WASHINGTONFour years after the crisis hit, kids in Flint, Mich., are still afraid to drink the water.
For good reason, adds Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician, whistleblower and now union member who revealed the presence of lead in the citys drinking water.
To this day, theyre scared, she told Press Associates Union News Service after speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at the AFL-CIO about her new book on the crisis and its aftermath, What The Eyes Dont See: A Story Of Crisis, Resistance And Hope In An American City.
Theyre scared of the water. If you turn on the tap, they dont want it, she added.
Thats because the kids and their parents fear there are still traces of lead in the citys drinking water, even as Flint becomes the first city in the country to have a completely new municipal water system.
But its not just water. Hanna-Attisha calls the poisoning of Flints kids environmental racism, and also typical of what minority and other sidelined communities, like Flint, suffer nationwide, not just in old infrastructure but other areas as well, and all in the name of budget-cutting and, often, corporate profits.
A pediatrician and public health specialist, Hanna-Attisha, with the help of a federal Environmental Protection Agency staffer who also was concerned, discovered and publicized the high concentrations of lead in the majority-minority citys drinking water.
Lead causes brain damage and other disabilities. Studies show, she told the crowd, that no level of lead exposure is safe in drinking water, paint or anything else. The acceptable lead level for drinking water is zero, Hanna-Attisha stated.
But a financial czar, appointed by white GOP Gov. Rick Snyder to take over the financially ailing majority-minority city, ordered the switch in water sources from the clean Great Lakes where Flint had drawn its water for 100 years to the polluted Flint River, and without spending the small sum needed on specific chemicals to prevent lead from Flints old water pipes from leaching into the water.
Yet the state knew something was wrong. It told its own officials in Flint to buy bottled water, and it didnt protest when GM switched water sources back to the lakes because Flint River water was corroding engine parts of cars built in the city that was the one-time seat of the car company. Meanwhile, it told Flint parents everything was OK, Hanna-Attisha said, even as lead invaded their kids bodies and brains.
The result was a disaster, and one Hanna-Attisha said could easily be duplicated in other cities, given their elderly water pipes. Indeed, she asked the crowd how many lived in Washington, D.C., itself and reminded those who raised their hands they went through their own, longer, water crisis a decade ago. And nobody was punished, indicted or sacked as a result. There have been indictments in Michigan.
But its more than just water, Hanna-Attisha and moderator Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., who represents Flint, told the crowd. This is about a city thats been left behind and a complete lack of care by the state government, the congressman said.
Thats why I wrote this book, Hanna-Attisha. Its about democracy, racism and exploitation of the most-vulnerable people. We have this Financial Management Law and the state could just swoop down and take over a city or other government, leaving its officials powerless and its citizens with no say.
Thats what Michigan has done, and in every case, its the majority-white, GOP-run state government swooping down and seizing control of a majority-minority government, including Flint, Detroit, Detroits schools and Grand Rapids, she noted.
The basic conditions in Flint, and elsewhere, were left unchanged in the takeover, Hanna-Attisha said. That includes the highest poverty rate in the state. Your future shouldnt depend on what zip code you were born in, commented Hanna-Attisha, who proudly said shes now a National Writers Union member. That union is an Auto Workers sector.
State officials also didnt listen to the mothers who started to complain about water that was green and brown and smelled funny and tastes weird. The mothers, like their kids, were minority-group members. The first rule for a pediatrician is Always listen to the mother, Hanna-Attisha said.
But theres a hopeful side of the book and the Flint water crisis, too, said Hanna-Attisha: That of citizens rising up, educating themselves, empowering themselves and forcing the powers-that-be to act. And theyve stayed active: Theres now a commission oversees the complete overhaul of Flints water system, and it includes both parents and kids.
Thats part of the American Dream, she says.
Another part is you dont have to be born here. Hanna-Attisha came to the U.S., at age 4, with her parents. A naturalized citizen, she was born in the United Kingdom after they fled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, as political refugees. She gives thanks for waking up every day in the U.S. amid its freedoms. And she notes many other migrants including those seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border have the same dream.
Union members are part of the dream, she told the crowd, adding she was delighted to discuss the book at the AFL-CIO. Hanna-Attisha rattled off a list of unions the Plumbers, the Auto Workers, the Teachers, the NEA and so many more who rushed to help. Weve never felt alone since, because the labor movement has had our back, she concluded.
Source: PAI