PHOTO/FAMILY PHOTO FROM COURT FILINGS
BALTIMORE, MD — How would you like to look into the face of your five-year-old daughter and know she is mentally retarded for life because you gave her a bath? Although you paid your water bill each month, someone poisoned your tap water with lead. For years you and your family have been drinking and bathing in water the governor and others said was safe.
Lead was removed from gasoline in the 1970s after many studies showing increased deaths, disease and metal retardation in populations living close to roadways. Lead poisoning causes a variety of ailments from stomach pain, muscle weakness, lethargy and memory loss. It also can cause learning disabilities death, organ failure, attention deficient disorder, antisocial behavior, anger, and confusion. Many of the effects of lead cannot be cured and last throughout life.
Now you know the truth: there is nothing you can do. The decisions in Flint, MI, were made by an Emergency Manager, a new experimental form of government used by Republicans and Democrats in Michigan. The Emergency Managers are above the law. They are appointed by the governor and cannot be recalled or voted against. They can violate union contracts, break deals, steal pensions or switch water systems and answer to no one but Governor Synder.
Flint, Michigan is not the only US city poisoned with lead in water and paint. Baltimore, Maryland is also a hot spot of lead poisoning and official wrong doing. These two cities contain over 70,000 lead damaged children because government officials love private property slumlords and emergency managers more than children. In Flint, MI, the government officials are Republican, in Baltimore, MD, they are Democrats.
Maryland has required landlords to remove or cover lead paint for 30 years. Yet Baltimore’s school struggles are in part due to massive amounts of students damaged by lead. Although government officials only test one child in five, since 1993 they have found 37,500 poisoned children in Baltimore.
Baltimore’s housing is still polluted by lead paint. Democratic Party government officials protect landlords more than children’s health. The law is based on self-regulation. Many landlords ignore the requirement to make their rentals safe; the government only investigates after a child has been found to have lead poisoning.
Haricot Tablada, Deputy State Environmental Secretary, is typical of government officials. He blames the parents. The lobbyist for the landlords blamed the children. We must ask what is more important—private property or children.? What is our future—the rights of slumlords or the health of our children?
A national poll by Value of Water Coalition found 76% of people ‘very concerned” about their tap water. Ninety-five percent said, ‘It is important or very important for officials to invest in water infrastructure to prevent a repeat of the Michigan crisis in their neighborhoods.”
These problems are not just ignorant officials. They are problems which come from the desire to put profit and private property ahead of children and adults. We need a political party that represents us—not the corporations and landlords.
