I saw the e-mail in my inbox. It had "bottled water" in the subject line. Surely this was another person that agrees with my horror over bottled water. (It puts thousands of plastic bottles in landfills everyday, exposes people to BPA and is held to less stringent standards than our tap water.)
Nope.
The subject line: Campaign Targets Unfair Political Assault on Bottled Water
That would be the unfair assault I support.
The sender, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, believes "individuals are best helped not by government intervention, but by making their own choices in a free marketplace," according to their Web site.
They're campaigning to make sure government doesn't tax bottled water or limit it's use over, presumably, silly concerns about turning our entire country into a landfill of plastic bottles that will never go away.
The e-mail says:
Banning bottled water would hurt people, the group, says including:
- "immuno-compromised individuals following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to drink bottled water" ... who apparently can't work a Brita filter.
- s"ports and health enthusiasts who use bottled water to keep hydrated" .. and presumably aren't fit enough to bring along a reusable bottle
- "anyone who simply enjoys convenience and portability of bottled water" ... Ah, convenience. Isn't that how we got into this landfill mess in the first place?
You know how there are kids starving and people losing their homes and refugees without a place to live?
They're not important when "some health clubs are considering forcing their clients to drink tap water."
Yeah, freaking tragic. I'm unmoved by your e-mail pleas, Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Julie Todd is the night editor at The Herald News in Joliet. She and her
husband are looking to cut the chemicals and get back to basics -- minus the
granola and hemp clothing. They live in a home they bought last year in
Plainfield, where they're making changes to create their own little patch of
utopia.
If you can't tolerate an opposing viewpoint how EVER do you learn? Is it that you are so zealous for your cause that you refuse to engage in healthy debate? If that's the case you are in the wrong business.
Is banning bottled water the only solution you support or have you looked into alternatives?
Are we to believe that "kids starving and people losing their homes" has anything to do with bottled water or the Free Market? Or were you just going for that knee-jerk emotional "for the children" grand finale that shows you care?