There's a spot called "Five Corners" in Vineyard Haven on the island of Martha's Vineyard. It's the place where people go for politcal rallies and demonstrations, I suppose because there's plenty of traffic there: in the winter, when the Oak Bluffs ferry isn't running, virtually everybody who comes to the island passes through five corners on their way from the VH boat.
This time last year their were frequent anti-war rallies going on. I stopped to listen once when Carly Simon was singing to fifty or so people.
Today there was a solitary pro-Bush demonstrator out there with a large flag and a larger sign.
The year 'round population of Martha's Vineyard is pretty liberal. For example, if I recall correctly, in the last presidential election Bush came in third, a few votes behind Nader.
Often when there was a peace rally going on on one vertex of Five Corners there was a counter demonstration going on on an opposite corner. If there were fifty people at the peace rally there might be five or eight on the other side. I wonder what we'll at five corners as the election gets closer.
Last night there was a to-do down at the Whaling Church in Edgartown on the topic of the Patriot Act. There were speakers -- including a bunch of novelists and poets and such -- and musicians. The impetus came from a local ad-hoc group, of which my wife is a member, that has put articles on the town warrants of the various towns to declare themselves "Patriot Act Free Zones," in effect. (We had tickets to the affair in Edgartown but ended up in the emergency room getting treatment for a slipped disc in my wife's neck -- would rather have been at the show.)
The fellow's sign today said, if I remember,
"Fearless Men: Vote for President George Bush. America the Strong. God Bless!"
My sixteen year old daughter was with me and I asked her if she thought he meant that fearless women weren't important to him. She said, "I'm not sure what he meant, but he doesn't inspire a lot of confidence."