CONCORD JOURNAL Thursday, January 22, 2015...

B4 Thursday, January 22, 2015CONCORD JOURNAL

Letters should not exceed 300 words. DEADLINE is noon Monday for consideration for the same week’s edition. SEND letters to [email protected]; FAX to 781-371-5711; MAIL to P.O. Box 9191, Concord, MA 01742.

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Photo of the WeekKristina and Bill Joyce are pictured in front of a Viking ship model and a window overlook-ing snowy Reykjavik, Iceland where they cel-ebrated their 47th wedding anniver-sary and a fireworks-filled New Year’s Eve (with The Concord Jour-nal, of course). If you have a photo you would like to submit for con-sideration as the Photo of the Week, email it with a caption to concord.wickedlo-cal.com or call 978-371-5742 for more informa-tion. COURTESY PHOTO

A salute to Crosby’s market

Many thanks to Crosby’s Supermarket for discon-tinuing the use of plastic bags for purchases at the check-out counter. As you know, Crosby’s has had a plastic bag collection center for a number of years, which gave citizens a way to recycle their bags, but stopping use entirely is much more e! ective.

When you receive the warrant for this year’s Town Meeting, you’ll see that there is a citizen peti-tion on the use of plastic bags; however, Crosby’s was ahead of the game in halting their use in December. I hope other Concord citizens will thank them for taking the initiative to keep plastic out of the waste stream.

— Nancy Cronin, Garfi eld Road

Thanks for the treesThank you for sup-

porting the Concord Boy Scouts and Holy Family Parish Youth Group through your participation in the Christmas tree recy-cling program and kind donations.

You may have seen many scouts and parish families traveling through town Jan. 10 stopping tra" c to pick up trees, or seen groups and trucks at the recycle facility. This year, we picked up about 500 trees in Concord through the e! orts of over 80 volunteers from the scouts and parish.

Some kind volunteers donated their time who do not have scouts nor youth in the youth group but vol-unteered to help. This was a great community event that brought many people together. Through your support, both the scouts and parish benefi t.

The funds go to support the Concord Scout House, Boy Scout events and the Holy Family Parish Youth Summer Service project. This event is the primary fundraiser for both groups and very important to keeping these programs going. Thank you for sign-ing up and your support.

So next year, if you are looking to get a tree recycled, just call or email us and we will be glad to save you the trip and all those pine needles in your car!

— Bill Duggan, Upland Road

Chayes to speak on government

I would like to alert every-one who is concerned about the power of corruption in undermining governments, that Sarah Chayes is return-ing to Concord after a hiatus of several years to discuss

the impact of corruption on international security.

A dynamic speaker, she was interviewed on NPR this past week, while her book on this topic, “Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security” was featured in the Jan. 19 issue of the New Yorker. Having lived for more than 10 years in Afghanistan, she became a special assistant to Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of sta! .

More recently, she has been conducting research in Arab Spring countries, Nigeria and other hot spots, and is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

She will be speaking at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 in the Parish Hall of the First Parish in Concord. There is no admission charge and thepublic is welcome.

— Catherine Parmelee, King Lane

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

F ive years ago yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court

issued a decision that did more to dilute the power of your vote than any action in memory.

Last week, local legisla-tors took an important step toward undoing the harm wrought by that decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

We hope you will join us in saluting State Rep. Cory Atkins, D-Concord, and Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, for introduc-ing to the Massachusetts House and Senate the We the People Act – and that you will join them in pushing for its passage. Sen. Michael Bar-rett, D-Lexington, and Rep. Thomas Stanley, D-Waltham, are also to be thanked for their strong support of the bill.

The measure recom-mends an antidote to the Citizens United decision, which held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting expenditures by corporations and other associations for such purposes as politi-cal advertising (though direct contributions to a candidate by a corpora-tion remain illegal). In essence, it says corpora-tions should be treated as people with regard to political advocacy – with the result that monied special interest groups and out-of-state power mongers can spend with abandon to infl uence or even throw elections and to dictate legislative priorities.

And spend, they have.Two recently released

reports detail some of the outlay.

One study, done by Common Cause, notes that Walmart and the U.S. Chamber of Com-merce spent $14.8 million and $35 mil-lion respectively in 2014 advocating against rais-ing the minimum wage, though the vast majority of Americans supported a national increase. The NRA spent more than $31.4 million in the last election cycle fi ghting gun control reforms supported by most of the

nation.Another study, co-

authored by MassPIRG (Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group) and Demos, highlighted the role of big money in the most recent federal elections. Though corpo-rations are banned from making direct contribu-tions to candidates, they can sponsor political ads that infl uence the fl ow of donations. The MassPIRG study found that candidates for the U.S. House must raise approximately $1,800 a day for two years prior to Election Day in order to match the fundrais-ing of the median House winner in the 2014 elec-tions. Candidates for the U.S. Senate must raise $3,300 every day for the length of a six-year Senate term to match the 2014 median winner.

As the authors of the We the People Act note, one man (or woman) no longer equals one vote. It’s more like one dollar equals one vote.

