(MUSIC - "YANKEE DOODLE")
- Yes, I move that the town vote to ban the sale of water
in plastic bottles in Concord starting January 1st, 2011.
I want to discuss the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
- That's way in the Pacific.
We're here in Concord.
Could you go...
- I know, but that's where the plastic bottles go.
- Yep.
That's where they go.
And could you go on to the third one, please?
- I've returned with an article carefully written as a bylaw.
I ask for your support once again.
- Ms. Hill.
- Good evening.
Two years ago, I began this effort
because my grandson Mack told me about
the disastrous environmental effect
of empty plastic bottles.
- What's the problem with Concord right now?
- Yeah, there's a woman in town who has...
for the past three years, she's been trying to ban the sale
of bottled water.
- Ban the sale of what?
(LAUGHTER)
- I know, I know it sounds crazy Dan, and I'm with you.
She wants to ban the sale of bottled water...
- Bottled water?
- Yes, bottled water.
(DOORBELL)
- Hi, would you sign my petition?
- Oh, I don't agree with that.
- OK.
Well, thanks, anyhow.
Bye.
- I think of all towns where freedom should be protected,
I mean, Concord is where it should be protected.
- I'm back with a bottle ban.
People sort of flee when they see me
because they know they're going to get a little sermonette.
(DOORBELL)
- Why in a town like Concord...
(DOORBELL)
...when we recycle?
Go find another town in Massachusetts
where they're not doing a great job recycling.
Doesn't that make more sense than removing
the single most healthy beverage that's contained
in plastic on the market?
- Well, she has twins and she's pretty busy.
She's probably in the middle of giving them
one of their snacks.
OK, well, onward and upward.
I consider myself a warrior.
I live in Concord and I'm trying to get
plastic water bottles banned.
And warriors have to be prepared for any enemy.
Boy, it's a mess in there.
Looks like someone's just moved in.
I think I'll skip this one.
- These ideas that we can actually
have free choice in what we buy and how we shop,
they're under attack right now by one bill, one person.
- She's a prophet.
People think prophets are crazy.
But honestly, over time, you think
they're less crazy because you realize
they're on to something.
- I'm no prophet.
I'm the right person, and this is the right time.
- My name is Eric Van Loon.
I'm the elected town moderator here in Concord.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Concord is a very special community in American history.
There were lots of reasons to be attracted to living in Concord.
- This cheese will reportedly be the largest wheel
of Italian cheese anywhere in the Western hemisphere.
(CROWD CHEERING)
- We have everything from Walden Pond and Luisa May Alcott
to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau,
plus the key role that Concord played in the Revolutionary War
once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard
round the world at the old North Bridge a half mile from here.
- I think it really started in Lexington,
but then it came to Concord.
And Concord was where they stood up against the British.
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
their flag to April's breeze unfurled.
Here, once, the embattled farmer stood...
- Raise arms.
- ...and fired the shot heard 'round the world."
I find that very moving.
To me, it symbolizes the same thing that I'm doing.
And so it'll be the second shot heard 'round the world.
That's pretty corny, but it will be.
I'm doing it because I know it's right and I know it's just.
- Over here, ma'am.
Have a seat.
- Thank you, sir.
- Yeah, you're welcome.
Take care of yourself.
- I will.
I'm Jean Hill, and this is where I live.
The address is 24 Concord Green, Apartment 5.
And I've been living here quite a long time
and I like it very much.
Here it is.
Oh, I remember this so well.
This is 73 Monument Street, where my husband and I raised
our four children.
My husband died in '06.
For a year, I was mourning, but after
that I realized that for the first time in my life
I was not responsible to anyone and I could do anything
I pleased.
I didn't have to do any cooking for my kids,
I didn't have to worry about my husband.
And I liked that, but I did find it
necessary to find some kind of activity.
And that's when I started working
against plastic bottles.
My grandson, Mack...
(MUSIC PLAYING)
I was visiting their house one day and Mack said, "You know,
Grandma, there are big bunches of plastic in the ocean
and it's really terrible."
He was a smart little kid and he looked it up on the computer.
You're the source of all this trouble.
Then I started thinking on it and using the internet
to get information.
This is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
There it is.
And it is an amazing mass.
Look at the size of those gyres, and there are so many of them.
Do you have the Concord Journal yet?
- Yes, ma'am, right on the bottom shelf.
- OK.
You have the best butcher in town.
- Thank you very much.
- Now I need that penny...
- Thank you very much.
- ...because every penny helps.
- Absolutely.
There you go, you gave me one too many.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Bye, now.
- Bye-bye.
"Bottled water debate resumes."
The more ink you get, the better.
On and on the debate goes.
- Democracy is alive and well in Concord, and lots of people
have points of views on everything
and they're all very articulate.
- As a community, there's no community in the United States
that's ever made a community choice
to eliminate a product such as single serve bottled water.
- People want to drink water, and as a merchant
it's my job to give people what they want.
The packaging is not as important as the product.
- This land has been in agriculture
back before the settlers came, and it
seems the Indians didn't have a very good immigration policy
and they lost the land to some of the intruders.
And this was part of the land taken by the King of England
when they came.
76 years I've lived in Concord, which actually is about
a fifth of the town's history.
I'm opposed to the bottled water ban,
I think that people should be able to make their own choice.
I don't drink it, never bought a bottle in my life.
But I think people should be able to choose.
- Imagine how our Founding Fathers would feel now if after
writing the Declaration of Independence --
which talks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness --
if they heard hundreds of years later,
you wouldn't even have the freedom to even be able to buy
water.
It's not crack or heroin.
It's water.
Let's keep this in perspective, OK?
- It's also, I think, a pretty slippery slope when
you start trying to make healthy legal items illegal.
I don't know where it starts and where it ends,
but I think it's a pretty slippery slope
to start to take away the freedom of choice for people.
(DRUM ROLL)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- Live free or die, because death is not
the worst of all evils.
Slavery is.
(GUNSHOT)
(CAR ALARM)
- I'm Chuck Hacala, captain of the Bedford Minutemen Company.
We are here today for the Meriam Corner Exercise,
and our company is specifically invited to this event
because we carry the Bedford flag, which
was the only flag carried at the Battle of Concord in 1775.
We have lots of things, lots of laws that attack our freedoms.
I can't just go out and drive 200 miles an hour in my car.
I would like to have that freedom, maybe,
but we decide as a group that, no,
we're going to actually put in some laws
that limit our behaviors but in what we
consider a positive way.
