Paul Sassone

There are many lessons we can learn from the Flint, Mich. poisoned water catastrophe, besides being grateful we don’t live in Flint, Michigan.

You probably know that Flint is a desperately poor city that has been in receivership since 2011.

The conservative Republican governor, Rick Snyder, pushed a bill through the legislature allowing the governor to appoint emergency managers to rule over such communities.

The unelected emergency manager for Flint decided there was money to be saved by ceasing to buy water from Detroit and using water from the Flint River.

The river water came out brown and green and smelly and bad tasting.

The state ignored residents’ complaints for more than a year. Finally, testing showed the water was polluted and contained dangerously high levels of lead, which is particularly— and permanently — damaging to children and the elderly.

State workers could have, but didn’t, alleviate contamination by adding chemicals to prevent old pipes from corroding and leeching lead and other metals. Now, Flint residents have sick children, no water and ongoing bills for water they can’t drink.

Are there lessons to be leaned from all this?

Many.

But the lesson I would like to take away is that we should stop electing people to lead government who hate government.

Snyder, a business executive, was elected Michigan governor pledging to run the state as if it were a business. But government isn’t a business. The goal of business is to turn a

profit. Government can’t do that. The next-best thing, then, is for government to save money by refusing to spend on government programs, in this case safe drinking water.

I haven’t read of any reason why Flint’s water supplier was changed other than to spend less money, which primarily benefits banks and other bond holders.

Apparently for people with this business mindset, spending less trumps all other considerations, including the health of the citizens government should protect.

Yes, government needs watching. But government isn’t the automatic enemy, which seems to be what today’s conservatives believe.

Elected officials can and will disagree on how to serve the citizens they represent. But, we should stop electing people to office who think government should do nothing?

A do-nothing government is a danger to us all, as the Flint disaster plainly shows.

–Flint points to the danger of do-nothing government–