FLUORIDE NATION

RE: The only topic in the world—FLUORIDE. By the way, if you haven’t voted yet, be sure to read our article “The Sanest Arguments Against Fluoride… and Why They’re Still Wrong” [Feature, May 1]. It’s well researched, smart, reasonable, and best of all, doesn’t scream at you.

TO THE EDITOR: The only thing I can think is that your paper just got paid money to print the “vote yes on fluoride” article. You guys are usually right or at least show two sides of the argument. This time, well, you are wrong and the article was shitty.

Emily Silver

DEAR MERCURY: One thing I don’t get about this fluoridation debate. Why is it so important that we do it now? When the city budget is being chopped and we’re losing firefighters, mental health professionals, crisis workers—even shelter space for human-trafficking victims—we’re still swallowing a tax hike for something that is supposed to have an eventual benefit over the course of a lifetime? I mean, dental health is important, yes, but no one brings an assault rifle to a shopping mall because they need a root canal. 

Evan

EVERY MAJOR NEWSPAPER in Portland supports fluoridation. Not to mention the Pulitzer Prize winners at the Tampa Bay Times. So that means THEY (along with every major legitimate health organization in the US/world that support fluoridation) are all ignorant… not you? Are you familiar with Occam’s razor?

posted by Ginny

TO THE MERCURY: Blind faith, immaturity, and disregard for civil liberties stand out in comments made by your staff about fluoridation. You have more in common with Christian and Islamic fundamentalists than you may have realized.       

Carlos Martin

I DIDN’T EVEN CARE about this topic at first, but after seeing the distortions of science and blatant fear mongering being spewed by the anti-fluoride zealots, I can’t wait to cast my vote against them. I have no tolerance for folks who use deceit and fear to get what they want.

posted by adlangx

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MORE PHRASES FOR YOUR ANTI-FLUORIDE SIGN

RE: “20 Phrases to Write on Your Anti-Fluoride Sign” [New Column!, May 8], in which we offered suggestions such as “When I’m not drinking PBR, smoking American Spirits, tooting rails of China white, and eating Voodoo Doughnuts, I worry about ingesting poisons like fluoride.” Here are some of your suggestions!

“WHY doesn’t NEW SEASONS carry organic salt?!?! NO ON FLUORIDE!!!!”

posted by foxiesocks

“BECAUSE Science Is Whatever We Hope and Scream That It Is.”

“Because Jenny McCarthy Still Has Concerns.”

“Because I Have Seen No Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Peer-Reviewed Studies That Conclusively Prove I Don’t Understand How Research Science Works.”

posted by Commenty Colin

THIS is what happens when you are wrong; you have to make fun of people.

posted by fypm

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MELANIN OVERLOAD

RE: “The Black Portlanders” [Arts, May 8], a profile of photographer Intisar Abioto and her Tumblr that rejects the notion that “there aren’t black people in Portland.”

INTISAR HAS A RAD PROJECT and I’m glad it’s getting coverage. But isn’t it important to acknowledge, even as we acknowledge that a majority of Portland kids have more melanin than the average person, that Portland is actually the whitest major metro area in the country? Because that is still true, and people still frequently refuse to believe that it is.

posted by Michael Anderson

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“GRAMMAR POLICE! SPREAD ‘EM!”

RE: “Needs Grammer” [I, Anonymous, May 8], in which the author bemoans the “dumbassification” of America.

WHOEVER POSTED THIS I, Anonymous needs spanked. I remember my friend’s stepdad correcting our grammar when we were about eight years old. And even then, we knew he was an asswipe for thinking grammar correction was good “parenting.” Grammar police are about at fun as hemorrhoids.

posted by blazerlove

CONGRATS TO BLAZERLOVE for winning the Mercury letter of the week and two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater—where most films are more fun than hemorrhoids.

6 replies on “Letters to the Editor”

  1. “I have no tolerance for folks who use deceit and fear to get what they want.”

    You must mean like the people saying we are in a dental “crisis”? The ones claiming that Seattle has 40% better teeth, and that ( even though it’s not true ) is because of fluoride in their water? Yes, you must mean the ones calling anyone who questions putting something in the water crazy, conspiracy theorists. You mean those people, right?

    This quote really sums how confused the pro-fluoride people are. Particularly the part about “getting what they want”

    What do they want? It’s my understanding that this is all about something the other side WANTS. They want fluoride in everyone’s water. The anti-fluoride people are just saying no to that, no to what THEY want. And THEY are throwing a hissy fit. Instead of providing sound data, digestible graphs, legitimate comparisons of cities, they are just screaming and yelling, “THE CDC”, “DENTISTS”, “THE CHILDREN”, “SCIENCE”, over and over and over again. Nothing to back it up. Just show us some side by side comparisons of tooth decay in cities that have been fluoridated for a long time and ones that haven’t. That will never happen, because those studies do not exist, or at least no one has put in the time to get the data together. Because they don’t really care, they just want US let THEM do it.

    I think this misunderstanding of reality that really hits it home for me that I must vote NO. Not because fluoride is unsafe ( at low concentrations ), it is for the most part. Not because it has some, although relatively small among an already fluoride filled population, benefits. Not because I believe in any conspiracies or because of economics or any of those reasons.

    I have to vote NO because the pro side is causing such a ruckus over something so very simple. YOU want something. YOU are obligated to provide the proper information/data/science about this, not refer to some other organization that says something “this works” but also doesn’t actually have the data. YOU must convince the population why we need it, not using fabrications of a “crisis”. YOU must do the legwork. YOU have not. The data is not there, the questions concerns go unanswered, shrugged off as unimportant, and joked about, all questioners called loonies.

    If you’ve got science, if you’ve got data, if you’ve got answers, give them. Calm down, stop thinking about all those suffering children you’ve been seeing in your dreams, and just hand over the information. Because you assert, with no shiver of a doubt, that it’s out there, somewhere. Big money’s behind you. Big government’s behind you. Just ask. It must be that easy to get, right? We’ve been using it for 60 years. It must be there? Right? Right?

    *Crickets*

    THEY’RE ALL CONSPIRACY LOONATICS. SCIENCE! SCIENCE! SCIENCE! THE CHILDREN!!! ( old people, too? i guess, why not? )

  4. RE: Yummy Yummy

    Links like that are precisely the reason many people are voting YES. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to be against this, this is not one of them and the presentation IS terrible. You might as well be working for Healthy Kids Healthy Portland if you’re posting crap like that.

    Maybe you are…?

  5. Yo, screennametaken – the science is out there pal. Clearly you must not have looked too damn hard at all. Or looked only at what you wanted to.
    Early polling suggests fluoridation is going down hard. Too bad, it is one of the few tax increases I ever voted for, even though it will be of no benefit to me whatsoever. And it goes along way with my thinking of health care as a basic right.
    This to me represents the fact that the politics of fear still work, especially here in supposedly ‘progressive’ Portland. Fear, and Fear of Change.
    You and Jenny McCarthy can enjoy your victory.

  6. Dear Mercury – I know you are crying a river right now because you don’t get to have fluoride in the water. Don’t worry I won’t kick you when you’re down. Just don’t worry about the Little Children. They are going to be okay. Did you know all Portland Public School students get fluoride everyday for free if they chose. I know this because I am a PPS teacher. 🙂 Funny how you overlooked this little fact in your editorial supporting fluoride in the public water systeml. So, once you dry those little tears of yours and blow your nose, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please bust those corporations who peddle colored sugar water laced with acid to our Little Children. Their products do terrible things – tooth decay, obesity, health problem, etc. Somehow you let them off the hook before.

    Peter

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