All Souls Church Campaigns Against Bottled Water With Lawn Display

The following is from Rev. Steve Wilson of All Souls Church, as presented at the church's water forum on April 14.

What is this big thing on the church lawn Rev. Steve? I imagine people asking me.

Well I always say life is complicated.

Well, depending on how you look at it, it’s either a giant symbolic trash can, or it is a giant recycling bin. I don’t think I have figured that out yet.

See you can look at it like it’s a giant trash can if you think about all the water bottles we don’t recycle,

Or, you can see it as a giant recycling bin for all the plastic we are going to recycle if and when the bottle bill gets extended to cover non-carbonated beverages.

“So it's about the bottle bill?" My imaginary questioner asks. “OK. I get that,” they say.

“Well it is,” I say “and we are trying to draw support for that passing, but it is also about the risks of privatizing more and more of our water.”

“What do you mean?” I imagine them pondering.

“Well, across the globe and here at home, water which has been managed publicly, is now increasingly coming under the control of corporations.” 

“Huh?” my imaginary foil says.

“Well, large corporations are increasingly interested in controlling large water reserves and selling it back to us at the price of gas” I say.

“Wow, that would be terrible!” They gasp.

“No, that is terrible, that’s already happening.” 

So it’s about extending the bottle bill, and corporate control of water? This imaginary person asks.

Yes, but it’s also a bit about common sense, I might say.

It’s stupid to buy essentially the same water that you can get out of the tap for more than you pay for gas.

As they say, you think the wars for oil were bad, wait till we're fighting over water.

So the campaign is interesting in that it is all targeted around getting people to re-think water, mostly bottled water, but has a few campaigns folded in within that broader idea.

It is designed to raise the concern about the privatization of water by private-corporate interests.

It is designed to raise awareness about the present campaign to essentially add non-carbonated beverages to the bottle bill.

It is designed to work to build our connections with other community groups.

It is designed to raise water as a political human rights issue.

It will present All Souls/brand All Souls as a politically-active community.