Flint, Michgan has been plagued with poisonous water and rabid injustice. The people of Flint have been placed in an impossible situation, and the mayor and governor deserved to be prosecuted for the horrible things they’ve allowed to take place. The nation is horrified and angry, but this isn’t new.
Flint is a primarily black city with poverty levels upward of 40 percent, and like similar cities, it often finds itself the victims of environmental racism.
Case after case shows poor minority cities have been the victim of dangerous environmental conditions. Warren County, North Carolina spent two decades in contamination due to the Warren County PCB Landfill waste runoff. Altgeld Gardens in South Chicago was built on an abandoned landfill and residents were exposed to mercury, ammonia gas, lead, DDT and numerous other toxins. Time after time, dangerous chemicals, landfills and other toxic things are regularly placed in this poverty-ridden areas and lack of proper enforced safety protocols is detrimental to its citizens.
The poor are easily oppressed. They lack the resources to pursue legal recourse, and their need to survive trumps the time needed to advocate for their own health. While many towns have successfully rallied their justified anger, countless other cases are hidden and unresolved.
These often become cases of intent.
The courts must decide if the companies intentionally ignored life-threatening contaminations. These can be seen in more extreme ways on an international scale, such as the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984 when a gas leak at a pesticide plant killed at least 3700. In the US, numerous citizens have been killed or seriously injured from the lack of environmental protections.
This is the ultimate end of GOP policies. These types of incidents happen when public officials won’t step in in behalf of their constituents. Environmental regulations aren’t big government goals to limit capitalism (although this socialist doesn’t mind that one bit), they are designed to keep people safe and healthy. Republican governors talk big about protecting liberty while their citizens die from their lack of action.
The same politicians that will actively try and pass laws to protect fetuses ignore real people who are really dying from their inaction. They aren’t pro-life, they’re pro-birth. You cannot say you value humanity while putting capitalism above human lives.
Without pushing for our rights and the rights of others, “champions of life” will continue watching their citizens die simply because they want to hold a strong anti-regulation stance. They spout off against the government and evil liberals while turning a blind eye to how they perpetuate injustice.
We cannot allow these politicians to allow their citizens to die. This doesn’t happen to rich, white neighborhoods. The politicians allow their poor citizens to suffer with little fear of repercussions.
We’re hearing about Flint, Michigan, but there are hundreds of little Flints around the country. They don’t need bottled water, they need a revolution.
