My hometown was in the news this past week, when Florida governor Ron DeSantis evidently arranged to lure under false pretenses newly arrived migrants in Texas and fly them to Martha’s Vineyard as a media stunt.
I know that political topics are divisive. I have lots of friends on “the other side” so I try not to wade into these waters.
But when I do, I won’t hide from the fact that I’m a liberal Democrat. That’s who I am, so I mostly have liberal opinions (although more on the pragmatic than idealistic side).
I am very proud of the island. Our local authorities and volunteers reacted swiftly and with compassion.
And I honestly think the “other side” made a big mistake.
One is that people on the Vineyard are nice! If anybody thought we’d have a freak-out about migrant workers that would somehow expose our hypocrisy—well, that was totally wrong.
(Try to put a wind farm in our ocean view, however, and you’ll get a different reaction!)
Of course Vineyarders are going to come out and be kind and welcoming to people, especially if it’s a big F-U to our political opponents.
Also...we’re very media savvy! We have a lot of practice being around cameras.
So really...that was dumb.
And just sick and cruel to treat human beings as political props.
I’m always a little afraid to post something like this because I do not need trolls popping up with lunatic-fringe opinions.
I’ll always welcome thoughtful delete—but any bonkers comments, I’ll simply delete.
And of course immigration is a problem for our country. We need strong borders, humane rules, policy reform, etc.
We do not need hatred, cruelty and racism.