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Nantucket's Past is Nantucket's Future
HOW OFTEN HAVE we heard the old expression: "Time will tell." But have we ever carefully examined the true meaning of the phrase? Time to the ancients meant something inexorable, a grinding out process, about which man was powerless to do anything. In our own day it is an electronic impulse around which we gauge our progress or our loss. We have even passed laws to "save" time, but for what reason is yet to be determined. But we all recognize that time past, time present and time future involves above all else a philosophy of history. Nantucket, as a community, was created by several generations of an industrious people. They gave us an Island and a Town as an American inheritance; they made possible an incalculable gift of history — a heritage as remarkable as it is priceless. Today, we are dependent on an economy made possible by our historical past. True, the lure of summer is our great season, but the growth of the off-season business is a clear proof that visitors come to Nantucket in October and April, as well — not to swim or sail but because of the attraction of the place to which the older day still lingers and where the charm of the past is clearly apparent. To insure the economy of the future it has become more and more necessary to preserve Nantucket as a place of history. In order to ac complish this our energies should be directed toward two objectives — the protection of the Town from the modern touches that deface, and the preservation of the out-lying lands as a natural setting for the Town. We must acquire as much of those areas once called the "commons" as possible; it is mandatory that stretches of beaches be set aside for public use; in some cases the land of "owners unknown" should be taken over by the county. In the Town there should be a program of re-claiming some of the old cobbled streets; the local power company should resume the process of gradually placing lines underground which they once initiated but has been permitted to lapse; the original concept of the Historic Districts Bill should be encouraged and the Commission given more legal assistance. Time is a real and not a superficial asset. While we may still utilize it we, in a community sense, should organize our efforts toward these goals. The extraordinary accomplishments of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation is an example of what may be done by private enterprise. What can be done through public undertaking must be an attempt to meet the challenge. The future depends on how much we may use the past as a viable part of the present. Edouard A. Stackpole