So I think, again, it's up to the people that
want to ban the bottles to convince the larger
community that this is really good for everybody.
And if they can convince enough people,
then I think it's perfectly fine to ban something
like bottled water.
- Well, what I'm doing is I have a petition Article, number 32
on the town warrant, and that is to ban
the sale of drinking water in plastic bottles
in the town of Concord.
- I don't think we have that kind of problem.
I think those have been overblown a lot
in the last several years.
Why put more burdens of people than they already have?
- Well, because only 20% of the plastic water
bottles are recycled.
- How do we know that, though?
What's our statistics for that?
- You can find out a lot about all these issues
if you go to Corporate Accountability
International in Boston.
They have tobacco...
things...
what did you do?
Why did you kill that bug?
Well, I don't want to argue with you.
- No, I don't either.
- But...
- I would say you're probably the Goliath
and I think the Davids are the folks that
are going to probably want to drink their water.
- No.
- We'll proceed initially with the discussion of Article 38.
- Hello?
Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
- Hello.
- OK, I guess it's on.
- Please identify yourself.
- I'm Jean Hill, and I live at 24 Concord Green.
- And I'm Jill Appel, and I live at 244 Caterina Heights.
- We're a team.
- Thank you very much.
- I'm the perspiration, she's the inspiration.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
When I first met Jean, I wasn't really
compelled to think of bottled water in the way that I do now.
People said, "Oh, bottled water, bottled water, what
a small thing", and "You're not going
to make a big difference", and things like that.
And I have to admit my first reaction also was, jeez,
what are we talking about here?
You know, water in plastic bottles?
Come on.
But throughout my research I guess
I found that bottled water is really the epitome,
it is the poster child for unsustainability.
And the more I learned about the issue,
the more I realized that she's got something.
It's really important.
Even when you can make a small change,
that small change could have a big impact.
- I think Jill realized that I needed help,
because I'm a loner and she knows the way the town works.
She's much better at that.
So we make... together we make a very good team.
- We're both strong women.
When I get out of line, Jean'll tell me.
And when Jean...
when I need to rope Jean in, I'll tell her.
So I think there's a lot of mutual respect.
- Because I have the passion and she has the know-how,
and that works.
- I think this is a time where one community can
put its foot down and say "We're going
to take a stand against this product
because it's an unsustainable product."
I think the time is right.
Good morning, Jean!
- Good morning, Jill.
- How are you?
- Here, I'm all set for the coordinations.
- I heard, I called ahead.
My focus is more at the community level,
because you have to think global but work at the local level
to make things happen.
And I guess within the town of Concord,
I feel there's a good community that's
supportive of environmental issues.
This is the kind of place where we can
get some of this stuff done.
Thank you so much for coming today.
And thank you for participating in this,
because I think we have an opportunity
to really make history here.
The Article that we've got this year is basically the same.
It still focuses on single serve bottles only,
of one liter or less.
So the gallon jugs are not covered by the Article.
There still is an exemption for emergencies.
The deal on this is not about the fines,
it's about making a statement about an unsustainable product
that we would choose not to have in our community.
So our goal this year is to really reach out and just get
votes.
- Each person has their own circle of friends.
And so if you can spread the word among your friends,
that'll be a big help.
- The idea is that we're quietly going about gathering votes
from sympathetic people.
We appreciate your coming tonight
and look forward to working with you on the campaign.
- One of the key features of Town Meeting --
and this goes back in Massachusetts law
and the Constitution for really hundred of years --
is the right of individual citizens to bring a measure
to a vote at Town Meeting.
And the bar is very, very low.
10 signatures is all that's required to get a warrant
Article before the town.
- Well, I'm tickled that I got so many signatures.
Many more than I need.
The minimum is 10, but I got much more than that.
Hello, Anita.
- How are you doing?
Nice to see you again.
Stamp them in for you, so that we know that you've got them
in on time...
- Yup.
- ...by the deadline, and this looks great.
Best of luck with this, Jean.
- Thank you.
- And it was nice to see you.
- Thank you.
- And happy new year.
- Bye-bye,
- Bye, Arlene.
Well, that's done.
Now I just have to finish it.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- When I think back to the Founding Fathers
and the radical thought that was going on there,
these are people who realized the world was changing.
And they wanted to change it into a better place.
They were leaving behind the feudal system,
the absolute monarchal systems that had dominated in Europe,
and saying "We need a new world order."
And they were radicals, that's what they're fighting for.
They were fighting for ideals.
I'm Bob Lawson.
- I'm Bill Turville.
This is our sculpture.
Bob's idea, my assistance in realizing it.
- My concept of putting together the sculpture...
right now, it's really to support Jean's Article
and I hope it helps that thing pass.
When this is finished, it'll be comprised of 1,500 water
bottles -- 1,500.
And that's the number that are consumed
every second in the United States, just the United States
alone.
Every second of every day, all these bottles and the ones you
saw on the wall there came from one family --
one family -- who recycles them, but I would get to...
I noticed how many they were getting rid of every week
and I would get there before the recycling truck came.
And I would just take their recycling,
and I'd throw them in my thing.
We're not the radicals.
Just like Jean... the people, Jean Hill, and Jill Appel,
and everyone who's going to vote for them,
they are not the radicals.
The radicals are the people who think
that we can alter the chemistry of our Earth, for profit.
For profit.
This is what this is, this is profit.
These companies need to sell more.
They couldn't sell more Coke and Pepsi and all that,
so they decided to sell water.
- What's the first reason I'm helping out in the campaign?
Well, the first reason I'm helping out in the campaign
is because my mother asked me to.
(LAUGHTER)
People are already dying from climate change,
and people are already suffering from climate change,
and it's going to get a lot worse.
You have to say, when people talk about choice,
and "I'd like to be able to go down buy bottled water"...
you don't make a choice in a vacuum.
- I think we have to have some component within
the presentation that talks about litigation...
- Yeah.
- ...and I think we ought to make it clear to the people
in the room that we expect to get sued.
(LAUGHTER)
- All right, well, if you are going to make that point I
think you should not fail to underline we're being picked
on by a giant bully who's much more powerful...
- That's right, and Concord doesn't respond well
to bullies.
- I thought of a visual of the bottled water industry dressed
in red coats shooting bottled water saying "Drink up,
Concord.
Or else."
And I just...
I like that kind of visual piece because I
think we have to come right out and say,
we had some bullies in here 200 years ago.
