And if the Republicans have their way, income inequality will continue to grow across the USA.
March 29, 2019
By Ron Walker
The ride from Flint, Mich. (click here) to the Detroit airport took Demario Davis only about an hour.
But for Davis, it felt more like he had traveled from one side of the world to the other.
Things in Flint were much different from Detroit, or anywhere else for that matter, the New Orleans Saints linebacker has ever traveled.
"It was unbelievable," Davis said in a phone interview on Thursday.
"You just can't believe this is happening in America. You hear about people not having healthy drinking water in other countries. It felt like we had left a different country because when we got to Detroit, we could drink the water. We couldn't do that in Flint."...
I really think Americans have to recognize the gross difference in the quality of life that exists within the USA and call it what it is America's Third World.
Today, we put fancy words around it, like "Environmental Justice." It is actually environmental injustice. Yes? The reality of the circumstances is that a growing number of Americans are falling short of quality of life issues. I think the USA needs to address what quality of life is. It is a nice saying, "Quality of Life." It also lends itself to political exploitation.
Politicians will get away with all kinds of "talk" if they can say, "American has the greatest quality of life than any other country on Earth." As an overall view, that is probably true, but, when we look at communities like Flint, there isn't the quality of life many Americans have today, they have Third World quality of life.
Some time ago, John Edwards stated there were two Americas. That was a long time ago. There has been no appreciable change in that.
What Demario Davis encountered an hour from Detroit's airport was complete exploitation of a community that included contaminated water. Why? Why was Flint allowed to have contaminated water? Why? BECAUSE those people didn't matter to their government. The local government that maintained very good drinking water in Flint was made silent by a Governor that saw injustice, but, it was taxation injustice.
See, the problem with the Flint prosecutions to date is that Snyder was very successful in pointing to everyone else besides his own bigotry and racism. Snyder's bigotry involves a begrudging of paying taxes. His wealth was "going down the drain" because of taxes. He has say over making his wealth, why didn't he have say over the way it was spent when he paid taxes?
That is Trump's issue as well. I think if one speaks to any million-billionaire they will say they hate paying taxes because it goes to people that can't get their act together and get out of poverty. In other words, Snyder didn't see the people of Flint worthy of any water except what came out of the Flint River. He also didn't see the need to pay for water treatment because Flint was in debt and needed to pay its bills first, regardless, of robbing the people of Flint their MINIMAL quality of life.
See, the demands of human health and HEALTH SAFETY in the USA include the very basics of life; like water quality. So, in communities across the country, there are rules that require high quality of water. Now, I am not saying it is happening to the degree it is supposed to happen, but, there seems to be more compliance with quality water than not in the USA. In the case of Flint, before Snyder decided money and paying bills was more important than human life, it had good water quality. Some of the quality water lead to indebtedness that caused some of the problems in Flint. But, making people drink untreated water is not the answer to paying bills.
What Demario Davis witnessed in Flint was Snyder's racism and bigotry. Snyder's governance included punishing people for being poor and making him and his friends pay, in their opinion, unnecessary taxes.
The community of Flint had been suffering from an economic crisis brought on by the closing of car factories. However, the quality of water was never in question, until, Snyder made his decisions to assault poor minority communities. Not one of the communities in Michigan that was taken over by Emergency Managers were primarily Caucasian. That should have been a CLUE to Snyder to the extent these communities have been NEGLECTED in the economic collapse that occurred in Michigan. But, he didn't see it as a symptom of Michigan's collapsed economy, so much as a disease of lack of initiative of these minority communities. As far as Snyder was concerned the white guys didn't have these problems.
So, when the people of Flint FINALLY had a couple of champions in the way of a pediatrician and a college professor, the rest of the country was appalled and disgusted with the idea the children had damage and the older folks died of Legionnaires' disease. To the rest of the country, regardless of their own economic standing, Flint was an abomination and completely anti-American in its governance.
Flint may have a unique situation in it's IMPOSED water problem, but, it was not unique in the negligence of governance at the state and federal level when it comes to minority communities. They are there to be found and they can be some of the most wonderful and deeply faithful people in the country. Their faith helps them cope with the neglect.
There is a lot wrong with Flint's immediate past. Seeing it through the eyes of someone that has never come face to face with America's Third World is as refreshing as it is stark. Refreshing because it says Americans have a conscience when THE TRUTH is important.
