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EpicentricityAugust 21, 2009 I just spent some time on the Vineyard Gazette's website. They've set up a Summer White House blog, probably trying to catch the eye of the royal, uh, wait, make that "first" family. Gush gush gush. One of the more interesting articles used a panel on race relations to jump into a discussion of the African American summer community. Such panels take place every summer, gathering eminent luminaries to talk about subjects of "great socio-political import," and the ticket price is often $50 and up -- to be fair, it's generally a benefit for something. To the best of my knowledge, "Year-Round Martha's Vineyard Considered as an Occupied Country" has never come up. If it ever does, I'll buy myself a ticket and probably get thrown out for giving a long-winded floor speech. Anyway, Professor Charles Ogletree, friend and lawyer to Professor Henry L. Gates, Jr., was quoted as saying this: “This is the epicenter for intellectual and social dialogue in the country. You look at the variety of people that are here: it’s not comparable to anywhere else in the world.” I look at those people and you bet I'm impressed. I've read several of them and admire most of them. But astute as they are about inclusion and non-discrimination (because they've been excluded and discriminated against), they're not looking hard enough. They're forgetting that this "epicenter" floats in at the beginning of the summer and floats out at the end. Its connection to year-round Martha's Vineyard is tenuous. Year-round Martha's Vineyard is here mainly to pour the wine, clean the houses, ring up the groceries, gas up the cars, and do all the support work that helps keep that "intellectual and social dialogue" going. We couldn't *possibly* have anything to contribute to that dialogue, could we? Hell no, we're just the year-round residents of the seasonally occupied territories. All through the "Gates affair" I kept waiting for the good professor to make the connection. He was treated like an alien in his own home, and we're treated as invisible in ours. Anyone up for a "teaching moment"?
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