All right, do the math.
250 years ago...
- And we'll be firing...
- ...whatever.
- We'll be firing the second shot heard 'round the world.
- And are we going to let them intimidate us?
(MUSIC PLAYING)
It's a big industry.
It's a big industry to try and... you know,
it's David and Goliath here.
- Yeah.
Well, do you look at the size of their postcards?
Last year, we sent one out.
It was this big.
And their postcard was this big last year.
Now it's even bigger and there are three of them.
- This is power.
This is power.
- Yeah, really.
We're big.
We're powerful.
We're going to take up your whole mailbox.
- And we're going to send two of them to every...
- It's kind of intimidating.
- Just got this in the mail yesterday.
And so, they're coming up with some pretty big graphics
and really trying to catch your eye.
And that's why I'm trying to catch some eyes too,
to counteract this.
But this is what we're dealing with in Concord now.
It's getting hot and heavy this week.
- But you can see they're working at every demographic
here.
- Yeah.
- Let's get the...
- Oh, yeah, look at this.
The moms, the soccer moms, the kids.
- I'm a little alarmed to see all the ads
that have come around.
Did you see the...
- Well, they always do that.
It's...
- Do they?
The postcards that came to all of us?
- ...all of it, propaganda.
- Oh my gosh.
It's like 8 and a 1/2 by 11".
- Yeah, it's huge.
- "A ban will cost..."
Oh, we're looking at the cost angle.
Oh my gosh.
Concord has a history of not giving in,
as the seat of the American Revolution.
I mean, the penalty at that point in time was death.
You know, I mean you went out with your musket
and you didn't know whether you were coming back.
And here we're talking about bottled water,
for crying out loud.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- I think the story concerning Jean Hill and her request
to ban the sale of bottled water in the town really goes back
two years, and a Town Meeting we had two years ago seemed to me
to be very pro-environment.
- I've brought my own here tonight,
filled from the kitchen tap.
- However Jean's article, as you know,
had some flaws in the writing of it
and the Attorney General of Massachusetts
found that it was unenforceable.
And then in 2011, Jean resubmitted the article.
The mood of Town Meeting had changed.
- ...and what democracy means to me is freedom.
And one of those core freedoms is for Americans
to be able to choose what it is they eat, drink, and consume.
- Jean, as determined as she is, this is her life's work
and this is her major contribution.
And she's determined to go back this year.
- Good morning.
Last year, I believe that I had enough supporters to win.
However the vote was not called until very late, by which time
my weary supporters had departed.
- Town Meeting is very much by the people
and of the people for sure.
It's one of the oldest forms of government in the United States
and yet, except for here in New England,
most people don't really know about it.
On Article 38, the vote in favor was 265 -- the vote opposed,
272.
So it fails to pass by seven votes.
(APPLAUSE)
- So I lost by seven votes.
I can remember Jill just... she was so disappointed she just
ran out.
And I just sat there stunned.
- We can be fierce as lions if we're challenged,
and we will stand our ground as we have done in the past,
and we will triumph in the end.
And I just want to say congratulations
to Jean Hill, who's worked so hard for so long,
and I hope we see her next year.
Thank you.
- I am going on this journey again.
Some of these trees or so old.
- Town Manager serves as chief executive officer for the town,
and I work for a five member elected,
non-paid Board of Selectmen, who jointly share executive
authority with the Town Manager.
And I've been in my job here in Concord for about 18 years.
I have gone back and forth on it,
because I'm sympathetic with the local merchants in particular,
and we really want to try to keep
shopping viable in Concord.
We're a small town.
It's tough for small merchants to make a go of it
with such a small population base.
My prediction is -- I guess if asked today,
five months before Town Meeting convenes --
that they would probably be predisposed to say that
we've already discussed this.
We decided last year we don't want to do it,
and we still don't want to do it.
- The room across the hall is the Selectmen's room,
and that's where the Board of Selectmen
meet and make the executive decisions on a weekly basis.
Their meetings are recorded and rebroadcast on TV.
- ...and also our snow and ice account seems to still be
in good shape.
(LAUGHTER)
- You're not relinquishing it yet, however, right?
It being a couple of minutes past 8:00,
I'm going to skip ahead on the agenda to the presentation
on Article 32 by Jean Hill.
- This year's presentation will be similar to last year's
and will reflect the feedback we received.
- You know, I think the important thing
to know about the Article is that it's really not
about the fines.
It's really about the community making a choice
around this product.
- Changing behavior and changing the culture.
- Changing behavior with something
that sticks, and that's meaningful.
- Thank you very much.
- OK, great.
Appreciate your coming in tonight.
- Thank you very much.
- Thanks, Jill.
- And we will be taking a position at a future meeting.
- Thank you for letting us come.
- Admire your persistence.
- Look forward to seeing you again.
- Well I'm 84 and I'm still going, so I hope to...
- Keep it up.
We appreciate it.
- Time is a winged chariot at my heels.
(LAUGHTER)
- The industry has been active yet not visible.
My belief is they're using our local -- well,
he actually doesn't live in town --
the owner of our local grocery store to make their case.
The local grocery store now has a big bottled water vending
area with cases of single serve bottled water,
as well as apparently a big poster
on why people are supposed to vote against Article 32,
because it's going to hurt local businesses.
The owner of the store is Jim Crosby.
The name of the store is Crosby's Market.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- Hi I'm Jim Crosby, I own and operate Crosby's Marketplace
in Concord, Mass.
We've been there for 32 years, and we
appreciate your business.
We're a fairly small store, so this is pretty much
our water display.
But I mean, everything that isn't gallons or two and a half
gallons is all single serve.
So basically all of this, all of this, all of that
would be under one liter.
I'm the chair of the Massachusetts Food
Association this year.
I'll retire after this year.
Well, it represents really the entire industry.
And it's a legislative area where
we'll look for things that we have a common desire.
Last year, it was increasing the number of liquor licenses
that were available for food stores from three to five.
This year, the major focus is on eliminating the need
to price every single item in the store.
It's issues like that that I think we all
have a common desire.
I have mixed emotions of even getting involved with this,
but I do think that it's dangerous enough
to try to take a position.
I run a certain amount of personal risk with it.
- Next on our agenda, we have response to the plastic bottle
warrant article.
And Mr. Jim Crosby of Crosby's Market
is here to speak with us.
- Thank you for the opportunity.
Basically, being in the business for 50 years,
I can assure you that this could cause
some really serious damage to the local businesses
in Concord.
