Problem STILL Not Solved - WTF Is Happening in Flint?
State employees across the country are murdering men, women, and children with profound regularity and sheer impunity. The power of this status quo is being tested in Michigan, where an entire city has been poisoned by the state government, a generation of children impaired, ten people killed, with no arrests (but there is a big lawsuit).
How Flint was poisoned
Persistent reporting says Flint's water source was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money. The truth is that water from the river was more expensive and the government knew it when they switched. It seems salient to point out here that the local government at the time was not a democratically elected one, but an appointed one, headed by an "Emergency Manager."
What now?
Governor Snyder claimed to be ignorant to the dangerous lead levels in the water while experts warned him and as he delivered purified water to state offices. Concerned citizens and corporations are donating thousands, even millions of water bottles. However, it would take 20.4 million 16oz. bottles of water per day in Flint to cover what the average American needs daily.
An army of 300 plumbers, nobly donating their expertise and hard work, teamed up to install new faucets and water filters in affected Flint homes and additional donations of filters continue. Unfortunately, the level of contamination in some tested homes is more than 26 times the level where the filters are effective.
The lead is coming from pipes that have been corroded by the untreated river water. Flint’s mayor, Karen Weaver, doing her best with her limited authority under emergency management, is pressing to have all the lead pipes in Flint replaced right away.
Governor Snyder, for whom the benefit of the doubt is the difference between manslaughter and murder, thinks replacing the pipes is a longer-term consideration, despite having described it as an “imminent” threat when asking the federal government to pay for the problem he created.
And to help him with the longer-term consideration, Snyder will give another half million dollars to the same business that was involved in switching Flint’s water supply to the river without the corrosion-controlling chemicals that would have prevented this disaster. Do you think they were selected after a transparent bidding process?
“It’s ridiculous to have a $214 a month water bill for water that you can’t use”
Justice
Justice in this case, many people rightfully argue, would require legal action against the perpetrators, and there's a movement underway to support this. The same notorious Flint expat who is leading the charge for Snyder's arrest has a list of other ideas to responsibly deal with the victims and stakeholders.
Is it enough?
“The scale of atrocity in this story is so without precedent or historical context it’s difficult to conceive of a proportional reaction or response.”
The police are militarized and violent even against legal, peaceful demonstrations so that’s not an attractive option. The creativity behind this state-inflicted disaster favors the perpetrators with the same benefit enjoyed by risky financial products like subprime mortgages did before the crisis of 2008, or like merchant cash advances do currently. To have prevented this tragedy there would have needed to be a system in place to protect the citizens of this country from the depraved schemes of an unprincipled cabal, a way to deny the programs designed by associations of villainous half-wits.
Vote
There is, in fact, just such a system and it happens to be the very foundation of our government. Representative democracy isn't perfect but when it's taken for granted, when participation is minimal, when enough blind eyes are turned, it will be quietly swept under the rug and replaced with unaccountable autocrats and despots. There can no longer be any doubt that this reality is possible in America - it has happened with tragic and lingering results.
Each emergency manager is a blatant usurper and their actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for the basic well-being of American citizens. Let this shameless contempt for self-determination motivate you to vote.
If you care for the people of Flint, if you care for the victims of unaccountable law enforcement, acknowledge what's at stake and vote.
Vote for the common good. Vote for health over wealth. Vote for the sake of yourself and your vulnerable neighbors.