Obama to Flint: Drink the water and be quiet
By Shannon Jones
5 May 2016
President Barack Obama’s remarks Wednesday in Flint, Michigan before an
audience of about 1,000 people at Northwestern High School displayed the
arrogance
and contempt of his administration and the corporate elite that it represents
toward working people suffering from the devastating effects of lead in their
drinking water.
Flanked by a host of state and federal officials who oversaw the disaster in
Flint, including Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy, Michigan
Governor Rick Snyder and Democratic Congressmen and Senators, the president
offered a series of false promises and platitudes. He blandly noted certain
symptoms of the social crisis in America—crumbling roads and bridges, aging
water pipelines, failing public schools—without acknowledging the role of his
administration in presiding over this disaster.
Pallets of bottled water standing in a lot across the street from the venue of
Obama’s speech
In his trademark folksy and patronizing manner, Obama urged the people of Flint
to resume drinking the city’s water, despite test results showing the
persistence
of dangerous amounts of lead. At the same time, he dismissed the serious short
and long-term effects of the poisoning of Flint children by lead-tainted
water. “The kids will be just fine,” he said.
To back up this assertion, Obama cited the spurious example of children
accidentally chewing on lead flakes from paint. He noted that perhaps he had
ingested
lead as a child.
Obama also urged Flint residents to begin drinking the water again, which in
many areas is brown and still contains high levels of lead. At one point in
his remarks he asked for and drank a glass of filtered water, while
proclaiming, “This is not a stunt.”
LeeAnne Walters, an activist whose actions played a pivotal role in exposing
the lead poisoning of Flint’s water, told the World Socialist Web Site, “Obama’s
speech was a complete atrocity. To sit there and tell a city of 100,000 that
lead poisoning from drinking water compares to Obama eating paint chips as
a kid is incredible. To compare drinking lead poisoned water to paint chips is
like comparing apples to toxic waste. We were devastated. We were told our
kids don’t matter—not just my kids, but all the children here. We’re talking
about the long-term effects.
“He told us to drink the water. That means the programs for filters and bottled
water will stop.”
Obama’s visit to Flint coincides with an explosive development of the class
struggle in Michigan. It came in the wake of two days of angry protests by
teachers
in nearby Detroit, Michigan over intolerable conditions in the classrooms and
attempts by authorities to rob them of pay. It also coincided with the start
of mass water shutoffs in Detroit for households with delinquent bills.
Flint residents crowd the street waiting for the Obama motorcade
Hundreds of people lined up along the route of Obama’s motorcade in Flint, some
holding up signs calling for federal help for the city. Many expressed
frustration
and anger that work on repairing Flint’s water system has barely begun.
A Flint resident holds a sign along the route of the motorcade
Estimates of the cost of repairing Flint’s antiquated piping run as high as
$1.5 billion. Democrats in Congress have advanced penny-pinching proposals
amounting
to only a few hundred million at most. Obama himself in his remarks made only
vague promises of fixing Flint’s pipes, specifying no concrete dollar figure.
Instead he touted the work of non-profits, charities and philanthropists in
providing assistance to Flint residents. He even cited approvingly the $2,500
raised by a group of prisoners in Indiana.
A central aim of Obama’s remarks was to perpetuate the cover-up of the criminal
responsibility of government officials at all levels for the disaster. He
made a point at the beginning of the speech of noting the presence of Michigan
Governor Rick Snyder and chastising those who responded by booing. “We’re
doing business here,” Obama said.
Obama blamed the crisis on “poor decisions,” claiming that no one “consciously
wanted to hurt the people of Flint.” Instead, officials simply “weren’t
attentive
to potential problems” when acting under budgetary pressures. “This is not to
sort out every screw-up that resulted in contaminated water.”
In fact, officials did not merely make “poor decisions,” they actively
conspired to ensure that the water source was switched to the Flint River
despite
ample warnings of the consequences. Documents show that state environmental
officials altered reports in order to minimize the dangers of lead in Flint’s
drinking water. When residents began to complain of the contaminated water,
local, state and federal officials worked to discredit these complaints and
cover-up their responsibility.
Obama wants to avoid an analysis of the “screw-ups” because his administration
is itself culpable. The federal Environmental Protection Agency moved to
isolate and silence Miguel Del Toral, an EPA officials who warned of elevated
lead levels and said that the city was not using corrosion control. The agency
regularly allows cities throughout the country to violate the government’s own
standards.
Both Democratic and Republican officials were involved in the decision to shift
Flint’s water supply to the polluted Flint River. This included former
Democratic
State Treasurer Andy Dillon who signed off on the decision to shift the Flint
water supply.
The crisis in Flint is part of a generalized crisis produced by decades of
deindustrialization, budget cuts, the elimination of regulations on corporations
and growing social inequality. Basic social services are being starved for
funds while the Obama administration lavishes countless billions on the Pentagon
war machine and handouts to America’s wealthy elite.
Obama’s remarks on Wednesday were a declaration to the people of Flint and
throughout the country that nothing will change, no serious assistance will be
provided and that workers should simply stop complaining and be quiet.
Share this article:
List of 8 items
