Community

I received a certificate in 1981 from Monterey Grange #291 for “efforts to instill cooperation and positive purpose in our community.” Of course, no one in my Bronx neighborhood belonged to a Grange. None of us made it past the first year of the Cub Scouts. No Little League uniforms for us. We played softball on cement. Most parents worked full-time and many of us were working-class urchins. And while someone’s cousin flew pigeons, we had no cows, horses or even chickens.

Somehow, the long and winding road led me to Monterey, Massachusetts. One of many urban refugees drawn to country communities. Where there was an understandable and palpable tension. Because we were in a sense invaders.

Some locals – the police chief for one – never cared for me. I was his own private hippie nightmare and he took great pleasure in pulling over my aging VW on Route 23. But I slowly began to meet my neighbors. There were many in Monterey looking to bridge the gap between those born there and those who chose to come.

My job then was to start community garden programs and food co-ops for our anti-poverty program, and in Monterey we created an extraordinarily successful pre-order co-op. Every member helped with ordering, food pickup, cheese cutting and dividing sacks of grain. We saved money and learned about each other. About community

I got to know my dear one-of-a-kind Republican friend Millie Walsh. Millie cut hair in her basement, and added a health food store to the family’s gas station/garage. With so many neighbors like the Bodnars and the help of local attorneys Peter Vallianos and Stefan Grotz we began the Monterey Energy Project.

We sponsored workshops on energy conservation, offered energy audits and discounted weatherization. In 1980, we represented the Commonwealth in the first International Energy Conservation Contest. With state aid, the Monterey Fire Company received a grant to make the new firehouse energy efficient. During the contest, the entire town focused on cutting electric use over a long weekend. More than anything it revealed the great power of people working together on a common cause. Firemen, Brownies, locals, second homeowners. We beat all New England towns but lost to a Canadian town.

That effort inspired me to work with Housatonic River Initiative to pressure General Electric to clean up its PCB contamination. HRI brought together a unique coalition of former workers at GE Power Transformer, Pittsfield residents and clean river environmentalists. We got to know and trust each other and together forced GE to remediate hundreds of homes, a children’s playground and the first two miles of the Housatonic. Now we’re fighting to clean the rest of the river.

I’m writing about this now because I’ve been saddened by the side effects of the ban of single use plastic bottles in Great Barrington. A great opportunity to craft a powerful consensus to limit the use of plastic has instead turned neighbor against neighbor. Rather than listen to each other with respect and patience, people argued. Those who had reasons to modify or oppose the ban were often cast as selfish, lazy, less concerned with the health of the Earth.

Town Meeting resembled a Yankees/Red Sox game, with sides seemingly more committed to winning than listening. Honest questions and concerns were met not with considered answers but more speeches. A woman who shared her very personal experience with a mother whose health problems now made the use of small plastic water bottles important, was met not with empathy but more advocacy. Matt Masiero of Guido’s, whose family’s generosity to our community is close to unmatched, wasn’t allowed to speak because he’s not a resident. Each week the Masieros donate a pickup truck of food to Berkshires Bounty, GB’s food pantry, WIC and Senior Center. He deserved so much better. I’m embarrassed by, and apologize for, our lack of civility, not to mention great gratitude.

Years ago, I helped make a short film about Rachel Fletcher’s attempts to promote recycling in Great Barrington, and I was saddened to see plastics recycling totally discounted and declared dead. For the last year we had complete statistics, 5,320 billion pounds of plastic were recycled, resulting in 75,000 plastic recycling jobs out of 757,000 jobs in all of recycling. Billions. Between 20 to 26% of plastic bottles come from recycled plastic. Rather than use China’s refusal to accept our waste to dismiss recycling, we need to remove recycling costs from the profit/loss marketplace and accept them as a societal imperative. We must provide recycling services for every American community.

What if organizers had installed water fountains and refilling stations beforehand. What if they sought to revise their plans with those who were resistant. With patience and compromise. They might have lost a few years but gained a community more ready for change.

Because we sure as hell won’t save the Earth unless we work together.

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“Community” was first published on August 16, 2018 in The Berkshire Record