Flint Water Crisis: Why I voted for Jill Stein

Latest

pt-2016-12-06_flintwater
After more than two years, Flint residents are still fighting for clean water.
Photo/Facebook

FLINT, MI —I put my heart, soul, spirit and HOPES in Bernie Sanders.
HOPE that we could restore the wrongs.  HOPE, that together, we could take back our government, and make it work for all of us.  HOPE, that for my city of Flint, we could restore our dignity, put our people back to work, and stop our home values from falling.
I watched as our State was gerrymandered away from us, when our governor, Rick Snyder, took office, replaced our elected officials, and took steps to appoint ’emergency managers’ to take control of local, financial decisions.
The people HOPED to repeal it in 2012. Republicans, with their gerrymander-protected majorities, simply passed it again, adding a small fiscal appropriation that rendered it immune from a ballot-box veto.
Hillary Clinton came to Flint and created a program called the Flint Water Works, which would train and employ up to 100 young adult Flint residents.  I can only find record of one time that 78 people were hired to deliver water and filters.
I gave an elderly woman a ride home from the grocery and noticed she bought two bottles of water.  I know she was HOPING someone would deliver water to her? (I took her two cases.)
I called Flint’s Mayor’s office last summer trying to alert them to my concern that donated bottles of water were sitting in direct sun light in high temperatures. I was told they would look into the science of it and get back with me.  It is well into Autumn and I am still HOPING for a call.
Last month a sister near the water treatment center had her pipes replaced. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer. I am trying to get someone to track the cancer rates we are seeing, but have had little success there either. She has HOPE in living.
I had HOPE, that by being an activist, I could unite, in solidarity against the corruption I was seeing inside the Democratic Party. I marched against Monsanto and Enbridge’s line #5, the two 60-year-old pipes, that push through 23 million gallons of oil a day and lies exposed in the water at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac.
Jill Stein is willing to stand up for the Earth, against the two-party system. She gave me RENEWED HOPE that we can leave a better world for our children, but then I heard her say, HOPING isn’t enough!  “This new world is not in our HOPES, it’s not in our DREAMS—it’s in our HANDS.”  It’s in our hands to turn over the best world we can to future generations, I HOPE many will join us.

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

An All-American Nightmare

The machinery of mass deportation has been set up in a nightmarish fashion. It is meant to be impossible to stop — or to appear that way. But, like any machine, it can be brought to a halt, when understood.

As ICE Jails Palestinian Protester, Universities Must Commit to Academic Freedom

University faculty call on everyone, on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia graduate detained by ICE, to organize on behalf of those who are today's targets, supporting academic freedom and free expression before it is too late.

‘Fetal Personhood’ Laws Could Lead to Death Penalty for Abortions

Lawmakers in nine states have or are working to introduce bills to allow homicide charges against people suspected of having an abortion. Six of those states all have the death penalty for homicide.

Black History Month 2025: Now More Than Ever!

Black History Month 2025 is taking place in the midst of a vicious campaign by the Trump administration to incite hatred against African Americans and other people of color. From colonial times until the present, the attacks on the working class as a whole have always started as attacks on Black workers.

‘Jocelynn Deserves Justice!’: 11-Year-Old Texan Kills Herself After Bullies’ Deportation Threats

An 11-year-old Texas girl took her own life after being bullied by classmates who threatened to call immigration authorities to deport her mother.

More from the People's Tribune