The fluoride proponents don't have a clue. They don't get it. When I open my water tap, I want clean water to come out, not medicine.

These well-meaning folks think they know what I need - and what others need. They want to save us from ourselves. Poor kids have bad teeth, so let's put medicine in the water. How goofy. They should work for dental care for poor kids.

A little cyanide in the water would probably reduce domestic violence in our community. How about Vitamin C to supplement the lack of fresh fruit in school lunch programs? How about chocolate syrup in our water? Some might like that. How about Ritalin? Or Valium? A lot of things that might - in some people's minds - fix some malady of our society. So put it in the water that everyone has to drink.

Bottled water is delivered to our Whatcom County Court House every week. Those government employees don't drink our water. Their clean bottled water is paid for by we taxpayers. You can bet there is no fluoride in those bottles of water. Nor any chemicals. How nice. And just why is not the tap water good enough for them? What is in our tap water that our local government bureaucrats don't want to drink?

The question is not what studies show what fluoride does or doesn't do. The question is how can we get clean pure water from our taps in our homes. Chlorine is needed in small amounts to keep the water safe and free of germs. OK. And other treatments may be needed for safety. But nothing else should go into our water. And we should keep our Lake Whatcom clean enough so that we don't have to load up the water with too much chlorine and other chemicals.

Water. We want pure clean water. It is as simple as that. It really is