So what’s the redress?Under our cherished

system of checks and balances, a constitutional amendment is about the only thing that trumps a Supreme Court decision, and there are only two avenues for advancing such amendments. A sug-gested amendment may be adopted and sent to the states for ratifi cation by either a two-thirds majority vote of both houses of Congress, or via a national conven-tion, known as an Article V Convention, called by Congress on the applica-tion of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states.

The We the People Act introduced by Atkins and Eldridge covers both bases. It calls on Congress to write an amendment to the U.S. Constitution a" rming that Constitutional rights belong to humans only, not artifi cial entities, and that Congress and the states may place limits on political contribu-tions and spending. It also calls for an Article V Constitutional Con-vention if Congress has not proposed such an

EDITORIAL

Stepping up for ‘the people’

Bout seeks regional seat

I’m excited to announce my intention to run for the Concord Public and Concord-Carlisle Regional School Committees.

As a Concord resident for 7 ! years and a mother of three children currently at Willard, I love this commu-nity for many reasons, led in large part by the incred-ible school system and the truly extraordinary sense of community. As a parent, a coach, a Girl Scout leader, and a regular classroom volunteer, I feel passion-ate about inspiring our children.

We’re fortunate in Con-cord to have a community that is united in its desire to maintain a world-class school system. We now need to coalesce our various strategies to move forward together towards that goal. I will help to enable that.

This is a critical time in the life of our schools.

We’re eager to reap the benefi ts of a state-of-the-art new high school building, while we’re also facing divergent views on how best to address challenges such as 1) continuing to improve teacher morale; 2) balanc-ing capital, operational and curriculum-driven budget needs with a grow-ing tax burden; and 3) ensuring the long-term sustainability of our school system along with a col-laborative environment for discussion.

I will take a results-driven approach to facing these challenges. I have a proven track record of uniting diverse parties towards a common goal in both the corporate and the educational worlds.

In business develop-ment at eBay, I facilitated agreement between varied interests to structure fi nan-cially sound and lucrative partnerships. More recently, as Board Chair of the Concord Children’s

Center, I led an engaged Board in overseeing an organization successfully fostering an environment of productive collaboration.

I look forward to talk-ing with many residents over the next several months and hope that you will entrust me with this important mission.

Here’s to moving forward together.

— Heather Shafner Bout, Alden Road

Gurall White lists priorities

I have been a Concord resident for the greater part of 35 years. I have a seventh-grade daughter at Peabody School, fi fth-grade son and soon-to-be kindergarten-aged daughter. My older kids attended Thoreau School and we will begin another six years in the fall. I am running for School Committee as a Concord citizen who is passionate about education and the

town in which we live.I was raised in Con-

cord and attended Alcott Elementary School and Sanborn Middle School. I have a B.S. in Psychol-ogy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Arts in Education with a specialty in School Psychology from Tufts University.

I counseled and taught techniques to optimize learning to elementary and middle school students with emotional and behav-ioral needs. I returned to Concord nine years ago, driven by the excellence in our public schools and the open, honest feel of Con-cord. I work as a Realtor at Coldwell Banker ResidentialBrokerage in Concord.

At Thoreau, my chil-dren received a top-notch education and experienced excellent educators. I was involved in the classrooms as a room parent and served for two years on the School

CANDIDATE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bout, White to run for school committee

SEE EDITORIAL, B5

SEE ANNOUNCEMENTS, B5

Thursday, January 22, 2015 B5CONCORD JOURNAL

Advisory Council, fi rst with Rob Coluntano as principal and then with Kelly Clough. It is essential for the Thoreau com-munity that the school administration hire and retain a principal who is both a great leader and communicator.Next fall, we will have a high school facil-ity that fi ts our town’s

needs. This is exciting, though there will be new challenges. I am ready to serve our commu-nity with other School Committee members to guide our adminis-

tration’s decisions and represent the concerns of all citizens. The goal for School Committee, school administrators, parents, and tax-payers is one: The best educa-tional outcome for each and every student.

—Abby Gurall White, Annursnac Hill Road

amendment within six months of passage of the act.

To be sure, no grass-roots drives for an Article V convention have ever succeeded, though history shows they sometimes push a reluctant Congress to take action on its own.

But now may be the time.

Already California, Vermont and Illinois have called for a convention

for this purpose, and the demand seems to be growing. In Massachu-setts alone, more than half the state’s cities and towns have passed ballot measures calling for similar actions, with the question passing every-where it appeared on the ballot. Nationwide, poll after poll has found the majority of Americans opposed Citizens United.

We’re proud our legisla-tors are helping lead the charge.

It’s time “the people” were heard.

EDITORIALFrom Page B4

fl icks at Fowler, “Every-thing is Illuminated.” Everything is free and open to the public.

Holy Family ParishCircle of Friends held its

fi rst meeting last Tuesday, Jan. 13.

A volunteer apprecia-tion event at Holy Family Parish is from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, held at the lower level of the church.

