The Waters of Michigan

I was reading about this earlier today. Unbelievable what the governor of Michigan and his administration have done to the people of Flint. To make things even worse, after the governor declared the state of emergency, the state has done nothing to help the residents find safe water.

Michigan Fails to Hand Out Bottled Water in Lead-Poisoned Flint

So...they knowingly poisoned the citizens of Flint...cut off the water when it was becoming clear the jig is up...and then failed to provide an alternative. Sadly, this could have all been prevented with a $100/day fix. Instead, billions will have to be spent to completely rebuild the water infrastructure.

 

Never more appropriate.

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Disgraceful governor. At best, gross negligence. Throw the book at him and all knowingly involved.

 

Awful, my heart goes out to all the people affected. Can you imagine finding this out about your own water supply? The one your children and family drink and bathe in? I would be torn apart from the inside by sadness and anger.

Goes to show, in my opinion, that people should be more aware of their essentials like food and water and the sources they come from, and be more weary of the people who regulate it.

Really kills my heart to think of children being poisoned.

 

I'm shocked. You mean bidness men bean counter types can not always do a better job than the government or elected leaders at running gubmint??

 

My God. This guy's a criminal and he still has his job.

The water was so contaminated that GM refused to use it - practically for free - because it was corrosive to car parts.

 

IMO people should be less aware. Sometimes awareness is its own poison.

 

And like unawareness is a smart thing in this case?

 

Forgive me if my sarcasm dector is broken, but...

That may be a true statement for physiological health and or balance with certain scenarios... But like Tom mentioned... That would make no sense for this situation at all. Thank goodness for the people in the community who where aware of the water situation and helped bring it into the light before even more damage was done to the residents of Flint. I only wish that the peoples who's jobs it is to make sure things like this never happen, where much more aware, it is actually the lack of awareness (negligence) that caused the disaster in the first place.

 

I'm sure they are quite weary of the regulators. They could stand to be more wary too, though.

 

Insane

Rocket River

 

Made me think of this book I read in grad school:



One of Zunz's findings is that the water and sewer systems laid to poorer neighborhoods in Detroit were much cheaper with less capacity than those that went to nicer (white) neighborhoods.

 

Michigan is such a freaking mess. It seems like their emergency state managers that have taken over local functions are just making things worse -- in the schools now in addition to water supply.

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/14/462915697/detroit-public-school-teachers-turn-to-sickouts-in-protest

[rquoter]For three straight days earlier this week, some Detroit public schools were closed because too many teachers called in sick.

These rolling "sickout" protests have picked up steam in recent weeks, and they've drawn fierce criticism — and attention to a school district in freefall.

Detroit resident Crystal Fischer saw it on the news Monday morning: Her 5-year-old son's school was closed because too many teachers had called in sick.

Fischer made do for that day.

But when she got the call on Tuesday — the school was closed again — the working single mom wasn't too happy.

"It may be an issue with the teachers, but shoot, they're causing issues with the parents," she says. "They're making us suffer."

Fischer didn't really understand what the teachers were so upset about, but she did notice one thing at her son's school.

"The classrooms are overcrowded," she says. "Too many kids to one teacher."

Overcrowding is just one item on the long list of complaints Detroit teachers have.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan toured some schools Tuesday.

"I've seen some very well-maintained buildings," he said. "And I've seen some buildings that would break your heart."

Duggan has vowed to fix the most egregious building problems: for example, black mold and collapsing ceilings.

But Duggan's powers are limited because the state has run Detroit Public Schools for almost seven years now, through a series of so-called "emergency managers."

"And it's been seven years of enrollment decline, deficits, test score decline," Duggan said. "And now a third of the money coming in school is being diverted to debt."

That's $3.5 billion of debt, some of it short-term debt run up by the district's emergency managers, who are supposed to put the school's finances back on solid footing.

But many in Detroit argue that emergency management has made bad situations even worse, putting Detroit schools on the brink of what the city of Detroit has already endured.

Nina Chacker is a special education teacher in Detroit.

"The state has created debt after debt after debt," she says, adding that teachers are now at a breaking point.

"People leave every single week. And we have just kind of come to realize that they need us at this point. They cannot get people to work in Detroit," Chacker says.

The teachers union has not organized or even formally condoned the sickouts. It's struggling with its own internal political divisions.

Chacker says the push came from the teachers. And she says they're doing it for the students.

"They're kids that are easy to take advantage of," Chacker says. "And I will fight as hard as I can to ensure that that doesn't happen."

That's not how district and state officials see it.

They say the sickouts just hurt students and parents like Crystal Fischer, and they have accused the teachers of using them as "pawns" and engaging in illegal wildcat strikes. Strikes by government employees are illegal in Michigan.

Michelle Zdrodowski, a spokeswoman for Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, says they all understand Detroit teachers' "frustration."

"But when teachers continue to do these sickouts, it makes our efforts to talk to the Legislature, and get them to say yes to investing in DPS, that much more difficult," she says.

That's exactly what many Republicans in the Michigan state Legislature say, as bills calling for a bankruptcy-style restructuring were finally introduced in Lansing.

That's Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's plan for the district, but the response so far has been lukewarm at best.

And the governor is already struggling with another huge political crisis: widespread contamination of drinking water in Flint, Mich.

He has to figure it out, though. Without some kind of state investment, the Detroit Public Schools will go broke before the end of the school year.[/rquoter]

 

Bump.

This guy is still not in jail. In fact, he still has a job.

Does this guy have to wear a ****ing turban for you guys to think it's a big deal he did more damage than any terrorist can ever do?

This could happen to you or your kids where you live if Americans don't strike fear into the type of people who did this. This is a relatively small town story that has people all over the world gasping and wondering what the F is going on in America. There's always been corruption and pollution and whatnot, but never so blatant and never with such gaul. These people used to give zero ****s about you, now they somehow take ****s from you. The number of ****s they give about you is less than zero.

Have you totally lost control of your country?

 

Meanwhile Superman is miffed that he cannot see through flint to China.

Sounds like a story from the Fallout 4 world. Sad.

 

Have you totally lost control of your mind? Breath into a bag or something and calm down.

Nobody in here is defending the guy. Nobody here is doing anything but shaking their head and feeling outraged and terrible, but you know what: that doesn't really leave anything to "Debate and Discuss."

None of us, that I know of, live anywhere near here, so a call from Houston or San Francisco demanding that the dude be fired will not really do anything.

It's a horrifying regional issue that underlines a overall decline in oversight and infrastructure in the United States, yes. For now, tax cuts are more important to us. And apparently, a great opportunity for a frequent America critic / ME dictatorship apologist to come in and hyperventilate. (Again, count to five before letting yourself take another breath.)

 

This is just a horrifying story and heart breaking to see. The amount of damage those children have suffered due to lead poisoning and how it will affect their lives is depressing.

There should be a universal call for accountability and immediate action to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, I fear much of this is gonna get caught up in a game of political football as the usual suspects decide they need to deflect blame and responsibility of their man and team.

B-Bob, you nailed it. This is a reckoning for neglecting our infrastructure for so long. Tax cuts that mostly benefited uber-wealthy just weren't worth it. There should be nothing here to debate. And only outrage and what to do next to discuss.

rimrocker, you mentioning the Zunz book reminded me of The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas Sugrue. Still on Detroit but another look at how these crises are created.

 

This is Criminal
Someone should go to prison for this

Bump this . .its a mistake crap
plenty of people in prison for 'mistakes'
These people should join them

Rocket River

 

sometimes; but other times, in fact, every time, lead in your drinking water is its own poison.