Letters: Will SCBWA revisit ‘mistake’ of ending fluoridation?; Raised fist or open hand?
Will SCBWA revisit ‘mistake’ of ending fluoridation?
Three years ago, State College Borough Water Authority — relying on flimsy pseudoscience, and over the objections of local dentists and health care professionals — ended water fluoridation in the SCBWA’s service area.
Their justification: fear-mongering about unproven cognitive impacts on children. That, according to the members of the water authority’s board, justified ending a cornerstone of basic public health initiatives, and one which provides significant advantage to lower income families and children.
It turns out they were ahead of a wave. Since then, anti-fluoridation sentiment has spread, driven in part by the quackery peddled by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has long been a champion of anti-fluoridation.
They argued that even the potential for negative impacts, even lacking conclusive studies, justified ending fluoridation under the principle of harm mitigation. Luckily, we’re no longer lacking in conclusive studies. Just this month, the first long-term, targeted study of community water fluoridation examining cognitive impacts was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It found zero cognitive impact at any stage of life.
So the net effect of SCBWA’s misguided error: harming working families for no good reason.
Hopefully, the water authority will reconsider their mistake and resume local application of one of the most important public health developments in the modern era. Refusing to do so would simply mean doubling down on the harm they’ve already caused.
Connor Lewis, State College
Raised fist or open hand?
The president stood at attention as Army troops paraded by on his birthday in the capital.
This shows how he takes political power — military power backed by deadly force.
He placed Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence on a wall in the White House. It asserts power derived not from force, but from the consent of the governed protecting their inalienable individual rights.
Is the power in Washington a raised fist, or an open hand suggesting comity and the great friendship of all people?
Soon there will be an election. May we choose the right answer to this question.
John Harris, State College
Bring frustration to the ballot box
Donald Trump has accused His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, of being weak on crime (to be clear, crime-fighting is not really the Pope’s job). This is the same Donald Trump who is a convicted felon, a serial sexual predator, compulsive conman, liar and fraudster. The same Donald Trump who has pardoned dozens of other fraudsters, conmen, sexual predators, and felons, so that they can get right back into the business of preying on the weak and the defenseless.
It is not surprising that Donald Trump is lashing out at Pope Leo. Trump cannot abide principled people. What is surprising is that Trump still has support within the Republican Party and among the people he conned into following him into his descent into megalomania.
If you are tired of seeing your country dragged the muck by Donald Trump, be sure to register, and to vote in the mid-term elections.
John Hruschka, Bellefonte