If you have volunteered in any way, you are being honored.

Rotary Club of Concord

Leslie Wilson, Concord’s town archivist and the curator of Special Col-lection at the Concord Free Library, was a recent speaker; she spoke on the relationship between President Abraham Lin-coln and the citizens of

Concord.The library is hosting

an exhibition titled, “This Man Grew According to the Need,” a quote from Emerson about Lincoln.

New member is Jean Goldsberry, the new exec-utive director of Minute Man ARC. Welcome!

Dining Out is Jan. 15 at the Lotus Blossom in Sudbury.

Bridge will be played at Fran Daly’s house, 17 Devon Drive, Acton. Call Fran at 978-263-7548 for directions and to let her know if you will be coming.

Open Table will be on Jan. 29. Polly Murray held the book group meeting recently on Jan. 8. The group read “Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes.

—Dot Higgins, a longtime resident of West Concord, writes a weekly column for The Journal on people and events from her favorite part of town. She can be reached at [email protected]. Photos are welcome.

HIGGINSFrom Page A6

Provided by MASSPIRGA new report document-

ing the dominance of big money in the November 2014 Congressional elec-tions was released by a host of public interest organiza-tions calling for reform.

The authors of the report, MASSPIRG and Demos, were joined by state Rep. Cory Atkins, D-Concord, and several other organizations, on the steps of Ashburton Place, the building where candidates file papers to run for office. The new study, “The Money Chase: Moving from Big Money Dominance in the 2014 Midterms to a Small Donor Democracy,” found that the top two vote-getters in the 25 most competitive dis-tricts around the country in 2014 got 86 percent of their campaign dollars from individuals giving $200 or more. Only two of the 50 candidates surveyed raised less than 70 percent of their individual contri-butions from big donors, and seven relied on big donors for more than 95 percent of their individual contributions.

“We are standing out in the cold today as a symbol: because as citizens and voters, we are standing out in the cold. All too often, a small handful of deep-pocketed donors gets to determine who runs for office, what issues make it onto the agenda, and too frequently, who wins,” said Janet Domenitz, MASSPIRG’s executive director. “Since most of

us can’t afford to cut a thousand dollar check to candidates for elected o! ce, we need to counter the outsized influence of mega-donors by amplifying the voices of small donors.”

“In 2014 big money called the tune in a system where the size of your wallet determines the strength of your voice and candidates without large donor net-works find it impossible to keep up,” said Demos Policy Analyst and report co-author Karen Shanton. “But it doesn’t have to be this way. Matching small contributions with limited public funds can raise all of our voices and help candi-dates win by reaching out to average voters, not just big donors.”

The report analyzed the U.S. House races in the 25 most competitive districts according to Cook Politi-cal Report PVI ratings. The data reveals that the 50 candidates in these races overwhelmingly relied on large contributions to bankroll their campaigns.

Other key findings include that candidates for the House must raise approximately $1,800 a day for two years prior to Election Day in order to match the fundraising of the median House winner in the 2014 elections. Can-didates for the U.S. Senate must raise $3,300 every day for the length of a six-year Senate term to match the 2014 median winner.

The study also explains how this big money system fi lters out qualifi ed, credible

candidates from both par-ties who lack access to a network of large donors. Four candidates, who relied more on small donors but were signifi cantly out-fun-draised, are profi led in the report.

A s A m a n d a R e n -t e r i a — o n e o f t h e candidates profiled who lost in California’s 21st district — explains, “given my network, where I come from, where I’m running, I expected that I wasn’t going to have huge donors. You have to ask folks for help that have been in your net-work and that understand where you’re running and why it’s important. That for me ended up being a small donor base.”

The report advocates for a federal program laid out in the Government by the People Act that would match small contributions with limited public funds, allowing grassroots can-didates relying on small

donors to compete with big money candidates. This type of program has already proven e" ective in New York City’s 2013 City Council race. Once match-ing funds are factored in, candidates participating in the program raised more than 60 percent of their funds from small donors.

If a small donor match-ing program were in place for the candidates profi led in the report, one of them would have significantly out-raised her opponent, and the others would have narrowed the fundraising gap by an average of nearly 40 percentage points.

“When campaigns are paid for by big donors, those are the voices candi-dates hear the loudest. In a democracy based on the principle of one person, one vote, small donors should be at the center of campaign finance — not an afterthought,” said Domenitz.

GUEST COMMENTARY

Study fi nds generous donors in 2014 congressional races

Janet Domenitz, MASSPIRG’s executive director, with supporters as they talk about large donations on campaigns and reform. COURTESY PHOTO

By John Cook

R eal food was the topic of the month for CRAM, the

Concord association of retired men. Local resi-dent Jim Canty and his wife Kristin will shortly be opening Woods Hill Table, a real food dining venue in West Concord. CRAM invited Jim to come and tell us about it. The story isn’t a simple one. It involves a lot of time, a lot of hard work and no small amount of money.

