≥Is Nantucket going to hell in a handbasket?≤

Grant posed this in his column this week and then spun the ironic tarantella around a set of answers that all boiled down to ≥Certainly not, youπre all a bunch of ninnies.≤ Now, while his exercise in straw-man arguments, hyperbole, and reductionism makes for interesting reading, it spins the question into its own answer: Apathy.

When you write with Irony, you get to say two opposing things at once. Your argument, and your writing, becomes a ≥Push-me/Pull-you≤ for the reader. The reader doesnπt know if Grant feels that Nantucket is or isnπt going to hell in a handbasket because the reader doesnπt know how much bite, or spin, he puts on his sentences. Does Grant mean ≥Also, if you push a lawnmower on Nantucket, you are automatically a millionaire (evil) who mows the lawns of billionaires (really, really evil).≤ How serious and how joking is he? The reader doesnπt know and chooses a mid-point between the two, then decides, Nader-style, that it doesnπt matter.

Too many Nantucketers have decided that it doesnπt matter. Too many have decided they canπt make a difference for themselves or for their kids. They donπt vote, they donπt go to meetings, they donπt return polls, they donπt read the papers, and they donπt watch Kopko or Jaime. They certainly donπt write or read on this list.

I think we have a ≥Donπt Worry, Be Happy≤ brand of apathy out here. In the winter, the crowds leave and we get to walk the dogs at Tuppancy with our old friends. As long as there is some money in our pockets and all of our familiar landmarks are unaffected, we feel safe. We have done a very good job at making Nantucket timeless. Therefore, we feel that we are in a Disneyland that will always have high wages, drivable beaches, and ice cold beer. When our familiar landmarks change, we either act or accept. We have been very good with acceptance recently.

We could afford the salt of irony in the years past. I am not sure if we can afford too much of it right now. We are staring down the barrel of a 40 million dollar override. Almost all of the town unions are in negotiations. Thirteen veteran town employees, with houses, have retired. The plutocrats are feeling more and more itchy about Ford 350πs on ≥their beach.≤ The rental and retail economies have been spinning around the drain. Sometime, you need to get earnest. Sometime, you need to stop spinning and stand for something.

Now, everyone will stand for something different. Each of us has our own ≥wisdom to know the difference.≤ I think the sewer override is something that will need ≥courage≤ to change, while others accept it with ≥serenity.≤ Sinking the new yacht club fits right into that same split. Can it be sunk or does it need to be accepted? Whatever the issue and whatever the political persuasion, these times call for engagement. They donπt call for more skittles and beer.

Luckily, the community has shown that it can examine problems in earnest. The Selectmen deserve credit for putting Westmoor out there for serious discussion. Through that one issue, many islanders started to think more and more about what the island would look like for their children. Wages, housing, taxes, and even septic became grist for the mill. When the purchase died in town meeting, itπs passing was both mourned and celebrated. Voters, in that room, cared passionately.

Doug Bennett taps into that same earnestness. I see him out in brutal weather, waving and flashing his thumbs up. I wait for the irony, but all I see is honesty. I donπt know about his preparation or his ability to work with the group, but I know about his attitude. As hard as it is to believe, I think he really enjoys waving and flashing a thumbs up. I believe him, as do others. He wouldnπt have picked up all of those votes if he hadnπt.

Ironically (wink, wink) Doug has almost the same slogan as Howard Dean: ≥Vote For You.≤ Both candidates have switched the political equation from ≥I have the power to make things better≤ to ≥You have the power.≤ People are starting to believe and act as if they really can make a difference. 5000 people put their lives and hold and have traveled to Iowa to hand out flyers for HoHo. If Doug can tap into that same power, no one is going to stand in his way.

One of my most enduring images of the 2000 Florida recount came when a CNN reporter interviewed a hot dog vendor outside of one of the political venues. He was blithely chatting about the candidates until the reporter asked him if he voted. He shook his head. Then the reporter said ≥Did you know that the election is tied down here?≤ He started crying. No ironic jokes soothed him.

Now, I do think much of what will happen this year is funny. I am a gallows humor guy, one of those who compliments the hangman on his necktie. The septic, whichever way it turns, will bring about some nasty dark humor. I think that is fine. The difference between gallows humor and irony is all in where you sit at the hanging.

I donπt feel that Nantucket is going to hell in a handbasket (or an Escalade), but we could be going to Aspen and Hilton Head soon. This is a very serious year. Sitting back and accepting the change with snarky comments insures that whatever control we now have over the future of this community will slip away. Where Nantucket goes, and how it gets there, is still something we can control. Apathy let the Water Company land and South Wharf go. I donπt think we can let apathy take anything else.

P.S. I set Grant up as a straw man here. You donπt have to go too many months back to find him arguing in earnest. I think I read an earnest post this morning.