Flint Water Oversight: Sacred Cows & Sacrificial Lambs

Written on March 29th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on ZNet, by Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and Kevin Berends, March 24, 2016.

Five days earlier they had loaded their suitcases, laptops, snacks, kids and water—there has been no escaping the extra heft of potable water—even as they took a brief respite from the foul and cursed realities of living in Flint. At that point even a 17 hour drive with kids so wired it was like they were experiencing Parkinson-like tremors was a welcome lull from the storm. The mothers looked for little things…gestures…small hands engrossed with a book. A mischievous glance from young eyes. Anything familiar and thus reassuring that their son, their daughter was riding with them into the future they had always believed. The future they have worked so hard to provide and protect.  

They were on their way to the nation’s capital. To Congress. They were going to attend Congressional hearings in the People’s House. By now all the representatives knew the story’s rough contours: toxic water; irreversible lead poisoning; E-coli. And something worse. Lies, cover ups and distortions by people who had sworn to protect them—some by Hippocratic oath. Now, approaching two years on in what appears to be a systematic and deliberate war against a defenseless community by local, state and federal officials, these five families were hoping against hope that there remains some vestige of the grandeur that informs the long polished halls, the stately wooden doors, the monuments engraved with thunderous inscriptions from men and women exemplars of who we are as a people, that these mothers could point to, summoning their children to see what they too can hope to be.

Such are the whims of extremity, because the notion that their dreams are dead, their futures stunted, their expectations curt—is too hard. Too final. Too cruel. It takes a lot for a mother to abandon hope.

In Tuesday’s Hearing a discerning eye may have seen the rift opening between the committee members. The EPA fingered the state. Michigan decried budget constraints. The former Mayor singled out the Emergency Manager. Republicans zeroed in on President Obama’s EPA appointee. Democrats skewered the Republican Governor and his all powerful managers. They all played to the cameras. It was the Roman Senate protecting its sacred cows.

Flint residents: Beware the Ides of March. You are the sacrificial lambs … //

… The systematic and efficient structure that facilitates hundreds of thousands of troops being deployed overseas can be harnessed within a peacetime implementation to provide the people of Flint a dignified temporary infrastructure. Conversely, the systemic structure that underpins governmental corruption and criminality—that is currently protected under sovereign immunity—needs to be withheld from bad actors abusing government service and harming the communities they are sworn to serve. The confluence of these could serve as a model for rebuilding our national water infrastructure without poisoning entire populations.

(full text).

Links:

India: PM’s visit to Saudi Arabia, on Geopolitical Analysis, by K.N. Pandita, March 28, 2016;

Schweiz: Vollgeld-Initiative aus Staatsrechtlicher Sicht – Philippe Mastronardi, 14.14 min, von Vollgeld-Initiative … Einführung auf berndeutsch;

French Movement for a Basic Income contributes to Parliamentary Commission on social welfare review, March 26;

Canada: in Bera-Jones race, globalization fight turns local and bitter, dans The Sacramento Bee, by DAN MORAIN, March 25, 2016:  ……………. dan-
Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact gets at the fundamental economic issues of our day …;

Suisse: du travail et du salaire, dans Le Temps.ch, par Yves Petignat, le 25 mars 2016;

Quand des militants d’EELV cherchent à réinventer leur parti, dans Reporterre, par Barnabé Binctin, le 24 mars 2016: militants et sympathisants du parti écologiste ont passé une journée à réfléchir à la façon de « hacker » les structures d’EELV pour les transformer. Nourris de la culture du logiciel libre, ils ont parlé de « démocratie réelle », VIe République, revenu de base et statut de l’élu;

France: les chiffres du chômage repartent inexorablement à la hausse en février, dans Marianne, par Delphine Legouté, le 24 mars 2016;

Les bourses et aides publiques: Que faire quand ses parents sont séparés, divorcés ou en concubinage? dans Studyrama, par Julia Fauconnier, le 24 mars 2016;

L’arnaque de l’étymologie du mot “travail”, dans Médiapart.fr, par Flebas, le 24 mars 2016: on ne compte plus les références à cette fameuse histoire linguistique à propos des origines du mot travail. C’est une des étymologies les plus connues. Une série télévisée récente en a même fait son titre : Trepalium. Ce mot latin[ 1], qui désigne un instrument de torture, est en effet supposé être la source du mot français travail;

Dec 4 Roger Scruton over een Brexit: YES, 4.29 min, uploaded by MeJustice1, … spoken in english, subtitled in netherlandse;

… and this:

uploaded by Survival Lilly:

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