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MichMan

(11,781 posts)
Mon Jan 21, 2019, 11:35 PM Jan 2019

Marc Edwards Is a Sad Victim of Our Modern Political Era (Flint water crisis)

from Mother Jones


"This is very sad: Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor who first exposed toxic levels of lead in the water supply of Flint, Michigan, was initially a hero to the Flint community. Thanks to him, Flint became the target of nationwide outrage, and steps were finally taken to reconnect Flint to the (safe) Detroit water supply. In less than a year, lead levels in Flint water had dropped to safe levels.

So what did Edwards do? Well, he’s a scientist, and just as he had honestly exposed Flint’s problems in the first place, he also continued to honestly report the results of the intervention. When the water was once again safe, he said so—and that turned him from a hero into a pariah."

"But this is not just about one guy who’s faced unfair attacks. It’s way more important than that. Here in the progressive community, we like to criticize conservatives for being too anti-science; too tribal; and too subservient to their most extreme wing. But look at what happened here. The science, as you’d expect, told us that Flint’s water got better after mitigation measures were taken—but the activists on the ground were too angry and bitter to accept that. Instead, they turned tribal on the guy reporting the results, and at that point you were either with them or against them."



[link:https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/marc-edwards-is-a-sad-microcosm-of-our-modern-political-era/?fbclid=IwAR3ZtWG904_WWw-UA37wIuFEWSzXiHW6UREcPlq2JX5JFwS6yhNuY5o9-rk|

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Marc Edwards Is a Sad Victim of Our Modern Political Era (Flint water crisis) (Original Post) MichMan Jan 2019 OP
This message was self-deleted by its author geralmar Jan 2019 #1

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