Recently, my city councilman, Jarrett Smith, introduced a bill to ban plastic bag distribution by businesses in our fair little city. I hardly need to mention the environmental benefits of such a ban and the inevitable opposition by big business (the chemical industry).
What alarms me is that progressive Takoma Park is home to its own little Tea Party: “freedom-loving” libertarians who wish we were more like Alabama. This local Tea Party vigorously opposed a ban passed last year on use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes (which, with leadership from County Councilman George Leventhal [At Large] will soon become law in Montgomery County.) They’re back now to oppose plastic bans in the name of freedom.
Here is an exchange between me and one of the Tea Partiers on the Takoma Park’s main discussion listserv:
From: “James DiLuigi [email protected] [TakomaPark]” <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [TakomaPark] Bans as Takoma Park City Policy
Date: August 2, 2015 at 12:36:37 EDT
To: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>
Catherine [Tunis] makes a point that has concerned me for some time now.
Takoma Park is a community of citizens who accept and care for one another without being foxed to do so by laws.
Most of us have come here by choice and relish the small town and inclusive society we have fostered.
I have become concerned regarding the legislative approach, rather than a voluntary/educational approach, that has been taken on various matters recently.
Let’s stop this management by fiat before it begins to threaten the welcoming society we have worked so hard to create.
James A. DiLuigi, AIA, CSI
Access-Ability Consultants, Inc
++++++++++
From: Keith Berner <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [TakomaPark] Bans as Takoma Park City Policy
Date: August 2, 2015 at 13:22:03 EDT
To: Takoma Park list <[email protected]>
Yes, many Takoma Parkers care about each other without being forced to by law. But can Takoma Parker’s properly care for the environment without laws that restrict environmentally damaging business practices? Let’s go back to the origin of this debate: Councilmember Jarrett Smith’s progressive legislation to ban plastic bag distribution by TkPk businesses. This is hardly an encroachment on residents’ ability to care for each other.
The “nanny state” that dictates and controls all we do is a classic bogeyman of the right. But they’re not all wrong. There are certainly places we don’t want the state to tread (the bedroom, for example, or free speech). But environmental and health protections rarely cross that line. In fact, they are essential for curbing business practices that do not capture “externalities” in market-driven transactions. Your “right” not to wear a seatbelt has an external cost that I pay in the form of higher insurance premiums and health care costs. A “free” plastic bag at checkout has the external cost of polluted waterways, parks, roads, etc. Your right to pack heat threatens my right to be safe from violence.
Further, many or most areas of the country fall too far to the laissez-faire side of the line. Takoma Park and Montgomery County provide much-needed alternatives to the libertarian and pro-big-business ethos that pervades the American body politic. That is, those of you who see our progressive oasis as too infringing on your right to pollute can move almost anywhere and enjoy more of this (in my view) destructive “freedom.”
We don’t need Tea Party-like libertarianism in our community (though, of course, those with these views have every right to express them and to try to elect politicians who share such views). I say: two thumbs up for progressive communitarianism, where society and the planet are sometimes given precedence over individual self-interest.
—Keith Berner
++++++++++
By the way, Mr. Luigi most recently made waves on the listserv by calling for city legislation to be reviewed by a committee of homeowners who have been residents for more than 10 years. The GOP couldn’t come up with a better plan to disenfranchise people of color, immigrants, and those of moderate means.
@2015 Keith Berner