The Cantys have four children, one of whom was beset with mul-tiple allergies which were having a profound e" ect on his early development. So Kristin made it her business to seek out food products that would help, not hinder his condition. She learned a lot. Enough to help fi nd a path for her son through foods without chemical additives. Raw milk helped a great deal and slowly but surely, the changes made to her son’s diet restored the Canty youngster to full health. Kristin learned so much, and came to care so much, about the subject that she went on to produce and direct a highly acclaimed full-length documentary on the subject entitled “Farmageddon.” Not satis-fi ed with that, she and Jim decided to share what they know about real food by opening a restaurant to sell delicious and real food in Concord.

Almost two years ago, the Cantys purchased the West Concord Super Market building from the Mandrioli family, who had run the market for three generations. Because they wanted to be assured that the meat and veg-etables that they sell in the restaurant meet their quality standards, the Cantys then bought a 250 acre farm near Bath, New Hampshire, a farm most recently owned by mid-1900s pop singer Patti Page, and much earlier by the Woods family when it was known as Woods Hill Farm. They then hired a young couple to manage it, and the beef and pork and chicken will be ready when the restaurant needs it. The food for the critters is all natural; most of it has all been grown, or is grow-ing, on the farm. Most of the restaurant vegetables that can’t be grown on the farm will come from local farms.

In keeping with the

owner’s values, they will make every e" ort for their restaurant to be a zero waste establishment. Waste that can’t be recy-cled locally will go back to the farm in the truck. Unconsumed vegetable matter will be compost for the farm fi elds, and the meat will be enjoyed by the hogs.

It has taken longer than they expected to get everything in place to open the restaurant, but the Cantys have few com-plaints. The town boards and committees they have worked with have been diligently working on behalf of the citizens, and all compliance issues have been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. With a plan put in place for the space with the aid of a top-notch New York restaurant consultant, the building interior has been completely rebuilt, and the hammers and saws and paintbrushes are about to be retired. From the outside, the building will look much like it has for its many years as a market. Some time ago a General Manager and an Executive Chef, both with impressive credentials in the world of fi ne dining, were hired. Now the fi nal sta" hiring is underway, and the res-taurant should be open by mid-February.

The restaurant will have 150 seats, a raw bar, a full liquor license and bar, a fi replace, and an outdoor patio for summer seat-ing. The Cantys have also secured an entertainment permit, and expect to try out the idea of low-key entertainment from 9 to 11 p.m. There will be a broad range of prices available, says Canty. In the imme-diate future Woods Hill Table will be open Tues-day through Saturday for dinner, and Sundays for brunch, with the expecta-tion that additional lunch days will be added. The proof, it is said, is in the pudding. And the gents at CRAM are looking for-ward to it.

Even before Jim Canty took the fl oor the group received the good news that the Concord Friends of the Aging had bestowed on CRAM a grant for the funds to purchase a Power Point projector and a large screen, which have been sorely needed. Thanks go out to the Friends.

—John Cook is the scribe for CRAM.

CRAM

Behind the Woods Hill Table story

I n the mid-1900s the Sentry Insurance building (diago-

nally across from the Inn and next door to the Town Hall) hosted the Courthouse. When the “September Court” was in session, the scene presented a colorful pag-eantry (hullabaloo).

The court o! cials, adorned in their color-ful, fl owing gowns and bearing the insignia of o! ce, would parade around Monument Square – including into the adjacent taverns that did a “brisk” business. Those less o! cious frequented the row of booths or board shanties, cobbled together

around the square for the dispensing of brews of lesser choice: rum, gin, brandy, wine or its imitation, beer strong and weak.

Carrying on around Monument Square, we come to Concord’s Town Hall, a stately stone edifi ce that houses not only the town’s a" airs but one magnifi cent

painting, “Memories of Antietam,” which encom-passes nearly the entire main wall of the upper chamber, drawing the viewer into the midst of the aged warriors’ erst-while deliberations.

The creator of this Civil War masterpiece was a certain Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, who resided here in Concord from roughly the turn of the 19th Century through its fi rst three decades of the 20th. The painting is worth a good glance on a number of accounts, including the depiction, itself. It serves as the best record of that fate-ful period in our town’s

history. Of Concord’s roughly 2,400 citizens at the time, more than 400 fought in the war, 49 of whom o" ered up their lives – the highest percent-age bestowed by the fl ower of Concord’s youth in any martial engagement.

Ms. Roberts’ gifts to the town were many, including the Concord Art Association itself, which we will soon peek into.

—Stuart Weeks is a Con-cord native and founder and director of the Center for American Studies. Feedback welcome, both yeas and nays, via email at [email protected].

