Call to Arms

'Twas the big freeze of '77

A group got together, numb 'ring

'bout eleven.

The farmers, the fishermen,

John Alley too,

Compatriots all, to decide what

to do.

A rallying cry was heard the

isle through.

It's time to secede from you

know who!

So begins what some irate residents of Martha's Vineyard (winter population: 8,000), an island off Massachusetts, say could well be their new national anthem. Anthem? A band of rebellious islanders, among them Selectman John Alley, a West Tisbury storekeeper, and Newspaperman George Adams, are preparing for independence: a flag has been designed, proposals for gambling casinos are circulating, and applications have been submitted for ambassadorial posts.

The mock rebellion is a protest against a redistricting plan under which Martha's Vineyard will lose the seat that it has had in the Massachusetts legislature for 285 years. The islanders are distressed at the prospect of finding themselves, in the words of one angry writer to the Vineyard Gazette, "in the horrendous clutches of Taxachusetts" without representation. Rebels point out that civic anger on Martha's Vineyard is not to be lightly taken. The last time the island was denied direct representation was in 1692, when it belonged to New York; Vineyarders promptly seceded and joined Massachusetts.

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