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Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#81

Post by topspin »

ionforce wrote: post #16
EliRivers wrote: post #6

I particularly like the comments to that article stating that only "liberals" believe the water supply is heaving with lead. The ridiculous political bun-fight infects everything, it seems. It's a mental disease.

I'm curious what excuse the anti-liberals come up with once their children are diagnosed with lead.

Well I suppose if there were an "anti-liberal" that hadn't yet evacuated Flint they would blame the exclusively Democrat government for their obviously malfaisant administration of the Flint water supply.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#82

Post by evmar »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #77
rickdale wrote: post #39

I'm glad to see this on HN. Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. I grew up there and now live outside of Flint. My dad was murdered there. But I always think Flint is prime for opportunity. The people need basic essentials, water, food, shelter. But the infrastructure to build factories is there. Power, train lines, the whole deal. It's really a shame. The sad part is, the people are still hell bent on s…

I wanted to see what Flint looks like, so I dropped the little yellow streetview guy randomly. I ended up on Asylum Street (!). I'm at a loss for words: https://goo.gl/maps/UuPPKQK5MoF2 https://goo.gl/maps/KunFSxxRFWA2 https://goo.gl/maps/yg1NH6ZMkFJ2 https://goo.gl/maps/xVi2n8muHV32 https://goo.gl/maps/pAQEyZSAEw92 https://goo.gl/maps/ssGZRAdiQak (memorial garden?) https://goo.gl/maps/B2waNiVfeut https://goo.gl/maps…

The way I try to understand it is that the US is about the same size as the EU, has the same magnitude of population, and generally has less interest in equality of its citizens than EU countries. So there are parts of the US comparable to all the parts of the EU -- rich countries and poor ones.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#83

Post by twoquestions »

Why should the Michigan state government care about this? Flint is a bunch of liberals, and the State government is Republican.

The Snyder administration will certainly pay a heavy price for "giving free handouts" to the Democrats in Flint, all to remedy a problem that many Republicans don't believe exists.

EDIT: wording

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#84

Post by maxerickson »

purephase wrote: post #74

Does anyone know the extent that the surrounding townships would be impacted by this? My parents live just outside of Flint, but the article only mentions that Flint is impacted.

They could be. They should know if they buy water from Flint or not. If they don't buy water from Flint, without having looked into it, I would not expect the same pollution in ground water and the river.

It also seems to be the case that the lead is coming from residential pipes:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-spotlight-Flint_wa...

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#85

Post by artlogic »

rickdale wrote: post #58
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. Not since Michael Moore immortalized it. I wouldn't be surprised if many people upvoting this story were making an association with Roger & Me .

Michael Moore is great example of Michigans backwardness. Michael Moores high school won't put him in their hall of fame. As if they have had anyone else make any sort of impact as large as his. Recently the Bruins goalie skipped a visit to the white house to meet Obama. He went to the same high school as Moore. The goalie was praised and is in the hall of fame there. It's backwards. There is a lot of unreasonable ha…

This isn't as surprising as you might think. Roger and Me isn't a documentary, it's an editorial. It's actually used in film classes as an example of creative editing to make a point. I'm not saying that Flint isn't bad, but Moore did pretty much everything he could to make it look as bad as possible.

The feeling of most folks from Flint I've spoken to is that Moore made a disingenuous "documentary" about Flint not to raise awareness, but to make a buck. It's understandable he's not lauded as a hero.

I also think it's unfair to characterize the reaction of some residents of Michigan to a controversial figure at best as "Michigans backwardness".

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#86

Post by hellofunk »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #77
rickdale wrote: post #39

I'm glad to see this on HN. Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. I grew up there and now live outside of Flint. My dad was murdered there. But I always think Flint is prime for opportunity. The people need basic essentials, water, food, shelter. But the infrastructure to build factories is there. Power, train lines, the whole deal. It's really a shame. The sad part is, the people are still hell bent on s…

I wanted to see what Flint looks like, so I dropped the little yellow streetview guy randomly. I ended up on Asylum Street (!). I'm at a loss for words: https://goo.gl/maps/UuPPKQK5MoF2 https://goo.gl/maps/KunFSxxRFWA2 https://goo.gl/maps/yg1NH6ZMkFJ2 https://goo.gl/maps/xVi2n8muHV32 https://goo.gl/maps/pAQEyZSAEw92 https://goo.gl/maps/ssGZRAdiQak (memorial garden?) https://goo.gl/maps/B2waNiVfeut https://goo.gl/maps…

And not far from Flint, the city of Detroit now has the world's largest collection of urban ruins, even greater in size and quantity than Rome. Amazing, truly, what you see in that part of Michigan.

