BONUS: States banning fluoride over dentists' objections
Here is one example of some positive comments on social media
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Twenty-five years ago at the dawn of a new millennium, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proclaimed the 10 great public health achievements of the past century.
As someone who lived through half that century, I was the beneficiary of these advances:
- Vaccination.
- Motor-vehicle safety.
- Safer workplaces.
- Control of infectious diseases.
- Decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke
- Safer and healthier foods.
- Healthier mothers and babies
- Family planning.
- Tobacco use as a health hazard.
- And fluoridation of drinking water.
The Trump administration is currently advancing policies to undo all of those advances.
Since arriving in New Orleans five months ago, I've watched with interest as its new Republican governor and an all-Republican Legislature have adopted Trump administration policies with glee despite expected job cuts, further coastline erosion, more pollution and reduced help for the poor and needy.
Most recently, a new law advanced quickly and enthusiastically through the Louisiana Legislature to ban fluoride from the state's public water systems.
In that 1999 pronouncement, the CDC said, "Fluoridation safely and inexpensively benefits both children and adults by effectively preventing tooth decay, regardless of socioeconomic status or access to care. Fluoridation has played an important role in the reductions in tooth decay (40%-70% in children) and of tooth loss in adults (40%-60%)."
No scientific evidence since then has refuted that conclusion.
For those of us that grew up with fluoridation, it is probably a big reason we still have most of our teeth, especially when you consider dental insurance is a fairly new benefit.
The first two newspapers I worked at between 1979 and 1982 did not have a dental plan so fluoride was the first line of dental defense.
With the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., doing everything in his power to make America sick again, it is shocking that states such as Utah, Florida and now Louisiana are getting on board the ignorance train.
Louisiana's Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham told the New Orleans Times Picayune that fluoride in the drinking water is a "patient-freedom" issue.
"Putting a chemical in the water without the patient's consent is a problematic for me as a physician,"Dr. Abraham told the newspaper.
Dr. Abraham received his veterinary medical license in 1980 so I can't help but wonder how many of his patients gave him consent then.
On the same day the Times-Picayune ran its front page story on the advancing fluoride ban in the Legislature, it ran another story on Page 4A titled "Dentists raise concern about bill to ban fluoride in water."
The article pointed out that fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral in water, soil and food and it strengthens tooth enamel. Communities in the U.S. have been putting it in their water supplies since the 1940s.
"There is a robust body of evidence that shows these programs work," Tulane University epidemiologist Dr. Felicia Rabito said.
The Times-Picayune pointed out when the Canadian city of Calgary stopped fluoridating its water in 2011, it saw a 15 percent rise in baby-teeth cavities while in Wisconsin, cavities increased 200 percent in second-graders.
Both cities eventually returned to fluoridating their water.
Kennedy Jr. has said fluoridation is linked to reduced IQ in children without proof. He has also linked fluoride to arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders without evidence.
Oddly, fluoridation is not even wide spread in Louisiana where only 38 percent of people have access to it.
Dentists told The Times-Picayune that oral health would suffer, especially for children, yet politicians keep trying to ban it.
Utah has already banned fluoride while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a ban into law.
The Louisiana fluoride ban has been passed by the Senate and is waiting for a vote in the House.
Under the proposed law, fluoride can only be returned to the water supply if 15 percent of registered voters sign a petition.
So for those of you considering moving to the South, you might want to ask what's the status of fluoride in your drinking water first. It might tell you a lot about your future neighborhood.
Commenting
More often than not, people speak of their disgust for the commenting that takes place on social media.
But that is not always the case.
On Sunday, my colleague Will Doolittle wrote the latest update on his wife's deteriorating condition from the scourge of Alzheimer's Disease. These columns are often difficult to read - and I'm sure even more difficult to write - but are a reminder of why we should hold our own health and loved ones so close.
What especially struck me about this column was the empathy and passion with which readers reached out to Will and Bella.
I urge you to read some of the comments.
Not everything is awful on social media.
Lake George worried
Times Union reporter Kelsey Brown found many Lake George businesses worried about summer business this year.
Early signs show reservations and interest in Lake George off by a third from Canadian tourists.
There is also the worry that many of the European students will not return to work for the summer because of the threats of deportation from the Trump administration.
Governor threatened
"Border czar" Tom Homan, who lives in Sackets Harbor just outside Watertown, N.Y., threatened to have the governor of Wisconsin, Troy Evers, arrested.
Gov. Evers issued a memo directing state workers to check with a lawyer before turning over documents to officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Considering the times and the administration's penchant for violating the Constitution that seems like good advice.
Evers said the agency was mischaracterizing his memo, saying he did not direct anyone to break the law.
"We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official, or even everyday American citizens who have broken no laws, committed no crimes and done nothing wrong," Evers said. "And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I'm not afraid."
We need more elected officials like that.
60 Minutes responds
After 60 Minutes' executive producer Bill Owens resigned earlier this month because of interference from corporate owner Paramount.
The journalists went to bat for their former boss with Scott Pelley saying “Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” he explained. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
Pelley said the journalists were defending Owens' stand.
“He did it for us and you,” Pelley said. “Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.”
This Sunday, 60 Minutes led with a piece that addressed the Trump administration's attack on the rule of law in the United States.
"See you in court"
You may remember those infamous words when Maine Gov. Janet Mills fired back at President Trump when he criticized Maine for not following his executive order regarding transgender athletes.
The administration then froze money aiding 172,000 children in Maine.
This past week, the federal court unfroze that money while ruling against the Trump administration.
"It’s good to feel a victory like this,” Gov. Mills said. “I stood in the White House and when confronted by the president of the United States, I told him I’d see him in court. Well, we did see him in court, and we won.”
Times editorial
The New York Times addressed the first 100 days of the second Trump administration in an editorial in Friday's newspaper while walking the line between an all-out panic attack and caution.
The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts, in which he and his appointees can override written law when they want to. It is precisely the autocratic approach that this nation’s founders sought to prevent when writing the Constitution.
Mr. Trump has the potential to do far more harm in the remainder of his term. If he continues down this path and Congress and the courts fail to stop him, it could fundamentally alter the character of American government. Future presidents, seeking to either continue or undo his policies, will be tempted to pursue a similarly unbound approach, in which they use the powers of the federal government to silence critics and reward allies."
That should scare the hell out of every citizen in the United States.
The Times editorial went on to say:
The patriotic response to today’s threat is to oppose Mr. Trump. But it is to do so soberly and strategically, not reflexively or performatively. It is to build a coalition of Americans who disagree about many other subjects — who span conservative and progressive, internationalist and isolationist, religious and secular, business-friendly and labor-friendly, pro-immigration and restrictionist, laissez-faire and pro-government, pro-life and pro-choice — yet who believe that these subjects must be decided through democratic debate and constitutional processes rather than the dictates of a single man.
The question is whether there is anyone of substance left to do that.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
The NY Times has become the Susan Collins of newspapering. It is “very concerned.”
Well, the "North Country" is MAGA territory. How much do they need to lose before they turn on Trump???? This all sits squarely at Trumps feet, and the rest of us have to suffer...