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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 2013)
Opinion Supporting Water Fluoridation “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor B RUCE P OINSETTE Reporter D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. I remember when a neighbor’s child asked if I could help him find a dentist because he had a toothache. He was in the kind of searing pain that no child should have to experience. While he was able to get care, many other chil- dren continue to suffer extreme anguish because of poor dental health. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher called dental disease a “hidden epidemic” because it inflicts a terrible toll on our chil- dren and too often goes unseen. He called tooth decay the most common chronic childhood dis- ease in America, and experts say that’s still true. For those with the resources to get treatment, dental decay is often an expensive bur- den. But for those without the resources, it means living day after day with a painful infection. Portland’s dental health crisis is particularly affecting families who are already struggling to make ends meet, which makes it one of the most important health equity issues facing our community today. Children in the Portland Metro area have 40% more decay than in the Seattle, WA area. Children in low-income families are almost three times more likely to have rampant decay. This is unaccept- able. It’s not fair that children in Portland don’t have the same basic access to good dental health as children in neighboring cities.This May the people of Portland will have the opportunity to change this. Every trusted health organi- zation that has weighed in, has recommended water fluoridation because it is effective in prevent- P UBLIC H EALTH Avel Gordly and Tricia Tillman ing dental decay. Fluoride is a nat- ural mineral that binds with other minerals to make teeth harder and more resistant to decay. We are already spending millions of dol- lars trying to give fluoride to kids through dentist’s offices, prescrip- tions for tablets and school dental programs, but there are large gaps. A lot of dental decay starts before children ever get a chance to go to school. Water fluoridation is the only solution that provides a kids have bad teeth, they can have problems for the rest of their lives. With less pain, our children can learn better. With better teeth, our children can eat more healthy food. With a better smile, our children can be more confident and have better economic opportu- nities. Seriously - how many suc- cessful people do you know with decayed teeth? It’s unfortunate that there is so much misinformation about water fluoridation when the science is clear that it is healthy for our teeth. In fact, there is 100% agreement among major health and science organizations that fluoridation is a healthy practice for all of us. It Portland’s dental health crisis is particularly affecting families who are already struggling to make ends meet basic level of protection for every- one. When we save money by investing in prevention, we can re- invest taxpayer dollars in other critical community priorities and keep more of our hard earned money. A vote for water fluoridation is a vote for social justice. It will ben- efit everyone, but it will especially benefit people who can’t afford to take their kids to the dentist’s office. Because many African American children suffer from rampant decay, it will especially make a profound difference. Den- tal decay is cumulative, so when has been in use for more than 65 years in America, and now nearly every major city in America fluor- idates its water. In Portland, fluoridation is being championed by virtually all organ- izations representing social jus- tice, health, and children’s well-being. The Healthy Kids Healthy Portland campaign includes people we trust such as Michael Alexander and dental experts like Dr. Ken Wright and Jim Smith, and organizations that care deeply about our beloved community like the Urban League of Portland, The Coalition of Communities of Color, Oregon Latino Health Coalition, the Asian Pacific American Network of Ore- gon, the Oregon Pediatric Society, and the Oregon Public Health Association. Dental decay is painful, expen- sive, and can be embarrassing, and it’s time we do something about it. The quality of our children’s teeth should not be determined by what side of the river they live on. We must act. We must vote. As two life-long Portlanders, deeply com- mitted to the health and wellbeing of our community – we ask for your support for water fluorida- tion. Vote YES on May 21st. For more information go to: www.healthykidshealthyport- land.org Honorable Avel Gordly, in her role as State Senator, was a spon- sor of the legislation that created the Governor’s Environmental Justice Task Force and the Office of Multicultural Health (now the Office of Equity and Inclusion) in the Oregon Health Authority and former co-chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Health. She believes that water fluoridation is a health equity and an environmental justice issue. Tricia Tillman, a public health professional, community organiz- er, environmental justice advo- cate, and mom, established Multnomah County’s Health Equi- ty Initiative and co-founded the African American Outdoor Asso- ciation. She promises she and her family will be out knocking on doors this Spring in support of community water fluoridation. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Page 4 The Portland Skanner Lessons Learned from Essex and Dorner O ver a 43-year career in journalism, I have been blessed with some memo- rable experiences: I have covered presidential and vice presidential campaigns, I have flown on Air Force One, I have gone to parties at the White House, met Pope John Paul II, spent two weeks in Egypt, visited former slave dun- geons in Dakar and Accra and have traveled around the world, including Rome, Paris, London, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Havana, Vienna and recently Beijing and Shanghai. Of the thousands of stories I covered since I began my career in 1970 – primarily for Sports Illus- trated, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Chicago Tribune, Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service – one has affected me more than any other. It was the violent death of 23-year-old Mark Essex on Jan. 7,1973. Essex, who was known as the New Orleans Sniper, killed nine innocent people, including five police officers, and wounded 13 others. What has stayed with me over the years is not the carnage he inflicted – though that’s unforget- table – it’s the events that led up to that point. Essentially, Essex felt that he had been harassed in the Navy, an account partly supported by friends, and he became so embittered that he was ready to die. In fact, that’s exactly what he T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry wrote home to his parents shortly before his death. I interviewed Essex’s mother and father after his bullet-riddled body was pulled racism while growing up in segre- gated Tuscaloosa, Ala. during the 1950s and 1960s, that could have been me. Because I had relatives and adults who coached me on how to deal with overt racism, I didn’t go down that bloody path. When I first heard about Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles cop who also went on a murder spree, I was remind- ed of Mark Essex. Like Essex, he complained of reporting racist acts to his supervisor and nothing was done about it. His manifesto, while rambling, gave clear details of his torment. Of the thousands of stories I covered since I began my career in 1970, one has affected me more than any other. It was the violent death of 23- year-old Mark Essex on Jan. 7,1973 from the roof of the Howard John- son Hotel and sent back to Empo- ria for burial. Family members told me how a quiet, happy go lucky youth became embittered in the Navy. So bitter that he began hating all White people and was never the same again. I suspect the reason the story has stuck with me for four decades is because I realized that had I not been able to handle the stifling Dorner wrote about a White police officer using the n-word. Dorner said when he challenged the officer to not use the word in his presence, the officer replied, “I’ll say it when I want.” At that point, Dorner said he jumped over the passenger seat and began strangling the officer until they were separated by other cops. Dorner also wrote about the blue line, the code of ethics that pre- vents cops from testifying against one another, even when that offi- cer is wrong. Interestingly, while in the midst of killing innocent people, both Essex and Dorner spared some lives. In his case, Dorner did not shoot the person whose vehicle he hijacked toward the end of the police chase. He also did not harm two maids who had arrived to clean the cabin he had staked out in the mountains. At the Howard Johnson hotel in New Orleans, a Black maid said Essex told her, “Don’t worry. We’re not killing Blacks today, just Whites.” In the aftermath of the deaths of Mark Essex and Christopher Dorner, there is something we can take away from their lives. One of our greatest challenges when dealing with young people, especially, is that we must teach them how to survive life’s slings and arrows without going over the edge. It would be interesting if community-wide forums were organized for young people to lis- ten to what their elders went through. Not just listen to them, but learn from them. How do you manage to cope during difficult times? Don’t tell me, tell someone close to you. It just might save their life. George E. Curry, former editor- in-chief of Emerge magazine, is editor-in-chief of the NNPA.
