“I really did need a glass of water, this is not a stunt”, he said. “It leads to a lot of hidden disasters you don’t always read about and aren’t as flashy, but over time diminish the life of a community and make it harder for young people to succeed”.
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The city, in an effort to save money while under state management, began drawing its water from the Flint River in April 2014. His May 4 visit came in response to an invitation from 8-year-old Mari Copeny, also known as “Little Miss Flint”.
There’s some sympathy for Gov. Rick Snyder after he was booed and heckled during brief remarks at a Flint high school. The governor offered his first acknowledgment of the contamination last fall.
“I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife”, she wrote. “You should be hurt, but don’t sink into despair”, he said.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has been criticised for his handling of it and two state employees in the environmental department have been charged with misleading the USA government about the problem. By contrast, Obama, on the same stage a short time later, drew hearty and extended cheers and applause.
“Can I get some water?” he said. He asked again before he was handed a small glass.
Filters (along with bottled water) have been distributed to residents, as planning proceeds to replace water pipes across the city. In his first visit to the city since the water crisis began, Mr. Obama received updates from local officials and residents, made a show of drinking filtered tap water, and told a crowd of about 1,000 people at a high school that they deserved more from their leaders. The people in the city have been dealing with bad drinking water for more than two years, and the water system still hasn’t recovered.
“It’s about what we have seen take place here in Flint but also in some other places”.
He says that parents should take advantage of expanded medicaid in the state and have children checked for lead in their system and said everyone needs to come together to fix the problem. Obama took time to deny that notion and assure residents that his generation ingested lead, but they turned out fine.
Both of those candidates have seized on the Flint water issue, traveling to the city to spotlight the city’s predicament.
“This was a man-made disaster”.
Visiting crisis-hit Flint, Obama attacked “corrosive” Republican attitudes toward “big government”. Kildee says what’s happened to the city is about more than just water.
“It would actually provide direct compensation to the residents of Flint who have been harmed by the malfeasance of state decision makers but also by the neglect of federal decision makers who have failed to invest in the nation’s infrastructure”. Activists, including the documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, had implored Obama to personally visit the city or risk a political blowback from the public.
“It’s not the most elegant name”, Obama quipped.
Obama was in Flint to address the community that the federal government wasn’t ignoring the problems at hand and that the highest eyes in government were privy to their situation.
Flint, Mich. Mayor Karen Weaver, Rep. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., and Sen.
“I will not rest, and I’m going to make sure that the leaders at every level of government don’t rest, until every drop of water that flows to your homes is safe to drink and safe to cook with and safe to bathe in, because that’s part of the basic responsibilities of a government in the United States of America”, he said.
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Toward the end of his speech, Obama started to head in a religious direction. “And he has them now”.
