Sunday, January 24, 2016

I would not go as far as Michael Moore who called it a racial crime and ethnic cleansing.  But I am shocked and appalled at what happened in Flint with its water.  I would agree that if this was happening in a rich suburb of Michigan or the state capitol, Lansing, this would have been resolved a long time ago.

There are a lot of blame to go around from what I can see.  First, you would think that if you are switching to a different source of water, the new source must be tested way before to be sure it is safe.  In this case there was lots of chloride in the Flint river water and it is corrosive to pipes.  That was not difficult science to understand.  When the residents complained of bad smell and color in the water, it was ignored.  Can't see that happening in Bloomfield Hills.  Then GM would not use the water because it was corroding engine parts.  If it is bad for engines, wouldn't someone figure that it was bad for pipes and people?  Then when finally the city council voted to go back to Lake Huron water, the emergency manager appointed by the governor vetoed the move.  Given the evidence at that point, how can he morally do that?  And at that point, nobody in the governor's office see the problem already?

There are probably more blame to go around but I only recently read about this.  I hope someone from Michigan can give more insight to this.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:57 PM

    There is plenty of blame to go around on this. I am not sure how they will be able to dig out of this, because the infrastructure needs to be replaced. I am hearing from some people that the water is not as bad as being reported. These people are richer people, so I wonder if the area that they live in is not effected by it.

    You can't deny what you are seeing, where the water was coming out cloudy and in some cases, yellow/brown. So, we all know that most of Flint is poor. The governor appointed an emergency manager to take over the spending there. The manager recommended that they switch the water from Detroit to the Flint river.

    What happened next is as cloudy as the water. I don't know how or if the water coming out of the river was tested. But let's agree that it should have. So whoever tested it, should be held accountable, because if there was any cause of concern, it should have happened at the source.

    We also hear that residents started to complain about the water in about 2014. So, apparently there was a study done and the water was deemed fine and that's what was reported to the governor.

    Then all of the sudden, people started to get sick and some died. So the city decided to switch back to Detroit, but by that time, the pipes had already been corroded and contaminated. We are also hearing that Flint residents are being charged for water that they can't use.

    So, you have the most basic story down correctly. I agree in a sense that if it would not have happened in Bloomfield Hills. However, I believe that to be the case only because Bloomfield Hills would never switch water sources due to not having money.

    So, I don't buy that it's a race issue. It's a socio-economic issue. If I read correctly, Flint is 60% black. So this is a case which a city could not manage it's economy and this is the end result.

    Now, there are a lot of factors involved as to what happened financially in Flint, but the bottom line is that the recommendation to switch to the Flint River water probably should have never happened. Somebody dropped the ball there.

    I can see where people are calling for Snyder to resign and that it's his fault. After all, he did appoint the manager. But until we find out more, it's unknown if he knew there were major problems and did nothing about it. I have a hard time thinking that someone would know about the water and let it go. He's too smart for that.

    -LBOAYM

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  2. Anonymous1:03 PM

    Here's an interesting article:

    http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/michigan_truth_squad_who_appro.html

    -LBOAYM

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