She should still be here
We buried grandma just 3 days ago. Complications from Legionnaires, for certain. I'd give anything to hug her, hold her hand, one last time. I'd pony up the 5 Million the city wouldn't pay, if I could turn back time. But she's gone, and Flint still doesn't have clean water.
Backstory: This was a fictitious account of a person losing their grandma to Legionnaires disease, from consuming water in Flint, Michigan which has ridiculous amounts of lead. About 10% of people who get it, die from Legionnaires disease. The lead based pipes are set to be replaced in 2020. The city could have paid 5 Million to have them replaced prior to using them, but they declined to do so, which led to the 'Flint Water Crisis'.
Written in response to the #fiftywords challenges that @jayna has been posting.
Water was this week’s prompt:
https://steemit.com/challenge/@jayna/fifty-wordshortstorychallenge-storyround-upandnewprompt-prd2sbjrvl
Thanks to @preparedwombat for styling out the last few parts so I could easily copy, edit and paste :)
img source
Aaaaaannnnndddd, punch to the gut. Well done.
I appreciate that. If you felt a punch to the gut, imagine what the recipients of that crap water are feeling in their gut!
Horrible how Flint and the local gov't would not replace them. Just unreal. God Bless those sufferers of Legionnaires
Unreal is a word I used a lot a few years ago just as you do here. It's not so unbelievable to me anymore. I don't put anything past them, not for a second.
Moving story. It portrays one of many ways in which innocent people get destroyed by heartless corporations or political authorities. One can't help but hammering the same question over and over again, when it comes to politics (and I guess that pretty much applies to most things in life), why is it so hard to do the right thing?
Unfortunately, the political process makes doing the right thing, virtually impossible, by its very nature. At least when you or I do something wrong, we are usually held accountable for our actions.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
What's the way to hold someone accountable for negligently and knowingly killing 10% of an entire city?
Well, to be fair, only 10% of the people who actually get the disease die from it. 10% of Flint's population didn't die from it.
But to answer your question, someone is the distinct word there. Currently we have corporations that are backed and covered by government. Then we have government itself. No individual/someone. No accountability, because there can't be any when you can have hundreds of people all pointing their fingers at everyone else.
If I (personally) owned a company that willingly killed a lot of people, you can be rest assured I (personally) would be held responsible.
That is a sad story, @intothewild. But I like it because it sheds light on something many of us may not even know about. Thank you for the backstory!
Sad, but true. It is a tragedy, an avoidable one for sure. Hoping more people understand what happened there and the implications of wishing for others to run your life for you. Thanks for the comment!