Santa Cruz Good Times

Plus Letters to the Editor

The longer you live here, the more likely you are to develop certain habits. You may like your sushi prepared a certain way, so suddenly you’re frequenting that one sushi spot that totally satisfies you. Perhaps there’s a particular bike spot that just has the right vibe, or a local bookstore whose dedicated efforts to reaching out to the community is something you truly value. Individually, these portals may seem like just another thing that is in your life, but really, they are much more. Over time, they tend to reflect a part of your psychological and emotional makeup. They are the great things that are in your life; the things that give you buoyancy. And some of them could very well make up the best things in the periphery. That may have been the longest setup to tell you to go online and vote for your local favorites in our annual Best of Santa Cruz Readers Poll, but after overseeing this annual event for 11 years, and then designing issues whose words and pictures best reflect your “best,” I’ve come to realize that most readers exude a certain passion for voting for their favorite stores, restaurants and locals who are making a positive difference in the community. That said, the voting is open for a few more weeks. Make yours count. And look for a very special Best of Santa Cruz issue in spring. Have fun. And remember, participation is healthy. On that note, health is the subject of this week’s cover story. In our annual Health Issue, we target several locals whose work stands out. I’d like to call these folks health heroes, because what they are doing in the realm of good health, and how they are doing it, is downright unique. Learn more about them. New this year: On Our Radar, which features other locals whose efforts register more than a blip on our local health radar. What’s left? Well, since we’re discussing health, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is Feb 26-March 3. After co-authoring a book on this issue last year, I find myself investigating even more the oft under-reported issue of eating disorders and body image issues. One local making a difference in this arena: Andrea Wachter of Inner Solutions (innersolutions.net). You can also learn more at nationaleatingdisorders.org. Here’s to good health.

Onward ...

Greg Archer | Editor-in-Chief 

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Letters to the Editor

Fiery Fluoridation Issues
Regarding the news story on fluoridation (GT 2/16), after trying for years to force water fluoridation onto an unwilling populace, Laura Marcus now expects those of us who repelled her unpopular fluoridation push to sit down and break bread with her. You got to be kidding.

Good Times’ article claims Marcus has invited fluoridation opponents to sit down with Dientes to discuss dental care needs of Watsonville. I have been at the forefront of the issue from day one in Watsonville and I have yet to hear of such an invite. Even if I were invited to such a talk, why should I sit down and discuss the issue with someone like Marcus who still wants to fluoridate our water supply with a chemical that she cannot prove actually works to fight tooth decay?

Just the week before, Marcus co-wrote a column in the Register-Pajaronian in which she said her gang will “continue to fight” for fluoridation in Watsonville. So which Laura Marcus would we see at a discussion about local dental care: the now friendly, caring one quoted in the Good Times article or the bullying, threatening one who co-wrote the column saying they are going to keep fighting against proponents of safe water? She sounds more like a “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde” than a sincere leader trying to improve people’s health.

For more than 10 years the fluoridation pushers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to cram their toxic chemical into our water supplies. In all that time they have never been able to offer any scientific studies and proof showing that the chemical used to fluoridate the water is effective in fighting tooth decay. Rather than using all of that money and time to actually help the needy kids, they basically acted as shills for chemical companies needing to get rid of a toxic sludge by-product from the phosphate-fertilizer industry.

Let’s first get some people we can trust to sit down and solve the dental care problems throughout this county.

This is our message to Laura Marcus and other pushers of fluoridation: we are going to fight back every attempt you and your out-of-town gang make in trying to inject an unproven toxic waste into our water supply.

Nick Bulaich
Watsonville

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Best Online Comments

On ‘Oral Health Without Fluoride’ ...
Some are sad and some are not. Both sides battled fiercely. Personally speaking, having followed this long ordeal, but not living in affected area, I think Watsonville has saved a ton of money. I also think that by the time the fluoride ever got put into the water, there would also be new thinking on how to flouridate teeth.

There is a new mouthwash, already approved elsewhere, and soon to be looked at (if not already) by the FDA that will protect teeth with only occasional use instead of daily use. So, keep an eye out ... err tooth out, for it.
Steve Hartman

Keepers of the Well.org is an informative website that focuses on the unapproved products used to fluoridate public drinking water and presents documented and highlighted published information rather than opinion and anecdotal stories. I've never thought of it as "an organization.”

With the exception of hearing Congresswoman Jackie Speier make the monumental error of calling the National Institute of Dental Research "an anti-fluoridation organization" on a radio program in 1996, I think she has just been out-errored! It's slightly more amazing to hear The Denver Post newspaper and dental journals such as Journal of Public Health Dentistry, Public Health Reports, Pediatric Nursing, Pediatric Dentistry, the California Department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control, referred to as "anti-fluoride."
Maureen Jones

I see too many children with silver teeth, especially in Watsonville among the Mexican community. Fluoridation of the water supply will not fix the fact that the parents/grandparents of children with the silver (formally rotting) teeth were put to bed with bottles and sippy cups.
Charlie Red Stick

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