Page 5 - Sonoma County Gazette February 2017

LETTERS cont’d from page 4
have seasonal pruning windows, pines need to be pruned in the cold season so they don’t bleed but, Redwoods can be pruned any time.
Tracking Wild Animals on a
Great, informative article. Can sense your love for both biking and tracking. Wonderful that you found a way to combine the two.
Strident and Gregious
Fluoride Free Water
Matt Banchero 707-921-9217
Can you give a clearer explanation of what the paragraph below means. You say the CDA funded both campaigns, to keep fluoridation, but aren’t the two campaigns to aide removing fluoride? By swamping contributions, do you mean they paid more money? Why would that make any difference, if the overall campaign was to remove fluoride?
Mountain Bike
In the 2014 Measure M campaign to stop fluoridation, and the 2016 Measure T campaign to require safety- related information on Healdsburg’s fluoridation chemical, the California Dental Association (CDA), almost exclusively, funded both campaigns to keep fluoridation, swamping the many small local contributions for safewater.
Thanks! Connie Manson
There is much to enjoy in the January Gazette: “The Family Pet”, “Night Sky”, and the article by Don McEnhill, but the views of many readers and correspondents have become more strident and egregious after the election.
Can you also tell me what the original wording of Measure T was and what the Council substituted.
There seems little hope for any dialogue with the progressives - it’s either their way or no way. They can’t seem to admit that Hilllary was such a flawed candidate that many chose what they saw as the lesser of two evils.
Roger, thank you for your thoughtful questions about recent Healdsburg water fluoridation ballot measures, as discussed in the January 2017 Sonoma County Gazette article, “Fluoride- Free Water Closer Than Ever.” Your questions, and the answers, are here. If there are other questions, please let me know; I’ll do my best to answer them. Warm regards, Carol Goodwin Blick,CleanWaterSonoma-Marin
Q: “You say the CDA funded both campaigns to keep fluoridation, but aren’t the two campaigns to aid removing fluoride? Why would that make any difference, if the overall campaign was to remove fluoride?”
To be labeled racist, bigoted, anti this or that is to completely misunderstand the sentiment of those who chose Trump. Many of us are tired of political correctness so that sexual orientation, race and gender have become issues.
What ever happened to the idea that all people be treated equally and fairly. Perhaps I am too naïve, but when I grew up we had friends of all ethnicity. We never thought of them as victims, but as equals. Now, we have to make amends to everyone considered a victim. That makes for a very polarized community, as evidenced by our present situation.
A: There was no “overall campaign to remove fluoride” for two reasons: first, each of these ballot measures represents two campaigns, a campaign to vote YES, and a campaign to vote NO; and, second, only Ballot Measure P (2014) was specifically about keeping or stopping Healdsburg water fluoridation.
There are several bright spots: topping the list, Vesta’s optimism and reference to the old adage, “To treat others as you wish to be treated.” Lyndi Brown, the Penngrove correspondent, cites the Dalai Lama: “Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” Finally, Supervisor Gore, after the usual pathos about the election results and loss of government funding, has to admit “he has often found that thriving communities were self-reliant, whereas declining communities were government reliant..” Isn’t that what community is all about?
Healdsburg Ballot Measure T (2016) was not for or against water fluoridation. Instead, Measure T required a YES vote to obtain safety-related information from the manufacturer of Healdsburg’s fluoridation chemical, including a statement that Healdsburg’s fluoridated water is safe for all consumers, with a fluoridation moratorium (suspension) until the information was provided. “Healdsburg for Yes on Measure T” campaigned for the measure. “NO on T - Save Our Smiles” campaigned against.
Thanks, Roger
Barbara Cuneo
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