i only heard about this 2 months ago. its been 3 years????
Remember this started because Snyder switched Flint from a freshwater mountain lake to the polluted Flint River simply to allow his wife’s company to use the lake for bottling instead. This is a manufactured crisis of corruption and capitalism.
Also remember that the pipes corroded because they refused to pay for the chemical used to make the water less acidic.
Remember that when the first E. coli outbreak from the water popped up, the city hall was given water coolers by the state, free of charge, all while denying that the water could be unsafe to drink.
Remember that, despite having a huge budget surplus and a “rainy day fund,” set aside that could easily cover the cost of relocating the residents by buying their houses/paying their debt, or could cover a large chunk of the cost of replacing the pipes, the state has decided to continue to only put in the minimal amount of effort.
Remember that flint is majority POC, majority impoverished, and is still being faced with crippling water bills from the Detroit water supply company, where they are often charged $50 a month just to use the service, on top of the cost of their water bill.
Remember that there will now be an entire generation of children who will now be damaged by lead poisoning and damage from the multitude of neurotoxins.
Remember that this is what privatized natural resources looks like. Remember that these people are being punished for having the audacity to dare to be poor in an economy that won’t let them be anything but.
At every level, this has not been a mistake.
The State and City are most upset that people know its happening and are resisting nation-wide.
But if we lose focus they lose even the small amount of aid they’ve managed to get.
This is how they do it. It’s a siege on the public empathy. Eventually we become numb to the problem and despair. Or something bigger happens.
“Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained.”
— Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice (via philosophybits)
“It seems clear from numerous tomb-paintings and reliefs, especially those dating to the New Kingdom, that ancient Egyptians of the tomb-owning classes enjoyed entertaining large groups of relatives and friends at banquets. The responsibility for preparing for the banquet would have fallen largely on the lady of the house, who would have supervised the thorough cleaning of her house and seen to it that large amounts of bread and beer had been made, that many jars of wine had been cooled and that a variety of meat, fowl and other foodstuffs had been cooked… She might have arranged flowers around the house with her own hands; and she would have made certain that garlands of flowers were ready to place around the necks of guests as they arrived. Cones of perfumed wax would have been prepared to place on the head of each guest.
During the banquet, men and women ate in the same room. Judging from the evidence on the walls of New Kingdom tombs, servants - usually young, lissome girls wearing nothing but a girdle around their hips - piled them with food and drink, and renewed the wax cones as they melted in the heat…”
![kropotkindersurprise:
“August 2019 - Protesters in Hong Kong use a slingshot to launch bricks at the police. [video]
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