Yet Another Martha's Vineyard Secession Story


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JFK Airport, New York, USA. January 18, 2010


"Thank you sir, you're right down the aisle to the left."

Representative Ed McCarthy (D-NY-06) nodded politely and followed the flight attendant's directions, not that they were particularly necessary, as the plane could only hold forty people at maximum capacity and also because there was only one other passenger. As he made his way towards his seat, he noticed the back of a shiny bald head peeking above one of the chairs, a very familiar head, it was. Ed cracked a smile and sat down next to Kenny FitzDuncan, who was too busy yelling into his cellphone to notice.

"Claire, go home! No, I'm not going to help him get reelected, I'm on vacation and so are you! Don't you answer that phone! I'm serious, if you get me a job for sometime in the next month, you're fired. Go home, please."

Kenny sighed and hung up, then closed his eyes and sighed again. Ed had seen him do this before, usually when he was exasperated with either his latest secretary or his latest girlfriend. Kenny opened his eyes, noticed Ed and started chuckling.

"How long you been sittin' there, Eddy?"

"If I say long enough, would that be too much of a cliché"

"Definitely."

"Long enough."

Kenny grinned and said: "I thought this gig I got you would make you less of a smart-ass, but I see that hasn't happened."

"Oh Ken, I'm so grateful you managed to somehow help me win in the safest blue district in the country."

"There you go again, with that tone. Honestly I don't know how Kate puts up with you," and then seriously "How is she? And the kids?"

"Kate's as happy as can be as long as I never step foot in the kitchen, you know how she gets. Rebecca's in high school now, and Ian is trying to decide between Yale and Northwestern."

"I can imagine which way you're pushing him."

"Not really. I don't want him to think he got into Yale just because of the legacy treatment. Between us, he'll probably do better at Northwestern."

"Or he could follow my footsteps and just skip that whole college mess."

"Kate would have a stroke if he did that."

They both chuckled at that and then settled down in their seats as the plane began to taxi. It was January, and so the specific route they were on did not see much traffic; they were the only two passengers on the entire plane.

After takeoff, Ed spoke first: "So how's Janice doing? Or was it Jeanie?"

"You mean Jenni. She's fine, I'm assuming, probably better since we broke up eleven months ago."

"Ken, you can't seriously expect me to keep up with that parade you've got going on."

"Not at all, though I'm surprised you mentioned her, have we really not seen each other in that long?"

"Not since the funeral, I think."

"Oh."

They both became silent at that. Ed stared at the floor and bit his bottom lip, while Ken stroked his forehead. This kind of thing went on for a while, before Ed finally spoke:

"I still haven't processed it."

"Me neither."

"I mean, she'd been sick for so long but I just- I-"

Softly, "I know."

"Have you seen John since she died?"

"Yes. I flew out in August. He spoke maybe ten words the whole time I was there."

Ed nodded solemnly, "I think Raul tried to hook him up with a job at Oracle, but that was a no go."

"It's not like he needs the money, anyway."

"True. It's not money John needs, it's a hobby."

"You know what I always say: A man must have a hobby."

Ed laughed, "I may have whipped that line out at a fundraiser a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure you don't mind me stealing that one from you."

"You've got to be kidding? A politician stole something?! Call the frickin' cops!"

"Touche."

"That was nice of Raul though, I didn't know he did that."

"He tried to keep it secret. So typical of him, he's the best guy I know."

"No argument there, though I wish he'd stop trying to get me to move to California."

"He's the only one of us on the West Coast… It gets lonely all the way over there."

"He'll get no sympathy from me on that, no-one pulling in a seven figure salary is allowed to bitch and moan as much as he does."

"Jeez, that much?"

"You bet. He makes almost as much money per year as Matt's wife does per movie."

That sent them both into an extended fit of laughter until, wiping tears from his eyes, Ken said:

"Not that he's done too badly himself. He could divorce her and still be in the millionaire's club."

"I've never heard of a studio head who couldn't."

"Good point."

And that was it, the ritual was over. The two had mentioned every member of their former crew, as was expected of them. Their timing was impeccable, as no sooner had they namedropped the last friend in their group than the plane began descending. Landing in Martha's Vineyard Airport was never a pleasant process, and both men began mentally preparing themselves for serious bumpiness that would soon take place, as well as the always unsettling diplomatic procedure involved in arriving at an organized incorporated territory of the United States.



