About a dozen years ago or so; during the Obama administration; a group of Orange County
Libertarians decided to try and make a difference in our community by formally requesting the City of
Winter Park remove Fluoride from the drinking water supply. The issue was/is local enough to get an
audience with the officials and present the case for their consideration. Some of the other local
municipalities had already removed this additive from their drinking water and we had hoped to provide
information and documentation as to why it would be in the interest of the residents of Winter Park,
(and those who passed through the municipality while dining out, etc.) to remove it.
We went down to the administration building and were referred to the appropriate committee,
where we were added to the next meeting docket. We attended the first meeting where we were
added to the docket at the next appropriate meeting to make a full presentation to the committee with
our documentation and findings to make our case. In the meantime, we had gone to the station on
Howell Branch Road where they actually added the Fluoride to the water supply and spoke with one of
the city workers who agreed with us and volunteered to be present to add credence to our argument at
our presentation.
The city employee, prior to that meeting, informed us he would not be able to attend after all. It
is unknown if he was dissuaded by the powers at be. Perhaps he had a scheduling conflict or just
decided he had changed his mind. We will most likely never know. When that committee meeting took
place, we gave our presentation. We were politely received and were questioned by the members.
There were those members of the committee who went over the benefits of “fluoridation” of the water.
I am not going to go over the evidence here as it would make this article so large it would likely
cause many to stop reading and move on. I will make the point, that Sodium Fluoride is a poison and is
not Calcium Fluoride which actually has calcium in its makeup. The members of the committee didn’t
really care and the formal vote was 14 to 1 against removing the poison from their water supply.
Shocker!
The point I want to make is not really against adding poison to the water supply. It is however
about how a small group of concerned citizens can still approach government for redresses of
grievances. I made the move from the Republicans to the Libertarians in 2005 because I was sick of “W”
lying to me every day. The Libertarians have our issues. However, in my humble opinion, I believe that
change will continue come from the small loud voices outside the system. Hopefully, those in newly
elected positions will have the interests of the citizenry at the forefront. Call me a skeptic, but we can’t
trust them either. So I remain as Robert Heinlein once wrote, “an optimist by temperament, a pessimist
by policy.” I will not give up the fight. I hope you won’t either.