UNCOMMON SENSE

Concord: A veritable treasure hunt, Site 19

STUART SINCLAIR WEEKS

Concord’s 2015 Town Caucus will be held on Monday, Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the Town House in Monument Square. In the event of snow, the Caucus will be held on the following evening, Jan. 27, at the same time and place (call 978-318-3080 to confirm snow cancellation). The pur-pose of the Caucus is to nominate candidates for each office to be filled at the Town Election on

March 31, 2015.The Caucus can nomi-

nate up to two individuals for each position open-ing, and these names will automatically be placed on the ballot. The offices to be filled this year are:

■ One Town Moderator – one-year term

■ Two Members of the Board of Selectmen – three-year terms

■ Two Members of the School Committee – three-year terms

■ One Member Con-cord Housing Authority – three-year term (to fill an unexpired term)

All registered voters are eligible to attend and participate in the Caucus. For voter registration information, contact the Town Clerk’s Office.

Anyone who is not nom-inated at the Caucus who wishes to run for office may do so by taking out nomination papers at the Town Clerk’s Office.

Signatures of 50 reg-istered Concord voters are needed to qualify for placement on the ballot. Candidates should gather additional signatures to assure that 50 valid signa-tures are submitted. The deadline for submitting nomination papers to the Board of Registrars for certification is Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 5:00 pm. For further informa-tion, call the Town Clerk’s Office at 978-318-3080.

ELECTION

Town Caucus to be held January 26

ANNOUNCE-MENTSFrom Page B4

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B6 Thursday, December 10, 2015CONCORD JOURNAL


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Kathie Ragsdale Editor978-371-5742 or [email protected] Tobey Sports Editor978-371-5741 or [email protected] Calder Retail Multi-Media Specialist978-371-5723 or [email protected] Ryan Real Estate Multi-Media Specialist978-371-5716 or [email protected] Pelland Automotive Multi-Media Specialist508-626-4334 or [email protected]



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I n just over a month, on Jan. 19, civic-minded Concord

residents will gather at the Town House to nominate candidates for the town election on March 1, 2016.

Six o! ces are to be fi lled: the town moderator for a one-year term; two members of the board of selectmen for three-year terms; two members of the school committee for three-year terms; and one member of the Concord Housing Authority for a fi ve-year term.

As of press time, only two people had announced they intended to run.

We think it’s time for some town residents – par-ticularly those who have been critical of current and past o! ce-holders – to step to the plate.

Let there be no mis-understanding. Holding public o! ce in Concord, especially on the town and regional school committees, is no small commitment. It requires countless vol-unteer hours, continual research, endless scrutiny, Job-like patience and com-plete dedication – often for no more reward than the belief you are serving some-thing larger than yourself.

We can think of noth-ing more wearying – or rewarding.

That is why we salute the two candidates who have stepped forward to seek election or reelec-tion – Alice Kaufman for Select Board and Carmin Reiss for town moderator.

And why we hope that school committee mem-bers Kathi Snook and Johanna Boynton, who had not decided as of Tuesday night whether

they would seek reelection, choose to do so. While we have not agreed with every decision they have made, they have brought to the committee a positivity and a “can do” approach that has been welcome after years of turmoil in the school department.

And it is why we hope that those who disagree with their decisions – or with those of any o! ce-holders in town – also step forward.

Public meeting after public meeting in Concord is fi lled with residents complaining about deci-sions their public servants have made. Often the com-plainers are people with impressive backgrounds and credentials who come armed with documenta-tion, which must have taken hours to prepare, to buttress their cases. Often we have agreed with their points of view.

But why not bring all that expertise to the other side of the table? Why not take on the responsibili-ties of those they so often criticize to see if they can do the job better? Why not act instead of react?

Residents have until 5 p.m. Jan. 12 to take out nomination papers from the town clerk’s o! ce, have them signed by at least 50 registered voters and fi le them with the town clerk. (They can also be nomi-nated at the town caucus.)

We hope to see many names, of both incumbents and non-incumbents, among those who fi le.

Concord’s voters deserve to be proud of their choices.

Concord’s candidates deserve to be proud of themselves.

OUR VIEW

Time to step to the plate

The Concord Journal wel-comes letters to the editor from Concord and Carlisle residents.

■ Submissions are lim-ited to 300 words; letters exceeding the 300-word limit will be returned to the writer for shortening.

■ Readers may submit one letter every calendar month to be considered for publication.

■ All letters submitted

must include the author’s street, which will be published with the name of the author.

■ The deadline for letters is noon Monday for publica-tion in that week’s edition.

MAIL Editor, The Concord Journal, 150 Baker Ave. Ext., P.O. Box 9191, Con-cord, MA 01742FAX 978-371-5711EMAIL [email protected]

LETTERS POLICY

The Concord Historical Collaborative coordinates e! orts and activities in Concord to present its rich history through diverse educational opportunities and fosters an appre-ciation and stewardship for Concord’s historical resources.

By Kathi Anderson

T horeau wrote that he was born “in the very nick of

time” and “into the most estimable place in all the world” — a time when the anti-slavery movement was gaining momentum and when Transcenden-talism was taking root in Concord. He was at once philosopher and naturalist; abolitionist and teacher; scientist and moralist; poet and surveyor; pencil maker and author. It is perhaps the many “lives”

of Thoreau, both individu-ally and collectively, that beckon such a diversity of people to read his writings and to visit the land that inspired him.

