Principals on both sides of this once hotly debated topic insist the Nov. 7 ballot proposition is attracting almost as much attention as when voters last faced it in 1964. But I sure don't see it. Maybe it's just a poor topic for conversation around the water cooler. Except for some thought-provoking letters to the editor and a few remarks at City Council meetings, what was once a Cold War topic of great paranoia is failing to raise voters' passions one way or the other.
Many voters are indifferent.
Others just have long memories. Because arguments became so inflammatory and absurd 36 years ago, some Abilenians are today devoting their attention to other matters, such as the presidential race and who on earth Montie Shy is. That includes Republican activist Claire Johnson, who with her husband, dentist John Johnson, campaigned for fluoridation in 1964, only to find many voters suspected fluoridating city water was a communist plot. And we got pretty well kicked for it. People said next thing we'd be trying to put birth control in city water.