An American Disaster

I'm spending the evening like many others I'm sure, watching the Flint Town Hall hosted by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Community leaders and citizens of Flint, Michigan in a school gymnasium expressing their frustration and sending a warning to all of us about the environmental dangers that occur when elected officials put savings above safety. There are such critical and serious issues raised about decisions that people make,about something as basic as water. Really serious liability and accountability questions and how people can be compensated after the fact for long term health threats to them and their children.

This should catch all of our attention. The fact of the matter is that right now, people, politicians and corporations are making decisions about water in other areas, other towns and geographical areas. Everybody has to be a guardian of these assets that we don't think enough about until the damage is done. These are man made problems. They can happen here or they can happen (and have) in places all over the world.

Rachel Maddow has been all over this story and she deserves a lot of credit for staying on it and forcing us all to see it and think about it. Sadly and as usual, this is all after the fact. It's as big as Love Canal and the environmental disaster in the Buffalo area so many years ago. It seems to me we have to start thinking about preventing these kind of things from happening in the first place. Kids, mothers and fathers, working people, poor people or wealthy people shouldn't have to go through this. There are long term consequences that frankly we will all be paying for, for years to come. There are other places where terrible things have happened or could happen. Hoosick Falls, NY is going through chemical pollution in their water system and Seneca Lake also in NY is the center of concern and controversy as LPGas is awaiting approval for storage in unlined salt caverns. Liability and accountability?

Perhaps people will begin to realize a little more clearly that things like water and air are vulnerable commodities that we all share equally and they do need stewardship and protection.

Anyway it was an important show and I hope it awakens some passion for how serious these issues are and how badly some people in power act in the name of saving dollars. We'll see how that goes.