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Excerpt of interview with Anna Thompson, a local news anchor and native of Martha's Vineyard, from "The Boys from Nantucket"(2003) documentary series:

"Back in 1979, when they were seniors, I was a sophomore, and those kids were my heroes. It sounds a bit silly all these years later, but I think everyone who knew them idolized them to a certain degree. They were just the perfect kids. It was almost like they didn't belong here to a certain extent; they were just too cool, if you know what I mean? There are just these certain people where you can look at them and say 'these guys will be running the country thirty years from now' and anyone within earshot will agree. These kids had big futures, big things ahead of them. And remember, this is all before the movement, before the publicity and the brilliance, that all happened the next year, in 1980. Even before that, you could practically smell the potential overflowing out of them."

[Anna is shown old photo of the gang, dated as 1978]

"Yep, that's them all right. Let me see that for a second… That's Ed McCarthy up there in the top left corner. His father, Terrence, was the island's representative to the Massachusetts legislature. The dark fellow, with his arm around Ed, is Raul Cordoza and sitting below him, right there, that's Matt Neal, who, of course, married that actress from the movie with the horses… What's her name again? I can't remember, doesn't matter, you know who I'm talking about… Over there, holding the basketball is John Alley and the girl hugging him is Marina Jadden. They had just started dating back then, I think, and they eventually got married. The grinning lad is Kenny FitzDuncan, who was always smiling and making jokes……"




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Summary of the "Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket & The Elizabeth Islands Organic Act of 1983"

The Organic Act provided for and guaranteed:
  1. An executive branch headed by a governor appointed by the President of the United States; and
  2. A unicameral (single-body) legislature of up to 12 members, elected by the residents of the islands; and
  3. A non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives, elected by the voters; and
  4. A court system with judges appointed by the Governor and re-elected by the voters; and
  5. United States citizenship for the residents of the islands.
 
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Interesting... I'm going to keep following this at least until we learn what's happening. At the moment, I can't see any reason for them to want to be a territory instead of a state - they don't get to vote in national elections and the local government has less powers than a state would, but they still have to pay taxes (as US citizens). Well, okay, perhaps they really didn't like the Massachusetts legislature?
 
Interesting... I'm going to keep following this at least until we learn what's happening. At the moment, I can't see any reason for them to want to be a territory instead of a state - they don't get to vote in national elections and the local government has less powers than a state would, but they still have to pay taxes (as US citizens). Well, okay, perhaps they really didn't like the Massachusetts legislature?
There are plenty of valid reasons, most of which will be addressed later in this story. However, the cons that you just noted will also play a very important part and will not be hand-waved aside.
Why would Martha's Vineyard want to do this at all? Frankly, I'm confused.
That's maybe the weirdest part... They did in OTL really want to secede:
"In 1977, distressed over losing their guaranteed seat in the Massachusetts General Court, inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard considered the possibility of secession from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, either to become part of another state (having received offers from both Vermont and Hawai'i), reincorporating as a separate U.S. territory, or as the nation's 51st state."
So this thing isn't nearly as ridiculous as it first seems. In fact, my inspiration for this story was talking to a Bostonian friend of mine who happened to remember this whole thing unfolding at the time, and how everyone in New England was fascinated by it...

Thanks for reading :)
 
Interesting. I look forward to seeing how this turns out. I've been going to the Vineyard off and on for years as did my parents and grandparents before me, so I have a bit of a personal interest in this one...
 
Excerpt of interview with Matt Neal, member of the 'Gang of Six' and renowned producer, from "The Boys from Nantucket"(2003) documentary series:

"How and why did we decide to form the VNSF [Vineyarders and Nantucketeers for Statehood]? That's a good question, but I'll need to tell some backstory to put it into context for you. First thing you should know is that we were basically just bored silly in highschool. The only ones who really put any effort into schoolwork at all were Raul [Cardoza]—who was trying to get a full scholarship somewhere—and Marina [Alley nee Jadden], who wanted to get into a good pre-medical school. And, I don't know if you've ever been to the Vineyard in winter, but there is not a lot going on outside of tourist season, so when that redistricting bill is presented out of the blue—March of '79, if I recall correctly—and a townhall meeting is called to discuss it, we snuck in. The townspeople attending were just outraged, screaming, cursing and the works. Seceding from the state was suggested by a couple guys, but they weren't planning on taking initiative and probably didn't think anyone would take it seriously. John [Alley] loved the idea and he managed to convince the rest of us pretty easily. We thought it would just be a cool thing to do till our senior years ended, someone signed the relevant paperwork and thus the VNSF was formed."

