To the editor:

Humanist author John Berger wrote early of island-like moods elsewhere in the 1970s. And, had he traveled here 25 years ago, he’d been moved to write of it in his lyrical way.

Another writer from The New York Times did so. They intuited our yen for self-respect. For us it gelled as Home Rule.

This had bobbed as a lure more than once before it caught on. Some islanders feared it. Some still do with a “we just want to be left alone.” A few moved away for that reason and some return every six months more tanned to see what we did while they were away.

Some puckishly claimed we were too limited to get it right on our own. Certain county planners and leaders had a party off-island the night of our favorable Home Rule vote 25 years ago to celebrate getting rid of us.

Berger’s 1990s writings in “The Brick Reader” and “At the End of The World” reflect our special fervor for this self-consensus. Even after it took over as a habit, it provoked for the attentiveness it demanded for ourselves and for others, even next-door neighbors. That spark among 24 of us back then became a glow for 24,000 during 25 years’ worth of work we ought to be acknowledging this fall.

In fact we may have done it well as it enveloped us again on Nov. 3 in our 75 percent vote against certain new police service particulars. Despite the consumer-prone silver linings offered us in paid ads, as Pogo said, “We’ve met the enemy and he is us.”

In renewing what we thought, we re-purposely nourished our sense of life as we expect it should be. We also reminded city hall how far we were willing to go after we leash our pets, re-bolster the waterfront, “brand” or not our consumerisms, meet ferries on time and fret over more pressing school, water and sewer shortfalls.

There’s no need to put this down in the village minutes. We remember to do it after a quarter century and will after this by habit, warmly, on our own.

BOB CONOLEY

Sunrise Drive