Water is a huge category now, and growing tremendously
over the last decade.
It's 30% of the entire beverage category.
And of the water category, 50% is in the single serve water
size under one liter.
People in Concord, as you know, are very active:
They walk, they jog, they are into athletics,
they march in parades.
And the single serve water, obviously,
is the most efficient and most convenient
form for people to hydrate.
I'd ask your consideration in certainly not recommending
this.
- I'm curious, have you been approached
by anybody from the bottle industry on this?
- Well, I am aware of the International Bottle Water
Association, in terms of their concern.
You're dealing with some fairly heavy companies -- Nestle,
Coke, Pepsi, those particular organizations.
But beyond that, I don't really have any knowledge of...
- OK, so you're not speaking for them?
- Oh, absolutely not.
- You're speaking on behalf of Crosby's Market...
- That's right.
- ...and other local merchants.
- Right.
- I find it amazing that Jim Crosby
is inflammatory toward us and we are
so afraid to go back at them.
- Crosby is not the bottled water industry.
- He is now gone to the Board of Selectmen,
he's been on the front page, he's
written a letter to the editor.
- I'm not saying that it's not appalling that he's...
- He's the front man for the industry.
- We can't prove that...
- Why else would he come out...?
- ...well, it is going to be bad for his business.
- Why would he come out in such a formal way?
Perhaps he's getting a lot of pressure from the industry.
I mean, it's a very visible step forward that he's taken.
We never saw him last year.
We never even saw him.
- I'm determined that this bottle ban will pass.
What happens is that once we do that, other towns will
say, "Well, we can do it.
If Concord did it, we can do it too."
And it will spread like a stone in the water,
and the rings going around it.
Thanks so much for having this party, Peggy.
- Well, it's fun to sit on the stone wall
and watch the parade go by.
- Oh I know, and you're so nice to have us here.
- Well, I'm wishing you luck on...
- You know what.
- ...down at Town Meeting.
- Well I wouldn't say that Jean Hill is a typical Concord
resident, but I would say that there's
a long history of individual citizens
who feel strongly about an issue and bringing it forward
to Town Meeting.
And I mentioned last year, the woman
who brought the right to dry clothes on a clothesline.
- (SINGING) The answer my friends is blowing in the wind.
The answer is blowing in the wind.
Take a picture of my flag, the tattered Earth.
My name is Peggy Brace, lived in Concord for about 35 years,
and presented an article at Town Meeting two years ago
on the right to dry clothes.
And it passed with flying colors.
Because this is our own single house, we can dry here.
There's no problem with me drying my clothes here.
But people who live in condos or restricted communities can't.
And it seems horrendous that you're not
allowed to save energy, against the law to save energy.
I mean, in this day and age, it doesn't make too much sense.
So this is for other people who don't have the permission
to hang up.
My grandmother dried laundry, my mother did,
and I just instinctively always hung out the laundry.
I think it takes about a minute and a half
to do a pair of sheets, and about four minutes
for a big huge load, so what are we
doing that we can't take five minutes out of our life
to hang up the laundry?
Here's Betty White from television,
and Jean Hill who's into the bottle bill,
and a sketch of me.
The artist had never seen me and there's no pictures of me
in the paper so I don't know how they knew what I looked like,
but it's kind of nice haircut and a nice blue dress.
This appeared in the Sunday Globe, "Grand Ambitions."
This is somebody who wrote about Concord ladies trying
to change the world.
- Hello?
- Jill?
- Yes?
- Hi, this is Jean Hill calling.
- Hi.
- I know that your position in the past
has been in opposition to my bottle bill.
- It still is.
- And it still is.
Are you aware that the permafrost in the North Pole
has melted?
- And banning water bottles in Concord
is not going to cure it.
- Well it's going to help, because the bottle...
- No, Jean.
We need to do this as a whole world and nation.
- Well, we do have to do it gradually.
- Yeah, but I think doing it in Concord is not my style.
- OK, well that's all right.
I understand.
- Have fun without me.
- OK, happy new year.
- Happy new year.
Bye.
- Asshole.
How do I get the hell out of here?
Eventually I will.
That's life.
And if you want to do something worthwhile
you have to expect rebuttals, and you have to work at it
and have a thick skin.
But my feeling is that I want to be all used up
before I go on to another world where there
are no plastic water bottles.
- I like bottled water and I like having it as an option.
If Jean Hill and her supporters want
to move our town forward and attain sustainability, live
a greener life, they should have figured out a way
to bring us all together in the circle instead of polarizing
and dividing this community.
- Make sure you use your table of contents
to sequence the pages in your binder.
- Can we...
- Get out there and find some leaves.
- Thank you!
- For the first time in history, we're
presented with a new situation happening
in the world's oceans.
There's a new flavor in the food chain
and it's not too appetizing: plastic.
In the ocean, there are rotating ocean currents known as gyres.
But along with these swirling wonders of the sea,
there's a new resident -- trash, trash, and more trash.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the main culprit here.
Yes, it's the largest landfill in the world,
in the middle of the ocean.
And the new meal in town is plastic,
making up 90% of the trash in the ocean.
Most of the debris in the garbage patch is composed
of small plastic pieces suspended in the upper water
column -- difficult to see, even with the human eye.
The plastic breaks down into tiny particles
and then it's consumed by ocean life.
So what does this mean?
Well, let's just say this -- A host of other animals,
including humans, will ingest this trash via the food chain.
So let's remember: just because it's out of sight,
it's not out of mind.
- Oh, and there's an environmental club.
That's great!
- So there was a stigma around using tap water
at the high school, and the hydration station
has really taken that away.
Here's a hydration station outside the main office.
It saved the equivalent of 11,545 bottles of water.
And it's chilled and it's filtered,
and it really changed the way people
drink at the high school.
- "Trash Talk."
Wow, this school is really grooving.
They're on a roll.
- The idea is not to redo what we did last year,
but to have something more focused, more effective,
to get the votes that we need at Town Meeting in April.
- And also it's a year later, so now at least I'll be 18,
and a lot of my friends will be 18 as well.
So we'll have a little more say in it and we can now vote, too.
That was really...
- Oh, that's right.
- ...that was really aggravating because Maggie and I were
so for this Article passing, but we couldn't actually vote.
- You have four of them, and that's
where you spent your money from the grant?
- Mm-hmm.
- Good for you.
(LAUGHTER)
- So you just place your bottle right there...
- And there it goes, automatically.