[On the declaration of independence drafted by the VNSF]

"To this day, I'm not quite sure what the hell we were thinking with that one. If you look closely at it, you can find all kinds of word-games and easter eggs we put in there because we didn't believe anyone would take it seriously. When the thing got reprinted and plastered everywhere, I think that's when we realized we were dealing with something real here and to stop playing around. You could call it a turning point for us and the secession movement, definitely."

[On the origin of the name 'The Gang of Six']

"The six of us had been great friends since kindergarten and somewhere along the way people started calling us 'The Gang of Six' which kind-of stuck, as a nickname. So, when the media decided to pick up the story and they found out a bunch of eighteen year-olds were spearheading the movement, they took the name and ran with it."

[On John and Marina]

"Yeah, they didn't formally start dating 'till sophomore year, but you can foresee these kinds of relationships years in advance, when they were practically attached at the hip but were supposedly 'just friends.' Let's just say they weren't fooling anybody. Their wedding was one of the happiest days of my life, and—of course—one of the best parts was when the marriage certificate, issued by the territory and not Massachusetts, was presented to them by the Governor.
You were probably asking because of Marina's cancer, but if you think I'm going to give you any information they aren't willing to disclose themselves then you're out of your mind."



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Martha's Vineyard, Dukes Territory, USA. January 19, 2010.

The rental dealership was a short, square, red-brick building which stood alone some distance outside the airport. Inside sat a bored teenager hunched over an iPhone. The sudden sound of the door being banged on startled her, and she rushed over to unlock it.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting a customer."

The unexpected customer in question was a dark skinned, tall man with short gray hair, wide-set light brown eyes and an expensive looking fur coat. She let him in and continued the one-sided conversation:

"We don't get many people looking to rent cars this time of year, what with the season ending a few months ago."

The man nodded absently, shook some loose snowflakes off of his shoulders and moved towards the counter. The employee, perhaps realizing that further small-talk would be unwise, returned to her seat and glanced at a small printout taped to the desk.

"Looks like all we have available right now are either a Jeep or the Mustang."

"What color is the Mustang?" the man spoke softly, with a higher-pitched voice than she expected.

"It's red."

The corners of his lips rose slightly in what, for him, constituted a smile. "I'll take it. Charge me for the week."

"Ok, sir. That'll be 1,560$ for a week with the car."

"Is that including tax?"

"Oh damn, sorry about that. 1,280$ is the right price." She grimaced and berated herself silently; she had forgotten to subtract the 18% state rental tax, which only applied during the summer months, from the cost.

"No worries, where do I sign?"

"Right here, and here, and initial here."

Raul signed where she asked him to, and wondered whether it was a convertible or not.

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Raul Cordeza loved Martha's Vineyard in the winter. Very few tourists dared visit the island after labor-day weekend, fearing the snow and the wind and the darkness that came with it, which meant that the place was abandoned except by the permanent residents of the island, a small and close-knit community of thirty five thousand.
As Raul drove north on a road too small to be called a highway and too dignified to be called a trail, he was thoroughly enjoying the view, which was mostly a pristine white blanket of snow, sprinkled with an occasional cabin or loghouse. The whole affair was almost too quaint to be believed, and he came up with new words which could be used to describe it, such as 'quaintesque,' 'quaintessential' and 'quaintable.'
It reminded him of the 1850's, not that he knew much about the 1850's; it just reminded him of what he thought the 1850's probably looked like, with the idyllic northeastern feel and the weather to match. The scenery would be like this for most of the drive, before he hit Lagoon pond and had to turn eastward, towards the coast and Oak Bluffs and John's mansion.
Raul was stirred from his daydreaming when he noticed a statement carved into the dashboard. It read 'Après nous, le déluge'; after us, the deluge. That got a laugh out of him. The motto of the VNSF was maybe his favorite little detail of the grand story.
When Matt, as the organization's communications liaison, dropped it to the press that they had taken up that quote as their official maxim, a shitstorm ensued. Those who attempted to ascertain the significance of the adoption could be divided into two camps: those who thought that the group was implying that 'if we succeed in seceding, the floodgates will be opened;' with the others arguing that the implication was 'if we manage to secede, nothing after that will matter anymore.' Arguments over which interpretation was correct were lengthy and occupied the media for a substantial amount of time.
The real story? Kenny had found the quote in an old textbook and thought it sounded cool, so they went with it.





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How will this affect S.M. Sterling?

This is a fascinating story.As someone who half-jokingly tried to organize a secessionist movement in high school, I am interested...
 
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