The water fluoridation debate is surprisingly hot in Portland. You’d think that dumping copious amounts of a potential carcinogen into the public water supply would be a no-brainer: a resounding “NO.” Yet some folks seem convinced this will help the well-being of the city’s poorest children. I am here to call them out on their misdiagnosis.
It all stems from the modern way of approaching disease: push button “A” – Fluoride – and get this specific result… shining white teeth. This is the typical excessively reductionist western thinking that is eroding the health and wellbeing of Americans in every part of our country. Of course no one gave too much thought to how the added chemical would accumulate in food prepared with our newly spiked water, nor to the health of the various species that depend on the streams, rivers, ultimately the ocean which it will also contaminate, adding to the already mysterious reactions of the pharmaceutical cocktail permeating our water supply thanks to this same outlook on personal health. What about the crops and soil sprayed with this altered water? I believe there is a better solution.
I have been in the holistic health field for four years now. My eyes were first opened to the power of whole systems healing when I traveled to India in 2009 to study the 5,000 year old healing art of Ayurveda. I learned that not only can our bodies NOT be adequately explained or healed by being broken down into separate systems, each with its own specialists and sets of pills, but also that we can in no way consider our person separate from the world around us. In Buddhism this point is driven home: each thing arises from an interdependent system of events or occurrences. Everything relies completely on everything else for its existence. We would do well to take note of this when we see what is being done, then, to our “larger self” the Earth. The poisoning of our waters, for example, is seen as the poisoning of our own blood. The same applies to the destruction of old growth forests, our greater lungs, or the acidification and depletion of the oceans as sterilizing the Womb of Mother Earth so that no more life comes fourth, the chocking of the air as, well, the chocking of OUR air! You see the connection? Take all the asthma medication you want, the root problem is not going away.
This brings us back to our pearly whites. This fluoridation effort, were it indeed to “work” as planned, would only be putting a cheap smiley face band aid on a mortal wound inflicted by our mass culture. Tooth corrosion is a symptom of greater bodily distress. The “food” – or shall I say – the “food-like substances” these children are eating are causing their bodies, quite simply, to collapse. How do we address the real problem here?
Recently, a viral video made the rounds on YouTube called “Food Fight.” It essentially exposed, through imagery and song, the corporate infiltration of the US Agriculture and Food Safety systems, utilizing a poignant clip from a speech by prominent Indian food activist Vandana Shiva. In the battle of Good Vs Evil portrayed there, it was real, whole foods pitted against their chemically engineered counterparts. Choosing sides was clear.
So here is my proposition: If you care about children’s health (and all of our health), not just of their teeth but of their entire bodies, get together with your neighbors and plan to vote NO on water fluoridation. Let’s work with city counsel to spend the money they planned to use pouring a chemical into the public water system, to instead ensure that each citizen of Portland has access to a community garden, permaculture food forest (such as is being currently constructed in Seattle), or hydroponic center. A plant-strong, whole foods diet is the most powerful investment in the wellbeing of the citizens of Portland.
In these times of transition, when our communities face tough decisions regarding food security as the implications of dirty industry-fueled habitat destruction threaten our eco-systems and the crops that used to thrive in them, we need to prepare to regenerate and make the best use of our common resources. Let’s make Portland the first Eco-City, complete with abundant gardens for all, along with sustainable energy and infrastructure. The choice is yours. Let’s move into this ancient/new way of interacting with ourselves, and our great self – Nature – , intelligently, and urgently. Please choose a holistic perspective, push for a real and lasting solution, and vote NO on water fluoridation this May. The health of the city’s children depends on you.
It all stems from the modern way of approaching disease: push button “A” – Fluoride – and get this specific result… shining white teeth. This is the typical excessively reductionist western thinking that is eroding the health and wellbeing of Americans in every part of our country. Of course no one gave too much thought to how the added chemical would accumulate in food prepared with our newly spiked water, nor to the health of the various species that depend on the streams, rivers, ultimately the ocean which it will also contaminate, adding to the already mysterious reactions of the pharmaceutical cocktail permeating our water supply thanks to this same outlook on personal health. What about the crops and soil sprayed with this altered water? I believe there is a better solution.
I have been in the holistic health field for four years now. My eyes were first opened to the power of whole systems healing when I traveled to India in 2009 to study the 5,000 year old healing art of Ayurveda. I learned that not only can our bodies NOT be adequately explained or healed by being broken down into separate systems, each with its own specialists and sets of pills, but also that we can in no way consider our person separate from the world around us. In Buddhism this point is driven home: each thing arises from an interdependent system of events or occurrences. Everything relies completely on everything else for its existence. We would do well to take note of this when we see what is being done, then, to our “larger self” the Earth. The poisoning of our waters, for example, is seen as the poisoning of our own blood. The same applies to the destruction of old growth forests, our greater lungs, or the acidification and depletion of the oceans as sterilizing the Womb of Mother Earth so that no more life comes fourth, the chocking of the air as, well, the chocking of OUR air! You see the connection? Take all the asthma medication you want, the root problem is not going away.
This brings us back to our pearly whites. This fluoridation effort, were it indeed to “work” as planned, would only be putting a cheap smiley face band aid on a mortal wound inflicted by our mass culture. Tooth corrosion is a symptom of greater bodily distress. The “food” – or shall I say – the “food-like substances” these children are eating are causing their bodies, quite simply, to collapse. How do we address the real problem here?
Recently, a viral video made the rounds on YouTube called “Food Fight.” It essentially exposed, through imagery and song, the corporate infiltration of the US Agriculture and Food Safety systems, utilizing a poignant clip from a speech by prominent Indian food activist Vandana Shiva. In the battle of Good Vs Evil portrayed there, it was real, whole foods pitted against their chemically engineered counterparts. Choosing sides was clear.
So here is my proposition: If you care about children’s health (and all of our health), not just of their teeth but of their entire bodies, get together with your neighbors and plan to vote NO on water fluoridation. Let’s work with city counsel to spend the money they planned to use pouring a chemical into the public water system, to instead ensure that each citizen of Portland has access to a community garden, permaculture food forest (such as is being currently constructed in Seattle), or hydroponic center. A plant-strong, whole foods diet is the most powerful investment in the wellbeing of the citizens of Portland.
In these times of transition, when our communities face tough decisions regarding food security as the implications of dirty industry-fueled habitat destruction threaten our eco-systems and the crops that used to thrive in them, we need to prepare to regenerate and make the best use of our common resources. Let’s make Portland the first Eco-City, complete with abundant gardens for all, along with sustainable energy and infrastructure. The choice is yours. Let’s move into this ancient/new way of interacting with ourselves, and our great self – Nature – , intelligently, and urgently. Please choose a holistic perspective, push for a real and lasting solution, and vote NO on water fluoridation this May. The health of the city’s children depends on you.
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