- OK, and now...
and I can also not only get water from here,
but I can get it from here.
It's delicious.
(LAUGHTER)
Best water I've ever had.
The young people are the ones who
are going to have to think about the future.
They'll have to take over from the older folks
to work for environmental issues and all other things that will
make the world a better place.
- I'm going to go in the front.
Bye, Maggie.
Next year.
- Here we go, off to town hall to vote.
- So why are you registering to vote?
- First because I haven't registered yet,
so I can vote in the primaries and in the bottled water
banning.
That's why we're here, because we're informed citizens.
Oh, there it is.
- "Water quality of Concord Public Works".
OK.
This is the water quality annual report for Concord's water,
I guess.
There are no violations in our water.
We're here to register to vote.
- Would it be too late to switch to Independent
so I can vote tomorrow?
- Please sign here.
- But as of today, you're registered for Town Meeting.
- Thank you so much.
- You're welcome.
Have a good day.
- Good job!
- So now is everyone going to vote for my Article
to ban bottled water?
- Heck, yeah!
- Heck yeah, you are!
- Every Town Meeting has local customs and procedures
that reflect the character and, yes, sometimes the characters
of your community.
- I'm Ed Newman, the moderator from Stow, Massachusetts.
In the next few minutes, we'll learn
about the document used in Town Meeting called the warrant.
- The basic process is that individuals submit articles
for the town warrant, and it's a published document
that is mailed to every household
within the town of Concord.
So the warrant is delivered to every home in Concord
by the end of January, mid-February,
so that people have a chance to engage
in what is it that's coming up at April's Town Meeting.
- Once the warrant article is sent
to every household in Concord, that's when the dice is cast.
- I wanted to start off by showing you
this item that appeared in the Concord Journal last week.
- Oh, good.
- It did?
- And...
yes, yes, "Drink to Your Health",
how water is really important.
- I didn't even see that.
- Well, I'm hoping most people didn't.
- Who wrote the article?
- "To learn more about healthy hydration,
visit www.nestlewaters.com."
- Oh, give me a break.
- Yeah.
- Do you think they did that on purpose because they
knew of the stirrings going on?
- Absolutely.
- I want to see that.
I've been trying to do this for three years.
And I'm not a little old lady...
- We know that.
(LAUGHTER)
- I mean, it was a seven vote difference.
They had 272 votes last year, so the question really comes down
to, can they incite any more kind of response
from this community?
- But it just seems like one of those crazy ideas that's
not going to get very far.
It's too drastic.
I mean, are people gonna line up at a hose with a bucket
and get their daily water supply?
No.
- I just think the way the world is now,
people want bottled water.
A lot of people don't drink... they don't want tap water
to drink.
It hurts businesses because the whole country is like this.
We have bottled water and that's the way it is.
So unless there's a wholesale change in people's ideas about
that -- switching over to glass or some other way to do it --
I mean, it's just going to hurt businesses that this happens
because everything will have to change.
The way of life... it's people's way of life right now.
- My name is Wade Rubenstein.
I'm the owner of Reasons To Be Cheerful, a dessert
cafe in Concord, Massachusetts.
We use town water.
In an ice cream shop, you use a lot of water.
We use water to, obviously, keep everything
cleaned and sanitized.
We also use water to make our sorbet,
so our sorbet uses town water.
We use water for our coffee.
We use a lot of water, yeah.
And we offer water to our customers.
We always have a pitcher or two of filtered tap
water available to our customers at any time.
It exceeds the EPA and state standards.
I live in town and I'm very proud of our water.
- My name's Maggie St. Jean.
I am a senior at Concord-Carlisle High School.
I have been working with Jill Appel and Jean on the bill.
Here you are.
And having the sign outside on a hot day like today,
having free water refills, I mean,
that's fantastic because we have such filtered and delicious
water here in Concord, which is really just a privilege.
I mean, I don't think there's any necessity
for bottled water at all.
- When I was their age, bottled water
wasn't an issue because it didn't exist.
We got water out of the tap, we got water out of the bubbler.
When I say the word "bubbler" to my kids,
they look at me like I'm from Mars.
But we had water fountains.
We had them in school, we had them in public parks,
and that's where we turned to for water
when we were thirsty outside.
- All right.
I'm Debra Stark, and I opened Debra's Natural Gourmet
in 1989.
Well, I was brought up on natural foods
and natural medicine, and truly have never known anything but.
So it's always been my passion.
I was always convinced that if I can convince the world
to eat better or to do things a little differently, that we
wouldn't be in the mess we are with the health care crisis.
So that truly has always been my passion.
So this is all the plastic water bottles we have left.
There's so many restrictions out there
that don't make sense to me, that are supposed be protecting
our health and freedom.
So this is one that I think truly
would protect our health and the future of our planet.
And who knows what else that we don't know about?
That's what worries me.
I don't know what we don't know yet.
Look at all... every year, we find out something that we
didn't know.
Although my mother used to know everything.
(LAUGHTER)
- Next on the agenda is Article 32,
the article on bottled water.
- Excuse me, I don't know if this is appropriate or not.
But Mr. Crosby, of the Crosby Market,
is afraid of losing business and...
- Jean, excuse me just a minute.
We have citizen comments later in the agenda.
Would you like...
- I just want to leave this...
- OK.
- It's for your...
and you can read it.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Jean, would you like to make a citizen comment
before you leave?
- Yes.
Jean Hill, Concord Green.
- Have a seat, Jean.
- Oh, yes.
- So we can hear you better.
- This letter that I've just given to Chris explains a way
that might help... it's to the CEO.
I wrote a letter to the CEO and made some suggestions that
might help them regain lost revenue if the bottle
ban passes, and that was selling reusable bottles
of various sizes.
And that's what my letter says.
- Thank you very much.
Thank you for sharing it with us tonight.
- You're welcome.
- This is the same board that was here last year
and we did not take a position on it,
and I suggest that we not take a position on it again.
Individually, I think we all have strong feelings about it,
but I think it's something that the community has to decide
what they value as a community.
I think the voters have to make a decision.
- Yeah.
I would say that if I wasn't sitting at this table,
I would probably vote for it.
- It's just...
it's a little depressing sometimes
that people don't think of this as a chance
to step forward and be leaders.
And they don't seem to think.
They think that we're going to go on the way we
are right now forever.
And I don't think we are.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- I titled this sermon "Earth to Church: Can I Get a Witness?"
