The real lessons of Flint

[marmar]

from the Metro Times:



Politics & prejudices: The real lessons of Flint
By Jack Lessenberry


The poisoned water tragedy of Flint is a movie waiting to be made. You have heroes ­— the noble doctor Mona Hanna-Attisha, the dedicated researcher Marc Edwards, the brilliant, quirky, and driven investigative reporter Curt Guyette.

You've got villains: The clueless "relentless positive" accountant governor fixated on the bottom line: the smug emergency managers and the bureaucrats at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, plus the arrogant press spokesman who belittled anyone who asked about lead.

And you've got victims ­— thousands of victims — children needlessly poisoned by an out-of-touch government.

.....(snip).....

What we all need to realize is that Flint is a postcard from our future, unless we get serious about fixing this nation.

Our infrastructure is falling apart. Too many of us are being left behind, and much of what's left of the shrinking middle-class economy is really a house of cards. .............(more)

http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/politics-and-prejudices-the-real-lessons-of-flint/Content?oid=2395448

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

1. thnx - this is and should be a national discussion not only MI - happened to see this in the latest

threads section- you may want to cross post this in gen discussion or somewhere. Yes - this is indeed our future, assuming we continue on the same trajectory, and we need to be screaming this from the rooftops. At first I wondered how the R's would spin it, how can they demonize D's & fed govt when they are groveling for fed funds to fix it?

But sure enough they find away. They always do. They blame OBAMA & the EPA for dragging their feet to not enforce the regs when the lead poisoning became apparent.... which is true, but they conveniently forget that the EPA DID IN FACT provide them instruction in 2011 on how to make the water safe - MI R's CHOSE TO IGNORE IT when they designed the new system.

[MrScorpio]

2. There's one one real lesson: Never trust Republicans with ANYTHING. nt

[MichiganVote]

3. He's right about the middle class being a house of cards--no money left. Its all coming to a close.

And it will make the housing industry collapse look like a tempest in a teapot. No country can depend on one economic segment of the country for the tax relief of the wealthy or the needs of the poor and expect it to survive. Once its gone-we're gone.

So much for 200+ plus years of democracy.