantern.  What happens in between is a story of a time not so long ago, and not so far away.  Kudos to Philbrick for writing it and to Forbrich for bringing the story to life on stage.

Vineyard Boomer Sets Sail

58 years ago today, I was vacationing with my family on Martha’s Vineyard.  And while I don’t remember anything that happened that day (I was four years old at the time), I learned later in life that it was on July 25, 1956 that the ocean liner Andrea Doria collided with another ship.  It sank off the coast of Nantucket the next day.

My grandmother who had visited the Vineyard for many years was with us.  Always one with a thirst for excitement, she wondered aloud about the possibility of finding a charter boat that would take us to the crash scene to watch the crippled ship slowly slip into the Atlantic.  My parents put the kibosh on that idea, or at least that is what my mother remembers.

A few years later, my grandmother and her husband Frank moved into a small house in Oak Bluffs that today is owned by my brother and me.  As our families grew, we expanded our home a bit and a few years ago, my wife and I bought a nearby home to give us a little breathing room and help accommodate the crowd.  With the arrival of grandchildren, we now count five family generations who call Oak Bluffs our homes away from home.

So what does all this mean?  Okay, I know it doesn’t make me an “Islander.”  You have to be born here to deserve that moniker.   And no, it doesn’t even make me a “Wash Ashore.”  To earn that title, the island has to be your primary home.  I am not there - yet.

But this much is true.  I spend a great deal of time here on the Vineyard, which is where I am now and where my blog posts will be written.  The content will be musings on American life that will include, but not be limited to current events, small business, history, sports, politics and a fair number of book, movie and theatrical reviews, and of course all things Martha’s Vineyard.

And this is also true - born after the end of World War II and before 1964, I am indeed a “Baby Boomer.”  Hence, Vineyard Boomer is ready to set sail.

 

Frank Ponton and my grandmother “Hildy” – circa 1965.