Let's become "Golden Rule" activists
as we move into new behaviors, consuming less, sharing more,
curbing our desire to acquire by expanding our inner world.
And on this new Earth, we must recognize
that future generations are no less our neighbors than those
seated next to us in the pews.
You might think of this as Golden Rule 2.0.
- Please, be seated.
- You know, the...
it's time to start villainizing bottled water.
So I'm Adriana Cohen.
I'd consider myself a good person and a good mother.
That's not all I do is mothering.
I do have a career.
I am a philanthropist, I am politically engaged.
I have a business background, PR and marketing.
I also have a strong fundraising background.
I do a lot of very effective fundraising
for very famous successful politicians, and charities,
and nonprofits.
- This is just a small shot across the bow
of the bottled water industry.
I'm Mary White.
I've been living in this neighborhood in Concord
for 36 years.
My first real activism was in the 1980s.
- Water is a legal product, and I think it's wrong for people
to impose and inflict their own personal political agenda
on the entire community because they're anti-corporation.
- I see this issue as a juxtaposition of two freedoms:
the freedom to buy what we want regardless of the consequences,
or the freedom to choose not to do that in order
to protect the freedom of communities
to control their own natural water resources.
What happens if a water company drains the water in an area?
They simply move on to another area.
- I can't believe someone would be against that.
Corporations -- I don't care who they are --
they're job creators.
They create opportunities for people so that they can live,
they can feed their families.
- One of the major problems with private possession of water
is it leaves Nature high and dry.
Nature cannot defend itself.
- I mean, what's going to happen next year at Town Meeting?
Are residents -- tax paying residents who contribute
so much to the community in so many ways --
going to be ticketed for buying a product these eco-groups
don't like?
I mean, that's not right and it's not American.
- Americans buy enough bottled water in the United States
in one week to circle the globe five times.
40 years ago, this industry barely existed.
And that whole industry, which did not exist 40 years ago,
is now the third largest industry in the world
only behind electricity and oil.
(CHATTER)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- (SINGING) Got the sugar blues.
Oh, the sweet sugar blues...
I love my gal, sweet chickadee.
Cluck on, gal, and cut the blues on me.
I'm going to Heaven, I'm going to bed.
I'm going to lay down tonight.
Now I'm all confused...
- There's still question about whether or not the bottle
itself is a hazard...
- Right.
- ...the chemical compound of the bottle.
- It would be really great if Boston
had more fountains in the same way that Paris does,
if you've ever been to Paris.
- If you're going to take away the bottled water convenience
-- if you're going to walk in the convenience store and grab
a bottle of water because you're thirsty --
you need to provide an alternative.
In America it's about convenience,
so we're very used to being able to go anywhere and grab
what we want.
This town government is trying to accelerate the behavior
by forcing the issue, saying, "You know what, we're not
going to sell it anymore.
You guys are going to change your behavior.
Now."
(APPLAUSE)
- They're all ready for Patriot's Day.
- I think I'm a little nervous that some weird stuff is going
to happen and we're going to have bad luck
and we're going to lose.
And I hope that's not the case because this is definitely
our last chance.
It's not going to happen again next year.
As an activist, I deal with disappointment every day.
You know that.
- I know, I know.
- You absolutely know that.
- I do.
- Yesterday, I didn't get the support...
- Same thing for ministers.
- ...of the League of Women Voters,
and they supported us last year.
My astrological forecast told me that good fortune
was heading my way, but I had to be pushing it.
(LAUGHTER)
So I think I've been able to make
some inroads with some groups.
I tend to be action oriented.
The only way you achieve meaningful change in society
today is to get involved in the political process.
- And you believe that, but how would
you inspire them to join you in that belief?
- How do you open up closed minds?
I mean, really...
- That's not very appreciative of you.
(LAUGHTER)
- I know.
- How do you increase flexibility in tight minds?
- Well I think you work incrementally, OK?
But you push for something more that's
outside of their comfort zone.
So yes, seek first to understand then to be understood.
But the big issue really is sometimes
people just need help to get out of their comfort zones.
- These are all quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
- The final quote over there is Thoreau's.
"Can there be any greater miracle than for an instant
for us to look through each other's eyes?"
- Right.
- And I think that's the essence of this.
There is a water bill to pass.
There is a huge environmental opportunity
in passing that bill.
- Right.
- But there's just as much of an opportunity for Concord
to recognize the diversity within the community,
to be able to look at that issue through someone else's eyes.
There's that tension, being able to stand up
for what you believe in, make room for the other.
And I don't know, there's a miracle
waiting to happen there.
- We are the home of Henry David Thoreau.
He's the original environmentalist.
So he's my favorite environmentalist.
This is a guy who truly loved the environment and nature,
but wasn't profiting off of it.
- I think if Thoreau were alive today,
he would be my number one supporter.
- Amazing fellow, Henry David Thoreau.
- "Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." --
"Walden" by Henry Thoreau.
Hi, I'm Tom Blanding, I'm a local Thoreau scholar
and I've spent my life studying Henry David Thoreau.
He's what I like to call our "philosopher of balance".
And sometimes we think of Thoreau
as being very radical in his thought,
but he's calling for a balance between civilization
and nature.
So if he seems extreme in his position,
it's because we've become so extreme in ours.
He's best known for the work "Walden,"
which describes his two years, two months, and two days
he lived at Walden Pond in a little house
that he built for himself.
Thoreau affected many aspects of world culture
through his writings.
Martin Luther King Junior had said
that Thoreau's ideas are more alive today than ever before.
Mahatma Gandhi said that Thoreau had a great influence
on his movement in India.
I think what appeals to me most about Thoreau --
in broadest terms -- would be his overall worldview,
his view that this world is composed of a universal soul
and nature which expresses that universal soul.
- Well of course, the big thing of his life
was simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
You should your count your projects
in one hand, keep your life very simple,
which of course none of us do nowadays.
Cluttered up.
But it's a nice concept to think about.
(CHATTER)
- You damn rebels.
Disperse!
Disperse, I say!
Damn you, return to your homes!
Are you deaf?
(CROWD ARGUING)
- They poured their generous blood like water
before they knew whether it would
fertilize the land of freedom, or the land of their bondage.
The war for American Independence had begun indeed.
The Regulars will continue their march to Concord,
eight miles west.
At Concord, they will be forced to begin a rapid retreat
as colonial opposition stiffens.
- Fire!
Huzzah!
- OK, right here, right now, I think we're
trying to start a conversation.
