To the Editors:
I am opposed to the plan to install artificial turf on any town-owned property, and particularly one intended for the use of children. While no one may be sure, one way or the other, what effect fake turf made of ground-up used tires may have on the young human body, it’s ironic that the rich now jostle to buy for their kids the very same level of environmental experience poor kids have always enjoyed in the endless hours they spend playing with trash around the town dump.
It surprises me that people who came here to protect their kids from such experiences are quietly watching this foolishness unfold without raising their voices to protect their young.
Having kids play on toxic trash aside, I find the idea of a small group of cash-fisted people buying their way into the decision-making process offensive and undermining of good old New England-style democracy. What’s at stake is not only health but the fabric of our social structure. As a town I say we buy only what we can afford and let the rich jaspers off to private schools where they can endow their wiles to their hearts’ content.
Harangued with the oft’ repeated phrase that our playing fields are made of grass of poor quality, we are tempted to hang our heads whereby we lose sight of what this is all about. These are children, not a team of genetically selected future Olympians; as parents we need be very careful imposing our unfulfilled dreams on them. Draping them in the trappings of professional athletes is ill-advised and possibly even more toxic than any pile of recycled trash could ever be.
Joe Bruno
Ivy Lane, June 27