As we approach the 200th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau’s birth in 2017, we celebrate this son of Concord for his funda-mental contributions to the town’s rich historical fabric. Though hardly unfamiliar to the people of Concord, his life, legacy and relevance to the 21st century have resonated around the globe.

Not surprisingly, Thoreau enjoys greater national and international popularity today than ever before. “Walden”has been translated into 21 languages, including a translation into Persian recently completed by a scholar from Iran who believes that Thoreau’s writings will help bridge

cultural disparities. Here, in the United

States, Thoreau’s Journals o" er important scientifi c data about the impacts of climate change.

Thoreau’s call to set aside land for conserva-tion (“each town should have a park... a common possession forever, for instruction and rec-reation”) formed the foundation on which the

U.S. national park system was built, a system which, in turn, stimulated move-ments in many other countries around the world to set aside land for national parks. Likewise, Thoreau’s call for the pres-ervation of Walden Woods was the precursor of virtually all contemporary conservation initiatives.

HISTORICAL COLLABORATIVE

Keeping Thoreau’s legacy alive in the 21st century

Walden Pond. COURTESY PHOTO / KATHI ANDERSON

People helping peopleAgain our youth com-

munity has reached out to deliver buckets of sand to 25 of our senior citizens. They all say they had a wonderful time . The Con-cord community thanks these little elves for deliv-ering these special gifts and to First Parish Church in Concord for helping make this happen.

Thank You so much “Neighboring Activists” and Leslie Pelton for coming forward to help in this especially satisfying way.

Carol DromgooleVolunteer coordinator, Con-cord Council on Aging

No more dairy for me

There was a time when I would have enjoyed attend-ing the Crucolo Cheese Parade. I loved cheese and enjoyed sampling artisanal cheeses. Although I had toured several cheese-mak-ing operations, I had never focused on the beginning of the process — where the milk comes from.

In 2004, I visited two small dairy farms in Ver-mont. These farms would be considered ideal in terms of the treatment of the cows. The cows graze outdoors and have a clean barn. It was on this trip, however, that I discovered aspects of dairying that upset me. A calf is taken from her mother right

after birth and is bottle-fed so her mother’s milk can be reserved for human consumption. Male calves are slaughtered for veal because they are not useful in a dairy operation. Cows sometimes accidentally tear their udders irrepara-bly because they have been bred to have extra large udders for increased milk production.

Most of our dairy products are produced in factory farms that bare no resemblance to the pastoral farms I visited in Vermont. Even a small Amish dairy in Maryland I visited housed its cows in a warehouse-style shed with a concrete fl oor. The dairy owner told me that these cows never grazed outside in their lifetimes.

Already a vegetarian, my trip to Vermont was a last attempt to fi nd a perfect dairy where the cows lived a happy life. I learned instead that there is no such thing. Cows and calves both su" er extreme anxiety and fear when they are separated. Cows are repeatedly artifi cially inseminated so that they become pregnant to keep producing milk. We are using these gentle animals as machines to produce our milk, cheese and ice cream.

After my Vermont trip, I stopped eating dairy products.

Lyell SladeOrchard Road

Join us at CCHS dedication

I am excited to invite our communities to the dedication ceremony for the new CCHS on Dec. 12 at 1 p.m.

We owe gratitude to so many who are passion-ate about ensuring our students, teachers and sta" are provided with a high performance facility that promotes educational excellence.

Thank you to the residents who have made supporting public educa-tion a top priority; current and past members of the School Committees and to the volunteers on the many feasibility studies, master plans, and to all who worked on the build-ing project campaign. The members of the Building Committee have spent countless volunteer hours and delivered on their promise to keep this on scope, schedule and within the budget. Chair of the Building Commit-tee, Stan Durlacher, and Chair of the Building Finance Subcommittee, Louis Salemy, lived this project for fi ve years and without their leader-ship, expertise, drive and unwavering commitment, the project would not have been successful.

Thanks to project team members Michael Rosen-feld, Lisa Pecora-Ryan and OMR for creating the vision, for Jim Liddick,

Jamie Meiser and Turner Construction for build-ing that vision, and Brian Dakin and KVA Boston for their project management.

Thanks to the State Treasurer and the Mas-sachusetts School Building Authority, to Sen. Michael Barrett and Rep. Cory Atkins, to Town Manager Chris Whelan and his professional team as well as the regulatory boards and commissions, the Finance Committee, the Natural Resources Com-mission and the Planning Board, the Concord Police and Fire Departments, the Public Works Department, Building Commissioner and his team and Con-cord Municipal Light Department.

Fnally, thank you to the students, teachers and sta" at CCHS for their input and patience as they lived with the con-struction as we worked to achieve the communities’ shared vision of a new 21st Century Concord-Carlisle High School.

Diana RigbySuperintendent

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

For the full text of Super-intendent Diana Rigby's letter and invitation to the community, visit concord.wickedlocal.com.

