To the editor:
I have tried mightily to resist but I can’t. A couple of your (our) readers wrote in the last issue complaining about my having reported on Vinalhaven’s “combination” Democratic/ Republican caucus. They had several specific complaints. First, they suggested you consider enforcing your op-ed policy, which quite specifically encourages precisely the sort of report I submitted. Second, they allege that my political views have no particular relationship to island life that they can see.
I submit that my political views, which DO have a relationship to life on Vinalhaven to which almost anyone who lives here will attest, are not apparent to them precisely because they cannot, as they acknowledge, see given their remote residence inland.
Third, they complain that my report may not even represent a consensus of Vinalhaven’s caucus for all they know. Thankfully, they again qualified their remarks with “for all we know.” While I am tempted to take that tidbit and run with it I will simply say that a caucus is, in fact, a consensus and none of the 40 folks in attendance found fault with my reporting of events. Finally they suggest that if you want to report on such events you send a reporter. I always wanted to be a reporter when I grew up. Who’s to say I’m not? A reporter, I mean.
Phil Crossman
Vinalhaven