A Mighty Oak
I have found the perfect way to make sure I can attend your meeting: Make sure I can see it from my house.
Anyway. Big Baby’s First ACORN Meeting. They had been door to door, a couple maybe three weeks ago. They made an appointment and came by to see what I wanted changed. I gave them the police report from last March and told them to start on page one.
They had a meeting scheduled but it didn’t happen. I think because they had no place to have it. I was a little surprised because they seemed really motivated and ready to start something, power to the people and all that. Rah, rah. I had figured they would be able to guilt someone into hosting in their home.
They called, conveniently for me, while I wasn’t there. They had a location.
After Wednesday's fiasco, I was feeling bruised. Bruised and inept. I needed to feel ept. It was important that I be able to go the four blocks from my house successfully. And thankfully, they didn’t move the rec center, so I felt pretty secure that I had the right place. It’s a lot bigger place then I thought. My tax dollars at work. A proto-banger who is busy shooting hoops is a proto-banger who is too busy to be out banging. I would assume. I prepared to walk into an empty room and bond uncomfortably with the leader. So much like a precinct meeting.
I was not alone, I wasn’t even the first one there. This was clearly not much like a precinct meeting. They were middle aged, middle income, all the way pissed off. You have to be to show up.. No one says yes to ACORN unless they are really, really angry. No one gets involved with any group unless they are really tired of getting nowhere by themselves.
Together... We watched Jeopardy. As a group we were very good at TV Detectives and Southern Cuisine. The local TV news wants us to be suspicious of fluoride in our drinking water. What year is it again? Oh, I forgot, Hgielar .
We got underway. We introduced ourselves and watched a video of ACORNS 2002 national convention. It involved a lot of gospel music, think A-CORN, A-CORN, A-CORN, sing it joyfully, crowds of poor people in free tee-shirts and a lot of speeches about working together. And marching, ACORN loves marching. The leader guy went on to tell us that there is going to be a convention in Detroit (!!) And that there would be fundraisers. Looking around the room, no one there was very interested in fund raising or going to Detroit.
And then the guy asked what we had problems with. Suddenly everyone was very interested. We all had problems. From garbage men not putting the trash containers back on the curb to the need for bus shelters to strengthening loitering ordinances to fighting drug dealers and hookers.
And we looked at him and said what are you going to do about these things. And he looked at us and said what are you going to do about these things. And we were like Dude. If we knew how to fix these things ourselves, do you think we would have shown up here?. Fix it!
And then he told us what we're going to do about these things: We’re going to go to City Council meetings and we’re going to write letters and we’re going to make phone calls and if we are really good, we're going to march.
3 comments:
In a statement released August 9, 2007, over 600 (now 1,00) professionals urge Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted. They cite new scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. (http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html)
Signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three members of the prestigious 2006 National Research Council (NRC) panel that reported on fluoride’s toxicology, two officers in the Union representing professionals at EPA headquarters, the President of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment, and hundreds of medical, dental, academic, scientific and environmental professionals, worldwide.
Signer Dr. Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, says, “Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It's really obsolete.”
An Online Action Petition to Congress in support of the Professionals' Statement is available on FAN's web site, www.fluorideaction.org.
“The NRC report dramatically changed scientific understanding of fluoride's health risks," says Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network. "Government officials who continue to promote fluoridation must testify under oath as to why they are ignoring the powerful evidence of harm in the NRC report,” he added.
An Assistant NY State Attorney General calls the report “the most up-to-date expert authority on the health effects of fluoride exposure.”
The Professionals’ Statement also references:
-- The new American Dental Association policy recommending infant formula NOT be prepared with fluoridated water.
-- The CDC’s concession that the predominant benefit of fluoride is topical not systemic.
-- CDC data showing that dental fluorosis, caused by fluoride over-exposure, now impacts one third of American children.
-- Major research indicating little difference in decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities.
-- A Harvard study indicating a possible link between fluoridation and bone cancer.
-- The silicofluoride chemicals used for fluoridation are contaminated industrial waste and have never been FDA- approved for human ingestion.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a DC watchdog, revealed that a Harvard professor concealed the fluoridation/bone cancer connection for three years. EWG President Ken Cook states, “It is time for the US to recognize that fluoridation has serious risks that far outweigh any minor benefits, and unlike many other environmental issues, it's as easy to end as turning off a valve at the water plant.”
Partially, as a result of this statement, at least one city, Cobleskill NY, stopped 54 years of water fluoridation. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/2998.html
Many communities rejected or stopped fluoridation over the years. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/communities.htm
On October 2, Juneau Alaska voters rejected fluoridation despite the American Dental Associations $150,000 political campaign to return fluoride into the water supply after the legislative body voted it out.
Take Action to End Fluoridation. Sign the Online Petition to End Fluoridation and call for a Congressional Hearing
http://www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm?option=begin&pageid=8276
http://www.FluorideAction.Net
http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/benefits/background.htm
Fluoride's benefits for teeth were discovered in the 1930s. Dental scientists observed remarkably low decay rates among people whose water supplies contained significant amounts of natural fluoride. Several studies conducted during the 1940s and 1950s confirmed that when a small amount of fluoride is added to the community water supply, decay rates among residents of that community decrease. Although these studies focused primarily on the benefits of water fluoridation for children, more recent studies demonstrate that decay rates in adults are also reduced as a result of fluoride in the drinking water
Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999: Fluoridation of Drinking Water to Prevent Dental Caries
Fluoridation of community drinking water is a major factor responsible for the decline in dental caries (tooth decay) during the second half of the 20th century. The history of water fluoridation is a classic example of clinical observation leading to epidemiologic investigation and community-based public health intervention. Although other fluoride-containing products are available, water fluoridation remains the most equitable and cost-effective method of delivering fluoride to all members of most communities, regardless of age, educational attainment, or income level.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4841a1.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/benefits.htm#1
You can always spot someone who grew up somewhere without flouridated water by the color of their teeth. Of course, if someone wants to avoid flouride, there's always well water. They can enjoy it from the doorway of the bunker it as they bemaon the recent increases in jet-trails overhead.
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