ONLY ONLINE

SEE LETTERS, B7

SEE THOREAU, B7

B4 Thursday, April 9, 2015CONCORD JOURNAL


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A voter outside the Harvey Wheeler Community

Center on Election Day last week may have hit the nail on the head when she wondered aloud whether the lack of “hot button” issues might explain the dearth of candidates on the ballot.

Not a single race was contested in the election — a far cry from the days not so long ago when local races, especially for School Committee, drew multiple candidates and vigorous, some-times less-than-genteel campaigning.

At the time, contro-versies over matters like planning for the new high school and the fate of the school bus depot stirred high emotion — and political involvement.

But true public service is about far more than responding to crisis. Its heart lies in negotiating the small, quotidian but nevertheless important a! airs of the day, for the benefi t of the citizenry. It can be tedious, unglam-orous and thankless — but also heroic.

Concord could use a few more heroes right now.

At a recent candidate forum sponsored by the Concord-Carlisle League of Women Voters, o" ce-seekers called for more resident participation in local politics, with incumbent selectman candidate Steven Ng referring to the lack of involvement as a “crisis.”

Not only are local races going uncontested, but numerous boards and committees in town are

in dire need of additional members to conduct the public’s a! airs. Ng even suggested a public forum or community fair where residents could learn about the available openings — a recom-mendation seconded by prospective School Com-mittee member Daniel Conti.

We think it’s a good idea.

Concord has no shortage of educated, professional residents with numerous skill sets they could bring to the table — and no short-age of residents who are quick to fault their lead-ers when they disagree with decisions made on their behalf. Maybe it’s time more of those pro-fessionals shared their expertise — and time some of those dissenters took on leadership roles themselves.

Perhaps a public forum is a good fi rst step.

In the meantime, we congratulate those who were willing to step forward and run in last week’s election, and we wish them Godspeed as they assume or continue their duties.

We hope their civic-mindedness proves su" ciently contagious that the next local elec-tion draws numerous contestants for public o" ce and boosts the per-centage of those who go to polls well beyond the meager 3.83 percent who turned out last week.

The broader the fi eld, the more engaged voters are likely to be.

As another voter said on Election Day last week, “I would like to have a choice.”

OUR VIEW

Needed: A few more heroes

The Concord Journal welcomes letters to the editor from Concord and Carlisle residents.

■ Submissions are lim-ited to 300 words; letters exceeding the 300-word limit will be returned to the writer for shortening.

■ Readers may submit one letter every calendar month to be considered for publication.

■ All letters submitted must include the author’s street, which will be

published with the name of the author.

■ The deadline for let-ters is noon Monday for publication in that week’s edition.

MAIL Editor, The Con-cord Journal, 150 Baker Ave. Ext., P.O. Box 9191, Concord, MA 01742

FAX 978-371-5711EMAIL concord@wick-

edlocal.com

LETTERS POLICY

Photo of the WeekConcord resident Mike Mer-lino recently visited his brother Matt Merlino at the Louvre. Matt is a junior at UMass/Amherst and is studying International Business abroad this semester in Paris. If you have a photo you would like to submit for consideration as the Photo of the Week, email it with a caption to concord.wick-edlocal.com or call 978-371-5742 for more information. COURTESY PHOTO

By Elizabeth Eidlitz

In the surreal hospital world with the compli-ance of the helpless, we

adapt to night noises of rolling carts waking us for vitals and blood draws. On a slippery narrow mat-tress we twist in a johnnie (one size fi ts no one), and grope for phones or control panels that disappear through the metal bed cage.

But the supreme chal-lenge to adaptation is a semi-private room. The misleading name, convey-ing the absurd notion that you are almost alone and almost have privacy, makes a travesty of the federal Health Insurance Portabil-ity and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to protect “individually identifi able health information that is transmitted or maintained in any form or medium.”

Although an improve-ment over 19th century days when Florence Night-ingale advocated for large, 30-plus patient wards over private rooms, a piece of cloth that divides the beds in a semi-private room in no way insures privacy and confi dentiality in patient-centered care.

“Hospital stays generally involve frank discussions about body parts and deeply personal issues. Studies have found some patients actually withhold critical medical informa-tion if they think a stranger can hear them,” says Jeanette Clough, the CEO of Mt. Auburn Hospital

in Cambridge, which is in the midst of converting to an all-private 220-room facility.

Should a stranger on the other side of a cur-tain overhear a doctor, not a bedside whisperer, announce that his patient’s blood sugar level is 225? And then listen to a dis-traught patient’s late night cell phone calls telling friends and relatives that she has diabetes?

Of Emerson Hospital’s 179 rooms, 32 percent of medical/surgical units are dedicated private rooms; 100 percent of maternal and critical care units are private, according to Joyce Welsh, chief nursing o" cer.

“The number of private rooms available on any given day fl uctuates based on patient volume,” adds Leah Lesser, public rela-tions manager. “Emerson has substantially reno-vated our inpatient units in recent years, to provide additional private rooms.”

Moreover, “Emerson is among the fi rst hospitals in the greater Boston area to o! er Quiet Pacs — kits fi lled with materials that aid the ability to rest.” In critical care, nurses are no longer paged over a loud-speaker, and individual TV sets are controlled by remotes.

