Guest Editorial / Jim Backus

Choice To Reuse appears to have alliances; Ms. (Connie) Melvin, chairman Darien Environmental Group, in a letter last week, seemed to be sending a message of either you agree with the plastic bag ban or there is something wrong in how you view things.

Again the argument is somehow Darien is intertwined into the problems of the world and therefore is to blame in part for the 6 billion bags the rest of the world has willfully dumped into the environment. Ms. Melvin is mad at us. Maybe Darien should sue NOAA and really bring the matter to the nation's attention. "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," so to speak. Maybe we could establish the Farragut Center for Environmental Responsibility.

I'm only concerned that the ferocity of the people to ban plastic bags can be used to begin a subculture of banning in Darien, for reasons more immediate and local than 6 billion plastic bags in the world. For instance, let's consider banning backpacks for school children. I'm not against backpacks, but having been a combat-trained Marine, I know how to properly fit a backpack and our children are not wearing them correctly. Back pain will be prevalent years from now. So let's ban backpacks for the sake of our children and their parents for they know not what they do.

And let's consider banning ice cream to overweight children. I realize it's the parents' responsibility to care for their child's health, but taking the Choice To Reuse assumption that unless we ban what the public cannot be trusted to do, does Darien have a responsibility to ban ice cream? French fries could be next, then burgers and well, a lot of things.

Some women like to jog while they push their babies in a carriage. There is a strap to stop the carriage should the woman fall, but can we risk the possibility of injury to the child? As a concerned citizenry the answer may be no, we cannot. So ban this activity. It takes a village to raise a child, so doesn't this give us moral authority to act on behalf of and for the safety of the child?

How about banning non-commuters from driving during morning and evening rush hours? After all, retired people such as me can conduct our business during the day and make the roads less crowded for those commuting. It's your right (actually your privilege) to drive whenever you want, but if you don't commute and can't be considerate by being off the road during rush hour then why not ban you off?

There are more bans that Darien can undertake and possibly export to other communities. Darien is "Big Brother." Like the Choose To Reuse ban, none of these bans will excite all, but by innuendo, misstatement of facts or direct guilt pressure, Darien might just become the most politically and socially conscious town in America. Of course it will be at the risk of losing the very reason for living here -- being free to do what's responsibly right on your terms.

As to Ms. Melvin's question of how dare we not support the ban the bag issue, I simply don't see it as a problem in Darien. Supporting the ban is politically correct, it is great if you want to feel warm or be a lemming, but the argument presented by Choose To Reuse is about the world, not Darien. Following for the sake of being a part of something, of conforming and or belonging, can lead to unwanted, politically defined and enforced consequences.