UPDATE: Several Michigan state officials, including those who reported to Gov. Rick Snyder, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with a Legionnaires' outbreak that killed 12 people during the Flint water crisis, the Michigan attorney general's office announced on June 14th. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, former City of Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Drinking Water Chief Liane Shekter-Smith and former district supervisor Stephen Busch will all face involuntary manslaughter charges related to their alleged failure to act in the Flint Water Crisis.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Flint residences, like the inhabitants of many other US cities, continue to feel the full weight of their failed municipal water systems. The Flint water crisis, now having lingered for over three years, may not be considered a newsworthy story for corporate media outlets to continually focus on, however the hearts and minds of America will not allow the willful public neglect and purposeful injury to be forgotten. The Metro Times reported on November 10, 2016 the following:
"Federal judge David M. Lawson ordered the state of Michigan and the city of Flint to ensure that every Flint household has safe drinking water. That means homes must receive bottled water deliver unless the government verifies, on a regular basis, that the home has a properly installed and maintained faucet filter, or the home declines delivery."
In late March 2017 a deal was struck that requires Michigan to give Flint $97 million in state and federal funds so the city can replace lead and other problem water pipes that connect homes to the city's main water line. Some of that -- $20 million -- came from a $100 million Environmental Protection Agency grant awarded to upgrade Flint's water system; $20 million more came from a state match. Flint must use the funds to replace problem pipes to at least 18,000 households by 2019.
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go" -Henry David Thoreau
It appears that for Flint residents it is a tragic game of two steps forward and one step back facilitated by apathetic government officials devoid of timely solutions. One month after the $97 million in state and federal funds were granted news has broke that thousands of Flint residents have been warned that they could lose their homes if they don’t pay outstanding water bills — even as the city has just begun replacing lead-tainted pipes. Warning letters were mailed to 8,002 residents in April, according to the city, a few weeks after state officials ended a program that was paying the majority of their water bills.
City spokeswoman Kristin Moore said. “It’s a tough place to be in, but we’re just trying to do the best we can.”...Translation: "government can't and won't save you."
A Reuters investigation late last year uncovered nearly 3,000 different communities across the U.S. with lead levels higher than those found in Flint. In a growing number of communities, the public is faced with either packing up and leaving due to water contamination or staying and mounting waves of civil disobedience. For those who stay, mass campaigns of creative civil disobedience may prove easier than expected since the communities already have a natural buy-in and mutual aim of clean water. The widespread utilization of social media within communities should only further amplify campaigns of noncompliance. Nonviolent actions focused on faceless agencies, apathetic government bodies and key leadership will do much to set the example for other communities to follow. No communities should ever experience the willful government neglect that Flint has endured. The low-hanging fruit of actionable civil disobedience in Flint currently appears to be mass noncompliance to withhold payment of the 8,002 water bills; bills requesting payment for failed services from a municipal water system that has broken its social contract and failed to provide its basic tenets.
“What is in the mind of someone who knowingly poisons children and impairs their lives?…What does it say about a society that is ruled by, and refuses to punish, those who willfully destroy the lives of children?" -Chris Hedges ‘Flint Crisis is About More Than Just Water’
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Flint residences, like the inhabitants of many other US cities, continue to feel the full weight of their failed municipal water systems. The Flint water crisis, now having lingered for over three years, may not be considered a newsworthy story for corporate media outlets to continually focus on, however the hearts and minds of America will not allow the willful public neglect and purposeful injury to be forgotten. The Metro Times reported on November 10, 2016 the following:
"Federal judge David M. Lawson ordered the state of Michigan and the city of Flint to ensure that every Flint household has safe drinking water. That means homes must receive bottled water deliver unless the government verifies, on a regular basis, that the home has a properly installed and maintained faucet filter, or the home declines delivery."
In late March 2017 a deal was struck that requires Michigan to give Flint $97 million in state and federal funds so the city can replace lead and other problem water pipes that connect homes to the city's main water line. Some of that -- $20 million -- came from a $100 million Environmental Protection Agency grant awarded to upgrade Flint's water system; $20 million more came from a state match. Flint must use the funds to replace problem pipes to at least 18,000 households by 2019.
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go" -Henry David Thoreau
It appears that for Flint residents it is a tragic game of two steps forward and one step back facilitated by apathetic government officials devoid of timely solutions. One month after the $97 million in state and federal funds were granted news has broke that thousands of Flint residents have been warned that they could lose their homes if they don’t pay outstanding water bills — even as the city has just begun replacing lead-tainted pipes. Warning letters were mailed to 8,002 residents in April, according to the city, a few weeks after state officials ended a program that was paying the majority of their water bills.
City spokeswoman Kristin Moore said. “It’s a tough place to be in, but we’re just trying to do the best we can.”...Translation: "government can't and won't save you."
A Reuters investigation late last year uncovered nearly 3,000 different communities across the U.S. with lead levels higher than those found in Flint. In a growing number of communities, the public is faced with either packing up and leaving due to water contamination or staying and mounting waves of civil disobedience. For those who stay, mass campaigns of creative civil disobedience may prove easier than expected since the communities already have a natural buy-in and mutual aim of clean water. The widespread utilization of social media within communities should only further amplify campaigns of noncompliance. Nonviolent actions focused on faceless agencies, apathetic government bodies and key leadership will do much to set the example for other communities to follow. No communities should ever experience the willful government neglect that Flint has endured. The low-hanging fruit of actionable civil disobedience in Flint currently appears to be mass noncompliance to withhold payment of the 8,002 water bills; bills requesting payment for failed services from a municipal water system that has broken its social contract and failed to provide its basic tenets.
“What is in the mind of someone who knowingly poisons children and impairs their lives?…What does it say about a society that is ruled by, and refuses to punish, those who willfully destroy the lives of children?" -Chris Hedges ‘Flint Crisis is About More Than Just Water’
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