Yet these compassion-ate peripheral measures obscure the central issue.

The primary argument for private rooms is infec-tion control. Around 2 million hospital-acquired infections kill about

100,000 people each year, health o" cials report. (http://commonhealth.wbur.org/ Sharing a bath-room increases the bad odds.

Secondly, good sleep is critical to healing, A 2008 white paper by The Center for Health Design and The Georgia Institute of Technology found that “single-bed rooms can reduce noise disturbance from roommates, health-care sta! , and disruptive visitors thereby improve patient sleep” which begets healing.

Although Welsh points out that some lonely patients feel isolated in private rooms, surely they constitute a minority.

The semi-private room is considered “a marketing concept that obscures the reality that you are sharing a small room with a rela-tively modest curtain and a sick, total stranger “whose coughs, sneezes, moans, groans, sighs, screams of pain or other distressing behaviors are magnifi ed by confi nement.” http://customerthink.com/the_semi_private_room/ July 13, 2010)

According to Emerson CEO Christine Schuster, Emerson’s physicians, board members and management team recom-mends that Emerson form some kind of partnership. “It could be anything from a true clinical collaboration to a full-asset merger, but going forward, we believe Emerson will be better o! as part of something bigger.”

Perhaps “better o! ” will comprise more private patient rooms, “once a luxury for the privileged few, but about to become the standard for the nation’s hospitals, as evi-dence mounts that shared rooms lead to higher infec-tion rates, more medical errors, privacy violations and harmful stress,” writes Laura Landro in the Wall Street Journal.

Emerson need not match Lahey’s 317 bed hospital in Burlington, with all private rooms and baths, nor MGH’s 150 boutique rooms with fl at screen TVs, fold-out leather couches for family members, fl oral curtains and urban garden-themed atrium landscaped with cascading ivy, a bamboo garden and serene paintings.

But couldn’t Emerson’s future provide private rooms, preferably with a window view, and — at the risk of sounding nostal-gic — a visit from primary care physicians who know you as a person, rather than an introduction from salaried hospitalists who’ve been instructed about your medical condition?

—Elizabeth Eidlitz, a Vassar graduate, was an upper school Eng-lish teacher and Dean of Students in independent schools and is now a studio potter, freelance writer, facilitator of writ-ing workshops and a Concord resident. She can be reached at [email protected].

POINTS OF VIEW FROM 01742

Lamentations on the not-so-private room

This is the second of two parts.

T he “country people” sat and awaited the British passing

the corner as they left the town of Concord to return to Boston.

When the British troops had fi rst marched into Concord, they had sent the Light Infantry companies up and onto the Ridge and Meriam’s Corner, and had the grenadiers march along the Bay (Lexing-ton) Road. When it came time to leave, Col. Smith ordered them to march out the same way as they had come in. As the British sol-diers approached Meriam’s Corner, the British Light Infantry came down the ridge and met the rest of the column. According to the account by Brit-ish Ensign Jeremy Lister of the 10th Regiment of

Foot, “The light infantry march’d over a hill above the town, the grenadiers through the town, imme-diately as we descended the hill into the road the rebels begun a brisk fi re but at so great a distance it was without e! ect, but as they kept marching nearer when the grenadiers found them within shot they returned their fi re just about that time I rec’d a shot through my right elbow joint which e! ectu-ally disabled that arme…”.

Amos Barrett, a member of Capt. David Brown’s Concord minute company, mentioned the event in a letter written 50 years afterward: “After a while we found them a march-ing back toward Boston, we was soon after them. When they got about a mil half to a road that comes from Bedford to Bildraa (Billerica?) they was way

laid and a grait many killd when I got their a grait many lay dead and the road was bloddy...” Rever-end Edmund Foster had been alarmed early that morning in the town of Reading, and had been one of the many men to come to Concord that morning. Years after the event he shared this account of what trans-pired: “A little before we came to Merriam’s Hill, we discovered the enemy’s fl ank guard, of about 80 or 100 men, who, on their retreat from Concord, kept that height of the land, the main body on the road. The British troops and the Americans, at that time, were equally distant from Meriam’s Corner. About 20 rods (330 feet) short of that place, the Americans made a halt. The British marched down the hill with very slow, but steady

step, without music or a word being spoken that could be heard. Silence reigned on both sides. As soon as the British had gained the main road, and passed a small bridge near that corner, they faced about suddenly, and fi red a volley of musketry upon us. They overshot; and no one, to my knowledge, was injured by the fi re. The fi re was immediately returned by the Americans, and two British soldiers fell dead at a little distance from each other, in the road near the brook.”

Thus began what some historians call the run-ning battle of the British back to Boston. What had started at dawn on Lexington Common and at the North Bridge later in the morning, would now become a non-stop

GUEST COMMENTARY

Why we pay tribute 238 years later

SEE COMMENTARY, B5

CONCORD JOURNAL Thursday, January 22, 2015...

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