Chris Hedges: Flint’s Crisis Is About More Than Water

[marmar]

from truthdig:



by Chris Hedges


What is in the mind of someone who knowingly poisons children and impairs their lives? Why did the politicians, regulators and bureaucrats who knew the water in Flint, Mich., was toxic lie about the danger for months? What does it say about a society that is ruled by, and refuses to punish, those who willfully destroy the lives of children?

The crisis in Flint is far more ominous than lead-contaminated water. It is symptomatic of the collapse of our democracy. Corporate power is not held accountable for its crimes. Everything is up for sale, including children. Our regulatory agencies—including the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality—have been defunded, emasculated and handed over to corporate-friendly stooges. Our corrupt courts are part of a mirage of justice. The role of these government agencies and courts, and of the legislatures, is to sanction abuse rather than halt it.

The primacy of profit throughout the society takes precedence over life itself, including the life of the most vulnerable. This corporate system of power knows no limits. It has no internal restraints. It will sacrifice all of us, including our children, on the altar of corporate greed. In a functioning judicial system, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Flint’s former emergency manager, Darnell Earley, along with all the regulatory officials who lied as a city was being sickened, would be in jail facing trial. ......................(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/flints_crisis_is_about_more_than_water_20160207

[hopemountain]

1. nothing is sacred any longer

to those for whom greed is the highest priority - not children, not the responsibility of ensuring we have a safe, healthy and sustainable planet for future generations.

[Ilsa]

2. Children meann nothing to Republicans, only fetuses.

It's more important to be able to sell guns tgan regulate them to protect children. They've admitted that.

[tecelote]

4. Yes.

That's what scares me about our food and meds as well.

We're told that they are safe yet we know there has been little or no testing.

[malaise]

3. He nailed it

Society is not a business - this is criminality

[raouldukelives]

5. Know thyself. So few do.

When it comes to Wall St and those willing to serve money over morals, there are many hands on deck for them, willing to put in long hours, willing to invest in the cause, willing to remain silent when liberal ideals are bashed in front of their faces by bosses and fellow employees.

Even with the knowledge they are laboring for, providing comfort to, and eventually becoming owners themselves of the very corporations who make life harder, if not downright impossible, for so many and only for short term wealth for themselves.

With a liberal conscience like that, who needs a conservative one?

It may be our last hurrah for democracy. Where the people have more of a say over the fate of our natural world, and the future, or lack thereof, for all of our descendants than multi-national corporate monopolies and the litany of the planets most vile dictators, terrorists, drug lords and usurpers of democracy the world has ever known can stash all that blood money.

Cash that drooling fresh MBA's cannot wait to launder. Cash that drones of the corporate hives will put in long hours to earn a chunk of. Where there is a will, there is a way. And they put that "education", that knowledge and effort, that one life they are given to good use assisting them for big payoffs.

Eh, it is what it is. It took a lot of hours on the clock, a lot of money, a lot of liars, and a lot of paid off politicians to turn our country and our principles from "We" to "Me".