The sale of the Pacific National Bank saddens me. In the past, we have been able to comfort ourselves with the illusions that off-islanders have blighting the landscape and bankrupting the island. An off-island corporation pushed the Market. The Trophy Houses came from rich, off-island moguls. Subdivisions sprouted from the plans of off-island developers. We have believed the illusion that market forces and newcomers were ruining our island home.

Well, that illusion should disappear in light of the PNB board's decision to sell a 200-year-old bank to an off-island corporation. BankBoston did not execute a hostile takeover. Nobody held a gun to the heads of Murray, Waine, Congdon, et al. Instead, that board scuttled a two hundred-year-old ship that had weathered depressions, recessions, World Wars, and the collapse of the whaling industry.

What that ship couldn't weather was success and greed. The directors of the bank decided that their checking accounts weren't big enough. When the current board saw how much money they could make on their stock, they went tiptoeing up to Boston and begged to sell their legacy. Stock bought at $9 in the late 80's will get sold at $50. Murray, Waine, Congdon, and the rest will make millions. Their kids will get ripped off.

Every dime that the PNB will make in the future will go off-island. Every mortgage, every car loan, and every bounced check charge will leave these shores and get deposited in Boston. That money will not enter the local economy and help out our neighbors. That money will disappear down the same hole that Winthrop's rents and Stop and Shop's price hikes go down. And that hole is off island.

Every time an island business is sold to an off-island company, the island loses money. Conversely, every time you buy from an on-island business, that island keeps money. When I buy a tomato from Bartlett Farm, that money goes back to the farm and helps keep others employed. When I buy a tomato from Stop and Shop, that money leaves and will never return. For the last two hundred years, profit from the bank went back onto the island. That money bought homes, businesses, and lives. Now, it will get sucked up into Boston.

While the sale is still in question, BankBoston promises to keep the name, increase lending and make philanthropic donations. Which means, they will make loans to make themselves money and dole out scraps. Then, after the furor dies down, they will change the name. And why shouldn't they be able to do all these things? They will own the bank. Murray, Waine, and Congdon et al. will have sold it to them.

This proposed sale reflects the unfortunate new tradition of Nantucket: Greed. What this board wants to do is no different from what many of their fellow islanders want to do. They want to cash in right now. If you own a business on-island, chances are you are doing well. If you sell the business, you can get tons of money and buy a lot of great stuff. But your kids can't inherit the business and your kids can't make the money you made. Your kids can't do as well as you did.

We all love to point the finger at the off-island "enemy," but the "enemy" looks at us every morning in the mirror. It used to be nice on Nantucket before we all began to cash in and "get ours." As a result, the flow of money that gets soaked up by islanders today will be diverted and flow off island tomorrow.

So if we are going to cry and bellyache about the changes to Main Street and the changes to the moors and how different the island is these days, at least, let us be honest about how it happened. We did it. We sold the old Nantucket for new boats, new cars, great vacations, and bright shiny toys. "We have met the enemy and he is us."