WASHINGTON ACTION FOR SAFE WATER

FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK
http://fluoridealert.org/

FAN Bulletin 2017: Fluoride Conference for Activists.

This year’s conference Organizing to Win: What works? What doesn’t?, unlike our previous three Citizens’ Conferences on Fluoride, is structured to help activists learn what has worked in other communities and to strengthen networking, organizational skills, and creativity among activists. This conference, and future ones, will be partially funded from The Carol Patton Fluoride Memorial Fund.

In order to attract active fluoridation fighters to attend we have decided to waive the registration fee of $50 for all those who can assure us that they have worked in some way or another in this fight over the last year. We will also do what we can to cover some of the travel and/or accommodation expenses of the key activists who are prepared to give a short presentation to the conference on their work.

Here are the online links for the conference – they are also on the homepage:

About: http://fluoridealert.org/conference.2010.html

Costs: http://fluoridealert.org/conference.2010.costs.html

Agenda: http://fluoridealert.org/conference.2010.agenda.html

We are already excited by the list of people who have agreed to attend and present and those we are still trying to persuade::

1. Dr. Bill Osmunson (both an expert and an activist) who will give the keynote address;

2. Mike Ewall, whose group has once again helped to keep mandatory out of Pennsylvania;

3. Rae Nadler-Olenick from a very active group fighting hard to get fluoridation halted in Austin, Texas;

4. Gilles Parent from Quebec with news of important victories there as well as copies of his book (co-authored by Pierre Marin and John Remington Graham) newly translated into English.

5. Several people from the wonderful team fighting fluoridation in Ontario (Diana Sprules, Robert Flemming, Aliss Terpstra & several others).

6. Dr. James Beck from Calgary, Alberta, highly involved in the fight to get fluoridation out of that city, and co-author of the book with myself and Spedding Micklem, The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended up in Our Drinking Water and the Poor Science and Powerful Politics that Keep it There (due out at the end of September). Jim and I will briefly summarize what’s in the book and offer suggestions on how it might help everyone in this battle.

7. Cathy Justus from Colorado to tell us about the way fluoridated water poisoned her horses, her successful efforts to stop fluoridation, and how David Kennedy’s videotape has got this message out worldwide.  Cathy will also share her fond memories of how important Dr. Lennart Krook was to her efforts;

8. Jeanette Bajorek from Sacramento, California will tell us what one dedicated individual can do, and

9. Kevin Hurley from Vermont will show us excerpts from the documentary he is producing on fluoridation;

We hope that the following will attend.

• An activist from Louisiana to talk about the steps they have taken to reverse the recent bill making fluoridation mandatory in that state;

• Someone to tell us about the efforts that have so far kept mandatory fluoridation out of New Jersey;

• Someone, in addition to Dr. Osmunson, from the very well-organized group in Oregon which year after year have kept mandatory fluoridation out of that state;

• Someone from Nebraska to tell us about the remarkable series of victories in communities in that state that have opted out of the mandatory legislation there;

• Bernie Miltenberger a one man whirlwind who is giving a mighty headache to those politicians in Maryland who continue to support fluoridation a mighty headache; and

• Carole Clinch to tell us about her heroic efforts with Health Canada.

• We are not sure yet if we can get anyone to come to the conference from Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK to talk about the battles there, but at the very least we hope to have short videos from each country where activists talk about their campaigns – the ones that have worked and the ones that haven’t.

Let me know if you would like to present at the Conference.

I have only scratched the surface of what might happen at this conference. We also hope to entice Henry Lickers from the Akwesasne reservation to give us his unforgettable opening and closing prayers as well share a few words about Lennart Krook. For those who can spare the extra day we will have a 2 1/4 hour boat trip of the beautiful Thousand islands on Monday July 26.

Then of course we will have our usual goofy auction which helps to raise money and give people a chuckle. The presentation of FAN’s Albert Burgstahler Scientific Integrity Award. Time also for some swimming.

At the end of the day we will only win this battle if the people who work on this issue – against the mighty odds of government power and the deep pockets of the dental lobby – if we work together, get to meet each other and have some fun doing it. So if you are an activist please sign up online and let us know if you will need some financial help to make the journey.

If you cannot make it this time you can still be part of this event in three important ways:

1. Send us a short written statement about what you as an individual or as a group have been doing to end this foolish practice;

2. Send us a donation to help someone else to get to the conferences, and

3. Send us an auction item for the conference. This can be a) fluoridation memorabilia (old campaign buttons, bumper stickers, leaflets, books etc); b) valuable items – preferably small in size – which might earn us some cash or c) really goofy items which give us all a laugh when they fetch a high price (big money makers from the past have been a singing fish, a rubber chicken, a laughing baby, priceless wine from Kansas and Crystal’s ghastly teeth!). Please send these to Paul and Ellen Connett, 82 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617. Make sure that you put a name tag on it with your town and state, so your “presence” is recognized.

Canton, NY is a non-fluoridated village of approximately 6,000 residents and located approximately half way between Syracuse, NY and Montreal, Canada and just 20 minutes from the Canadian border and the St. Lawrence River. The closest airports are Ogdensburg, NY (very small airport 30 minutes away); Ottawa, Canada (about 90 minutes away); Montreal (Dorval), Canada about 2.5 hours away and Syracuse NY also about 2.5 hours away. There is a bus that leaves Syracuse airport for Canton at 7:15 am and at 5:25 pm. If you come in via Canada make sure you have a passport.

Hope to see you in July.

Paul Connett