I must say, I'm pretty tired of reading posts about how anti-F people are ignorant, uneducated, and selfish ... how all anti-F people have fallen sucker to conspiracy theories and ignore the science and have zero logic and how social justice must mean nothing. They say anit-F's are anti-government, anti-science, and anti-logic. Honestly, it's offensive to me. I'm educated - more educated than the average person. My background IS science - I'm not anti-science. I'm not anti-government. I'm not anti-poor people. As I stated on my own facebook page (and I typically NEVER post ANYTHING political): Do I think everyone deserves healthy teeth? Of course. Do I think that we should provide means to that for lower income areas? Absolutely. Do I think that putting fluoride directly into the water is the way to do that? Most definitely not. While the pro-F side enjoys saying that this is a selfish, "all about me me me" logic, I strongly feel that it is just simply not right to force people to ingest something without their consent. Period. I don't argue that fluoride is ineffective or that it is completely unnecessary, but putting it in the water is not the way to do it. I am also 100% for helping low income areas have access to health care, dental care, all care! But I completely disagree with the idea of putting a chemical (safe or not) into the water to potentially benefit the public just because it is public water. People have the right to choose what we put or don't put in our bodies. Forcing everyone to ingest fluoride is not right. And I don't think that I am a selfish person for feeling that way or that I can't see "beyond myself". I think that I am a loving mother who doesn't want to expose my developing children to any more chemicals than they already are exposed to in this world. And I think that I am a caring member of society who wants EVERYone to be thought about. For me, it comes down to giving people the choice and not forcing them to ingest something if they do not want to. There are people who can not tolerate it and it is wrong to force them to take it in anyway. It's just not right to force it on everyone when not everyone wants it.
I'm glad that Portland voted this down. I do sincerely hope, however, that money does go towards the root of this issue; that we take care of those who need the care; that we can provide dental care and EDUCATION, providing these people with the resources they need to be healthy.
I'm sure people will judge me based on this post ... because that's what people like to do - judge other people. But those who KNOW me, know that I'm not selfish, that I am educated, that I do care about other people and society as a whole.
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