Yankee Logic

At a town meeting in Needham, Massachusetts, last March, a motion was made that called for the widening of a street by twenty feet. A resident of the street stood up to protest, saying his property had one of the last trees on the block and that he did not want it destroyed just to accommodate more traffic. He wanted, he said, to preserve grass against concrete, elms and oaks against parking meters. It was a direct, clear plea for environmental common sense. The meeting accepted his appeal: the street-widening scheme was killed. The hero who saved the street is Hugh Burns, Jr., fifteen vears old.