Three Wishes for Westboro

Westborough is a lovely town, quiet, leafy, conveniently located.  I love it.  And the people are nice.

We feel very safe in Westboro.  To quote a teenager’s chagrin from the Westboro High School, “Nothing ever happens in Westboro”.  I’d like to thank the Town of Westboro and the Westboro Police Department and anyone else who has a hand in making Westboro the lovely and safe suburb that it is.

Though “nothing ever happens in Westboro” and we have a feeling of safety here, one area that is lacking is our health safety.  Not that Westboro is any worse than any other town this way however I would like my town to be resolute on health safety, to be recognized for it and to take an unequivocal stance in doing anything possible to foster a healthier environment.

Three things that would make me deliriously happy would be for our town administrators to implement, at the soonest possible time, the following three wishes I have for Westboro.   I want Westboro to be known not just for its lackluster night life but for its pristine air, pure water and organic soil.  Having Westboro morph into a town like this is really something to dream about!  I wouldn’t mind betting that if we were to embark on such a noble quest, the employment rate would also skyrocket! 

These are my three wishes, in order of importance:

1.       Remove fluoride from our water supply.  IMMEDIATELY. 

This is an extremely important health issue, I can’t stress it enough.  Fluoride is actually a toxic substance.  Don’t rely on hearsay, read at least one article from each side of the debate.  Below I have supplied a website for you to explore as a starting point on your path to knowledge about fluoride, if you’ve never given this issue much thought before.  I will refrain from supplying a link to articles that discuss the opposite case that is the one for fluoridated water, because in my mind, it’s enough to reject the entire atrocity by saying that even if claims of its dental attributes were true, that is no reason to poison everyone’s water supply.  Surely if one has a dental problem or chemical deficiency is it not saner that they be treated individually? 

CDC adjusts fluoride poisoning of America's water supply to a lower level: 

http://www.naturalnews.com/030952_CDC_fluoride.html#ixzz34w3aG4HQ

2.       Mandate that all development in Westboro meet the United States Green Building Council’s LEED standards.  This would cut down on the Town’s energy usage, save the residents a heap (energy is categorized as of one of the highest costs on the ledger).  Homes would be more functional, schools would be places of communal warmth, beauty and health.  I went on a tour recently of the Quinn Middle School in Hudson MA just built in late 2013. It was built to the LEED Platinum Standard.  A light and airy school with bio retention and catch basins that take advantage of designed undulations in the landscape.  Not even a year later, there is not a whiff of toxic vapor throughout the classrooms or the building.  Classrooms have been designed with extra “daylighting” in mind simply by constructing a reflective “shelf” above each window and between the ceiling, in order to reflect and “push” light more deeply into a room.  This provides natural light and saves energy and costs from needing to turn artificial lighting on in the daytime.   We must remember, unless we’re using rapidly renewable sources of energy, any emissions that come from burned fossil fuel goes into the air that we breathe.  It’s even worse for people who live near power plants.  Is it moral that we simply ignore the damage our relatively profligate lifestyles cause to the commons?  Conserving energy is key.  We must learn to treat it like the meter is running on a taxi.  Until we use “guilt-free” and cost-free abundant energy!  Nuclear is unsafe and has the potential to endanger all life on this planet due to the dangerous plutonium by-product.  The USGBC has a chapter in Boston and branches throughout the state.  I am a founding member of the Central Massachusetts group and I am proud to be affiliated with the organization as a whole.  I believe “it’s heart is in the right place” and their rigors impress even me, the one with the hairy eye.  The people are fantastic and are almost all volunteer professionals who are more than happy and eager to impart any knowledge they have.  Really an awesome group!  (I wouldn’t however say that to their face!)  Why I mentioned them is because we have so many resources to help us. What we still need is for all of us to understand how important these new designs are and then agree to have them brought into our town.

3.       Allocate funds to educate students and the residents on health and sustainability issues.  Most of our problems are due to a lack of awareness and the lack of awareness is due to the lack of education!   For example, how many people allow their cars to idle while they chat or pop into the store?  That’s polluting our environment and everyone’s air.  People would be more conscious of waste and we would all “put our heads together” for a common goal, one that will give massive returns on our investments. The most valuable though would be to see our children enjoy the planet the way we did.  It would be nice too if the Town went further in their motivation to be a model health and sustainability town by perhaps courting a sustainability college to bring their campus to Westboro.  Not only will we be more knowledgeable here in sunny Westboro, but we will be able to work near our homes which is a very attractive lifestyle these days as well as low on carbon.

Do you want Westboro to be an “early adopter” of innovative health policies and practices too?  We have an organic farm in Westboro and that’s fabulous!   Whatever we want to do with our lives is dependent on health.  Being healthy is like living with a genie that provides you with many more than three wishes that can come true.   Grey pollution is on the way out and green vitality is on the way in.  I wouldn’t mind betting that should Westboro move towards such innovative policies, it will also have a positive ripple effect elsewhere such as attracting business and residents and on our property values if that’s what one is interested in.  But who’d want to move when they can live in a town with all these attributes?