Fix Flint NOW

[TBF]

(TBF Note: If this were Grosse Point we would not be having this conversation. And, no, I'm not going to stop talking about it.)

The agency, like the state, cannot restore credibility unless it moves aggressively to repair the damage that Flint residents are living with.

NYTimes Sunday Review | Editorial
Fix Flint’s Water System, Now
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD ~ JAN. 23, 2016

The conditions on the ground in Flint still do not seem to have sunk in at the Michigan statehouse. Thousands of residents are still relying on trucked-in water, as if they were in a war-zone refugee camp, while worrying that their children may suffer developmental and other health problems from a water system poisoned by lead. Gov. Rick Snyder has been busy apologizing, but the tiny steps he is taking to repair the damage shrink beside the urgency of the problem.

The challenge now is to replace the corroded pipes or perhaps the whole water system in this city of nearly 100,000 as quickly as it can be done. The cost may reach $1 billion or more, but that cannot stand in the way of moving forward to make the city fit for habitation. No Americans should have to live with poisoned water that is a direct result of the government’s decisions and neglect ...

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/opinion/sunday/fix-flints-water-system-now.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

[guillaumeb]

1. What is happening in Flint is what happens every time the GOP

vision is realized. Minimal regulation, safety taking a back seat to profits, and the 99% suffer. How does this happen?
It takes an apathetic citizenry that does not bother to vote, plus a media that focuses on Sarah Palin and the Kardashians, and corrupt politicians.

[TBF]

2. This didn't happen overnight -

and at least some of this can be linked to complicit democrats. To wit, "Michigan lost 231,752 manufacturing jobs (or 28.3 percent) during the NAFTA-WTO period (1994-2015), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.* This figure is for total manufacturing employment, so it takes into account both jobs created by exports and jobs displaced by imports, among other causes of net job change. The percentage of all private sector jobs that are manufacturing jobs in Michigan declined from 24 percent to 16.3 percent during the NAFTA-WTO period." http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=3413

Recognizing that it would be really nice to lift boats all over the world. But what we see in practice is that we lift some boats here and there, and others drown because the billionaires sure aren't gonna give up their yachts. We're being played here.

[guillaumeb]

3. I like that saying, so loved by the GOP, that "a rising tide lifts all boats".

But I would modify it to read: a rising tide drowns everyone without a boat. And 99% of us have no boats.

[TBF]

4. Actually it's attributed to Kennedy -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boats