Humboldt Park water warriors show solidarity with Flint

 
CHICAGO, IL — Flint, Michigan is devastated.  Pure evil did this.  I mean an evil in government that knew the truth yet allowed disaster to happen. Over 8,000 children in Flint have been poisoned by lead in the water.
In January we traveled to Flint from Chicago with water. It looked as if there had been a natural disaster. One resident told us the highest valued house was worth about $5,000. It would cost the city $10,000 for pipelines in each property. The city decided repairs weren’t worth it. People could not sell their homes and left. Abandoned homes were left for the banks.
The immigrants were afraid to come out and get water. Authorities had waited for people to come, then rounded them up for deportation. Their crime was needing water.
Evidence of lead poisoning was everywhere. People showed us their rashes and told about blisters in the genital areas, from showering and using the toilet. I talked to the parents of two young children, four and ten. The four-year-old son had large pus-filled blisters. He cried in pain as they tried to draw the poison out of his body.
Lead poisoning is permanent.  A generation of children will grow up with learning disabilities and illnesses shortening their lives.
Robert Torres, who is one of the two founders of Parents for Peace and Justice, and Minister Abel Muhammed from the Nation of Islam, and I worked out a plan to help.  We called for donations of water through these two organizations. Enterprise Rental donated a cargo van. Robert was approached by Humboldt Park United, largely biker and car clubs in the Chicago neighborhood who work on poverty and gang violence. They wanted to do something to help with Flint.
We organized the second drive in partnership with Humboldt Park United. These big, rough looking guys and women gathered tons of water. We received a donation of a 26-foot truck and three cargo vans for the March 19 water delivery.  We had over 2,000 bottles of water that we loaded and delivered to Flint.
On the way, the big truck was pulled over for being overweight. Usually it would be a $5000 fine, but when authorities found out the reason, no fine was issued and we continued. Two miles after they left, they got a flat tire. Then they were back on the road. The second flat tire came on arrival in Flint, then money for repairs. The owner and driver of the truck paid out almost $1,000 in repairs.  Yet, after he saw the good we were doing in Flint, it seemed not to bother him.
We see this devastation in America while our government and even religious communities ignore it by doing nothing for more than a year.  Don’t Flint’s children matter?
Flint’s citizens suffer and cry out for help but get nothing. People treated us as saviors and were shocked that we had come from Chicago. Big Tough bikers and car clubbers were doing God’s work but not through a church. They did it passionately. Many left with a sense of sadness at what they had experienced and seen.

Pastor Ruben Escobar Pepin

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