When I show people around the downtown as a guide for
Portland Walking Tours, I joke that we Portlanders love to protest things.
Much as we love our city, I tell visitors, we also like to
get worked up about stuff and make a lot of noise. Out-of-towners (and
sometimes recent arrivals or even longtime residents) who join my tour get to
see statues that provoked controversy, as well as the blocks where the Occupy
Portland camp settled for more than five weeks in 2011. I was there, as regular
readers of this blog well know.
This week’s vote on fluoridation of Portland’s water has provoked
a public furor that has been no laughing matter, however. Over the past few
months it’s been surprisingly loud, fierce, and unrelenting. Each side has accused
the other of stealing campaign signs, and arguments among my Facebook friends
have been spirited, to say the least.
Supporting the move to fluoridate the city’s water are most
health and science authorities, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
to the American Dental Association. All of the city’s newspapers, from the Oregonian to the bi-weekly Portland Tribune and the alternative
weeklies Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury, have urged voters to
say yes.
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