To me, if we do this now, if we pass this thing now,
what happens versus if we don't pass it.
And if we don't pass it, nothing is going to happen.
- I'm calling you in support of the local bottled water ban
article that's coming up before Town Meeting.
- Take care, bye-bye.
I think I'm going to die.
- Hi I'm Steve Weezer, I work with the Metrowest Daily News.
This is where we print the Concord Journal.
(RINGING)
- Today's worry is what's coming out in the Concord Journal,
and what's going to hit us.
Because I know there's a bunch of stuff
that will appear in the Concord Journal today.
And I wrote a guest commentary.
I think that's pretty good, but I
know that there are two other guest
commentaries that are opposed to the bottled water bylaw.
And so part of what I have to do is stop myself
from freaking out and saying, oh my god, we're
going to Hell in a hand basket.
- I was going to do "Prohibition is back."
That was going to be my title.
"Capping our freedom.
Prohibition is heavy handed and goes too far.
If you don't like the idea of bottled water, don't buy it.
Enough is enough.
This ban is not an appropriate avenue
for attaining sustainability and infringes on our rights.
When this issue comes to a vote in April,
I hope each resident of Concord will
come show their support for basic civil liberties
and common sense and vote against the ban
on bottled water."
- That's great.
- Thank you.
I've gotten really great feedback on this,
a lot of people.
How Jean Hill wants to do it and Jill Appel,
heavy fisted with the prohibition...
- Right.
- And what my fear is that if Concord passes
this bottled water ban, then there'll
be all these copycat towns.
- If you just logically plod through what
is going to happen as a result and go then into that,
it's like a tree.
You go up the branch, go over here,
and there's going to be... it just...
- All these different...
- You have to look at all the limbs of what's
going to happen as a result of it,
and then see where you are at the top of the tree at the end
of the day.
- Maybe it's OK that Concord is the place where
it gets talked about and the pros and cons
are really laid out there.
So that everybody in the country gets educated.
But if it passes, that is the wrong...
- It is.
- It is the wrong thing.
- ...message.
And it's ineffective.
- I'm quoted everywhere in the media
because people respect my views, and they want to hear from me.
And so I appreciate the media giving me that opportunity
to express my views.
I'm going to be going on CBS again
on Monday to talk about the bottled water
ban and next steps.
- We fight against political correctness
here on Nightside at so many levels.
- The smartest guy on radio.
- And I want to welcome Adriana Cohen, a business executive,
public relations specialist.
And you are the proud mom of three kids.
You don't look like you're old enough to have three kids.
- I'm a lucky lady.
- Wow, you're busy, busy, busy, busy.
We heard about this battle in Concord,
and I quite frankly didn't understand.
I am a huge supporter of extending the bottle bill.
Are you familiar with the bottle bill in Massachusetts?
- Well, yes...
- Yes, it applies...
- But it only has a $0.05 deposit.
And that's not enough.
- Well, you know what, Jean?
You're wrong on that because the recycling of beer bottles
and beer cans and carbonated beverages in Massachusetts
has been a huge success.
And all we have to do is apply that to the...
I'm with you on applying it to water bottles, and sports
drinks, and iced tea, and everything, Jean.
- I can't...
look, I'm 84 years old.
- Right.
- I can't fight the whole bottled industry.
- Well, Jean, I will stand shoulder
to shoulder with you, Jean, and I will be there with you.
I will be there with you.
But to focus just on water bottles, to me,
is discriminatory.
- I agree, it's very short-sighted because what
about all the other dozens and dozens of beverages that are
contained in plastic?
I mean...
- May I say this, Adriana?
I assume this is Adriana.
- Yes, it is.
- And this is Dan.
(LAUGHTER)
- And Dan.
May I say this?
What people drink, what children drink
is determined by parental guidance.
They want their children to be healthy
and they don't want them to drink sugary drinks.
- And you want to take water away from them, Jean.
You want to take water.
- You can...
Concord tap water...
- You want to take water.
You want to take water, the source, the life
spring of the world, away from young children, Jean.
I don't understand this.
- Oh, give me a break.
You don't know what you're talking about.
- I think I do.
You know what we could do maybe, Jean?
We could have you and Adriana back in studio together,
and we could have a whole hour debate.
Would you like to do that?
- I don't want to have anything to do with Adriana.
- Oh, well that's impolite, Jean.
- That's not nice.
- I think...
- That's not nice.
That is not nice.
- Oh, Jean.
- You know,Jean, you can't go around disparaging people,
you know.
- Well, you know what?
Jean, if you don't want to come in and share
the microphone with Adriana, there's
nothing more that I can say.
Unfortunately, the one next thing I have to do
is say goodnight, Jean.
OK?
- All right, good night.
- Have a great night, good night.
If you weren't on Adriana's side before that call,
you have to be now.
We'll be back after this.
- Oh, boy.
I think I really screwed up.
(RADIO PLAYING)
- Nobody has a sense of urgency on this environmental stuff.
You know, the nature of pushing the edge of the envelope
is that is you're invariably disappointed.
This is a perfect way to respond at a community level
to the power of corporations.
Perfect.
They can't f------ get out of their own way.
(CHATTER)
- But this is the big warrant for tonight.
- Yes, let's just focus on this.
- How do you do, Nora?
It's nice to meet you.
- OK, good.
- All right, Jill.
Don't worry.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BELL RINGING)
- Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the third night of Concord Town Meeting.
This is the 376th consecutive year
that the citizens of Concord have
met in the spring for annual Town Meeting.
I see that a quorum is present, and I do so declare.
We have a pre-scheduled item of high interest.
Ms. Hill moves that the town take affirmative action
on Article 32 as printed in the warrant.
- The Board of Selectmen did not reach a consensus regarding
Article 32, and is therefore not making
a recommendation tonight.
Our job is to think about what's best for Concord,
whereas in many ways Article 32 is concerned about what's
best for the world.
Further, if Article 32 passes, there's
a good chance that the town would
be sued on constitutional and other grounds
by organizations representing bottling interests.
In such litigation, it's likely to be...
to make the cost of defense so expensive
that Concord and other towns would be cowed into submission.
Whether we want to enact a ban, and see it
through to its conclusion, depends
on what we value as citizens of Concord.
- Certainly nothing wrong with plastic.
And in my impression, there's nothing wrong with water.
But plastics not going away.
And what we really have to do, I think,
is continue to encourage people to recycle and educate more.
I mean, basically, Concord is the place where it all started,
where freedom is perhaps the most important thing.
