The Sound of Shared Purpose

Last week’s Gazette carried a story about marine scientist Jesse Ausubel. Near the end of the piece there was a reference to a project Mr. Ausubel is about to undertake: An international effort to halt all forms of man-made noise in the ocean for a few hours.

Perhaps we landlubbers would do well to attempt a similar period of silence.

The world appears to be in a state of heightened noisemaking. It is as if the codes of civility are being held hostage and only disagreement at the highest decibel is allowed to take place both here in America and abroad.

But, then again, this is not all bad.

Democracy has always been a noisy affair and as the world watched the people of Egypt take to the streets shouting their demands for freedom, the noise was welcomed.

In Libya, however, the noise of gunfire used to silence the burgeoning democracy movement was the worst kind of sound: A violent suppression aimed at ceasing a new language of freedom just as the people are discovering their voice.

In Wisconsin disagreement has become so incensed some Democrats have fled the state. Here on the Island we also have no shortage of raised voices. Town rivalries, tensions surrounding development and the future of the Island and the ever-increasing income gap, in particular between the seasonal visitors and those who live here full-time, are just a few issues so vitally important to all and therefore argued over so heatedly. To crave silence is a natural byproduct of such intense emotions.

But, as Egypt has reminded us, maybe silence isn’t really the answer. In the long run it is not even realistic. Still, there must be a better way than digging trenches of intractable, and noisy, positions.

Perhaps for guidance we should turn again to the sea and another one of Mr. Ausubel’s projects, this one recently completed. In order to compile a census of all underwater life, Mr. Ausubel had to persuade scientists of all nationalities and specialties, each with their own self-interest at stake, to come together around a shared purpose.

Another story in today’s Gazette provides an example, just one of many, really, of the Island coming together around a shared purpose, our children. The story is about the high school culinary arts department, a hugely successful program that helps train future chefs. This past week the students teamed up with Island Grown Initiative and local chef Dan Sauer to prepare a meal together.

The Youth Tennis Center and Sail Martha’s Vineyard, both offering free instruction to Island children, are two more stellar examples of a shared purpose eliminating obstacles and giving voice rather than suppressing it. So too is the newly opened teen center at the YMCA and the summer parade of scholarships offered by Island businesses and organizations to graduating seniors.

Some might dismiss these examples of coming together for our children as minor in light of the struggles of the larger world and those of the Island, and therefore not comparable in execution. This diminishes not only their importance but also the hard work that went into their creation, work that required so many to put aside their self-interest for that of the greater good and a future that remains noisy with possibility.