I lived 2 hours away from there in Central Michigan from end of 2008 - 2010. One of the sadder experiences I had was, one day while out on my daily walk around the neighborhood, there were a mass of people standing around one of the houses. I walked up to see what was happening, and the entire house and all of its contents had been abandoned without packing; little kids toys scattered on the floor where they played, wheel borrows, brooms hanging in the garage, plates on the kitchen shelves -- all being auctioned off one after another. They were literally taking them out of the cupboards and off the floor and an auctioneer (presumably hired by the mortgage owning bank) went down the sad road of dispensing of everything to anyone who wanted it.

And actually there were three auctioneers -- front yard, back yard, and inside, gradually dismantling an entire family's life for anyone to see, and participate in.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#87

Post by Spien »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #77
rickdale wrote: post #39

I'm glad to see this on HN. Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. I grew up there and now live outside of Flint. My dad was murdered there. But I always think Flint is prime for opportunity. The people need basic essentials, water, food, shelter. But the infrastructure to build factories is there. Power, train lines, the whole deal. It's really a shame. The sad part is, the people are still hell bent on s…

I wanted to see what Flint looks like, so I dropped the little yellow streetview guy randomly. I ended up on Asylum Street (!). I'm at a loss for words: https://goo.gl/maps/UuPPKQK5MoF2 https://goo.gl/maps/KunFSxxRFWA2 https://goo.gl/maps/yg1NH6ZMkFJ2 https://goo.gl/maps/xVi2n8muHV32 https://goo.gl/maps/pAQEyZSAEw92 https://goo.gl/maps/ssGZRAdiQak (memorial garden?) https://goo.gl/maps/B2waNiVfeut https://goo.gl/maps…

A lot of the Midwest US looks like that. When I clicked the links I thought was looking at Northern Indiana.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#88

Post by hellofunk »

artlogic wrote: post #85
rickdale wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Michael Moore is great example of Michigans backwardness. Michael Moores high school won't put him in their hall of fame. As if they have had anyone else make any sort of impact as large as his. Recently the Bruins goalie skipped a visit to the white house to meet Obama. He went to the same high school as Moore. The goalie was praised and is in the hall of fame there. It's backwards. There is a lot of unreasonable ha…

This isn't as surprising as you might think. Roger and Me isn't a documentary, it's an editorial. It's actually used in film classes as an example of creative editing to make a point. I'm not saying that Flint isn't bad, but Moore did pretty much everything he could to make it look as bad as possible. The feeling of most folks from Flint I've spoken to is that Moore made a disingenuous "documentary" about Flint not t…

Totally agree. Michael Moore even won an oscar for documentary filmmaking, but he uses some pretty crafty and biased techniques to make his point. All documentaries tend to have the point of view of their filmmaker, but they often try to expose both sides of the coin in the process and at least present the evidence in a way the audience can judge on their own (at least the good films do this). Michael Moore is very skilled but not at documentary filmmaking. He is a master of propaganda.

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#89

Post by ZoeZoeBee »

rickdale wrote: post #58
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. Not since Michael Moore immortalized it. I wouldn't be surprised if many people upvoting this story were making an association with Roger & Me .

Michael Moore is great example of Michigans backwardness. Michael Moores high school won't put him in their hall of fame. As if they have had anyone else make any sort of impact as large as his. Recently the Bruins goalie skipped a visit to the white house to meet Obama. He went to the same high school as Moore. The goalie was praised and is in the hall of fame there. It's backwards. There is a lot of unreasonable ha…

You're right that Michael Moore is an example of Michigan's backwardness, you're just wrong about which way is forward and which way is back. Flint and Moore represent each other quite well, add Pontiac, Saginaw and Detroit to the List

Re: Flint, MI: So much lead in children’s blood, state of emergency declared

#90

Post by untothebreach »

artlogic wrote: post #85
rickdale wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Michael Moore is great example of Michigans backwardness. Michael Moores high school won't put him in their hall of fame. As if they have had anyone else make any sort of impact as large as his. Recently the Bruins goalie skipped a visit to the white house to meet Obama. He went to the same high school as Moore. The goalie was praised and is in the hall of fame there. It's backwards. There is a lot of unreasonable ha…

This isn't as surprising as you might think. Roger and Me isn't a documentary, it's an editorial. It's actually used in film classes as an example of creative editing to make a point. I'm not saying that Flint isn't bad, but Moore did pretty much everything he could to make it look as bad as possible. The feeling of most folks from Flint I've spoken to is that Moore made a disingenuous "documentary" about Flint not t…

I grew up in the Flint area, lived and worked there for a number of years. Roger & Me is pretty much spot on.
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