It’s Flint, Michigan, getting the shaft at the moment. Lead from disintegrating pipes buried in the ground is contaminating the water.
Staggering levels of glad-handing, incompetence and passing the buck are displayed by those federal and state officials charged with overseeing the water supply. And, most appalling, the treasure of a nation is squandered on periodic seizures of death and destruction called war to determine who’s top dog of the world and who gets to enjoy the finer things in life.
You don’t get to be governor of the great state of Michigan, or any other state, unless you behave in a way that makes clear to the political establishment that you are one of them.
What does it mean to be one of them? You spend your political capital for the benefit of the ruling class and you are dismissive of the outrage of the people who are poisoned, whose children are poisoned, and whose progeny down the ages can inherit the diseases that issue from this poison.
Dismissive, they are, as if the people and their struggles to live in dignity were of no consequence.
The negligence is truly stupefying! How can Rick Snyder still be holding that office? But Rick Snyder is only the front man, the fall guy.
What is more vital in our understanding of this tragedy is the fact that it’s very expensive to maintain the role of empire, to engage in wars of conquest, to have a presence in every country in the world, to make sure that all the resources of the earth fall into the hands of rich people.
America has seen fit to spend her treasure on her domination among the countries of the world rather than on protecting the health of her citizens. The American government has seen fit to respond to the needs only of the ruling class, not of the people who would comprise a true democracy.
It’s the same old story. And the sinister violence of neglected, underground lead pipes will be coming to your town before you know it.
Ralph J Dolan
Haydenville