I simply hope that those freedoms
would be maintained tonight.
(APPLAUSE)
- As I said before, there's no..
no demonstrations of clapping, or hissing.
Either way, this is a deliberative body and not
a pep rally.
- Mr. Moderator, ladies and gentlemen,
I stand alone, but confident.
I've kept an open mind and I do speak from the heart.
The whole country is watching us now.
Watch out, watch out.
- And I'm a fascist.
- As a lifetime Concord resident,
my husband and I are both strongly
against passing this article.
My strong opposition stems from the lack of a true cost benefit
analysis of the proposed restriction.
I encourage everyone to oppose this well-intentioned
but largely unwise, ill-conceived
and potentially harmful bylaw.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
Ms. Cohen?
- I am against...
- Hi.
I'm against the bottle water ban because it is prohibition.
Perhaps you've forgotten the Declaration of Independence.
I'd like to recite a line from the Declaration of Independence
to you.
"Man has certain unalienable rights
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
When a person no longer has the liberty
to decide for themselves and their children
what products they're going to put in their body
and what products they're going to buy,
we no longer live in a free society.
This reminds me of a country where dictators dictate...
- Oh, come on.
- Please be in order.
- ...to the masses what they're allowed to buy.
I encourage you to think very carefully about your vote
tonight because it infringes upon our freedom.
- If we could go to the cafeteria, please.
- The Declaration of Independence
was referenced tonight.
Clean air and clean water, those are inalienable rights too.
We have to make a stand against this kind of stuff
at some point.
In 15 years, in 20 years, communities
all across the world are going to be
doing what we're proposing to do here tonight,
because it's the right thing to do, it's the only thing to do.
There have been allusions tonight
to the revolutions in Concord.
And those are not out of place, and I know maybe some of us
may have heard that tonight and thought, "Oh, this
isn't as big as the American Revolution",
or "This isn't the Literary Revolution."
But you know what?
We're in the midst of an environmental crisis right now,
and here is a chance to do something about it
right here in Concord.
Thank you.
- Thank you, Mr. Goodman.
And again, please keep your reactions between your ears.
Microphone number two.
- We have a chance here in Concord to send a message that
if our legislatures cannot get the job done,
we can act locally.
We can show the way, set the example, shame the legislators,
maybe provoke them to act.
- Thank you very much.
- In my 11 seconds left...
- Well we've got so many people waiting,
and you had such a powerful wind up.
(LAUGHTER)
If we could go to the cafeteria, please.
- These corporations are drilling
for water that otherwise would be flowing for free.
They're spending a lot of money to tell us how to vote.
Let's not do it their way.
- The spirit of April 19th lives on in this town,
the spirit of creating a new, more rational and more
just world.
Democracy is not just about consumer freedom,
it's about responsible self-governance.
(BELL RINGS)
Perfect!
(LAUGHTER)
- I am a senior at the high school and...
- I...
just to clarify, Mr. Beezey, are you a registered voter?
- I am a registered voter, yes.
- Excellent, thank you.
- And I'd like to remind you guys
that you guys will not see the repercussions
of these carcinogens coming through our children.
They will be through my children and my generation's children.
And so I'd just like you to hand down Concord to us
in a safe, better organized town.
Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- We are in the midst of a major global water shortage.
The industry is gaining control of water resources
at an unprecedented rate.
This article is revolutionary.
But Concord, we have revolution in our genes.
- To be clear -- if you are in favor of the citizen petition,
please rise and hold the ballots up if you would, please.
Thank you.
And all who are opposed, please rise and hold your ballots
high.
- I don't think I can stand it if we lose.
We won't lose.
- It could happen.
- What do you think?
- I think there are a lot of young parents,
young 30-somethings that showed up here who don't want anybody
telling them what they can't buy.
And that they don't care, really,
about what they're leaving their kids.
They care about...
- Convenience.
- They want to choose what's on the shelf.
- Yeah, yeah.
They feel privileged.
- Yeah.
I've lost all my fingernails...
except for that one.
It's just that it's been a bad week.
- Really?
(LAUGHTER)
You've done everything you could.
I've done everything I could.
- Yeah.
- If it loses, at least we fought a good fight.
- Yup.
- And I'll be back next year, if it does lose.
- Well I won't be with you, dear.
I've got to something different next year.
- I know.
- Let's win this year, OK?
- Yeah, I think...
I think that would be the best solution.
(BELL RINGING)
- Could I have your attention please?
In a vote by the moderators in each of the three rooms,
and in some case with two separate counters where
the counters reach the exact same number, Article 32 --
403 Yes', 364 No's -- passes by a margin of 39 votes.
- Yeah!
(APPLAUSE)
- Oh, thank God.
Oh, Jill...
- All right.
Good job, dear.
- Well, listen, I couldn't have...
I wouldn't be here without you.
You know that.
- Well, I wouldn't be here without you, honey.
This is a mutual admiration.
You're the lefty, I'm the righty.
You're the creative idea girl...
- You got the ball rolling...
- ...I'm the practical, get-it-done girl.
- She's the one...
- We're a perfect match.
- I know, we're a team.
- You got the ball rolling, and she grabbed it and ran with it.
- Yeah, that's right.
- Oh my gosh, it's a good thing I had some free time.
(LAUGHTER)
- Well, what are you going to do?
Go to Italy with your boyfriend.
- Oh, all right.
Well, I've got to play golf tomorrow.
And then I've got to bike on Friday.
So those are my next appointments.
- Well, I think you don't get enough exercise.
- Yeah, you think?
I haven't recently.
- Well...
- All right, let's go.
- Well, I have to get disconnected.
- Oh, OK.
- So I'm supposed to...
Cut!
- ...Concord Town Meeting, they voted now to ban plastic water
bottles.
Are you kidding me?
Nope.
Took them three years, but apparently they have convinced
everybody, yes, this is the scourge of the Earth
and it'll be banned -- at least until somebody a little higher
up than the Concord Town Meetings members says "No,
that's absolutely crazy."
Andrea Cohen has been involved in this since day one.
Andrea, good morning.
- Hi, Jeff, how are you?
- I'm doing well, and yourself?
- I'm doing great.
Yeah, actually not doing great because I'm bummed out
that this ridiculous, overreaching bottled water ban
took place in Concord last night.
- "On September 5th, 2012, Concord
became the first community in the nation
to approve a ban on plastic bottles."
We made it to Wikipedia.
(MUSIC PLAYING)