Faces f Flint
"In hard times we try to blame God. "Why God, why has God left us?" When the fact is that its not what God desires for us. That's our default state as human beings-we blame others, we blame God, and tend to not take responsibility. And here it comes down to the powers that made the decisions-for whatever reasons whether it was financial, they just couldn't afford to do things or they intentionally did it-that's a big hot button topic now- one way or another, this was not caused by God. This was a human issue, and God does not desire suffering people.Even in the hardest times, people come into faith through tragedy-what we see as a horrible event, God can use that as Glory."
"I'm just sick of people seeing us just for the water. There's a lot of beauty, there's a lot of community, there's a lot of business that is still happening. I wish people would see that."
"I don't wanna be older and my kids ask, "What town did you grow up in?" And them to be like, "Oh that town that we can't drink the water? That town that was shut down because of how bad the water was?'"
"As far as the water is concerned, I am very very angry. I look at pictures now of my grand-daughter when she was one year old playing in the baby pool and drinking out of the water hose and everything. If we had only known then, we could have stopped a lot of this. She did end up testing positive for lead poisoning."
"The Lord will always provide water, and when we didn't have water, the Lord sent snow so that nobody could come to get it!"
"I believe there's hope. It's gonna take a long time cause it's been ignored. We appreciate everything that everybody's done."
"Well Flint has been bad for many many years, and a lot of the time it seems that it has been racially separated. And there's a lot of crime in Flint. But through this, people are coming together, and they're helping each other. I believe things happen for a reason, and maybe that's the reason-to pull us all together. It's also sad. It's sad when you see the children, the kids that have to have their blood tested. I wish Governor Synder had to stand next to them-every single time, every child and see them cry. "
"If you could offer your twenty-year-old self any piece of advice, what would it be?"
"Go to school."
"One thing they are not addressing is what is wrong-more than the lead in the pipes-it's different chemicals that they then add to the water. I can't use water to cook, to take a bath, nothing. When I shower I have to go to my brother's house. I don't know if it will get better- I don't have no intention of leaving, but I hope it gets better soon. That's what's wrong with Flint today, the shops move out and the people move out. You can't bathe your kids, you gotta put them in a tub and pour the bottles in there."
"Analyze every situation. The choices that you make when you're young affect you when you're old. You gotta check your foundation out, make sure it's solid, look at it, look into the future and see what it would bring you because stuff happens."
"Now, since the crisis broke out, we've recieved tons of donations. All over the country.Mostly the families of the kids that come here (are affected). They have to use these bottles of water to bathe their kids, this is for everything. Most families could go through three or four cases of water a day-and the national guard only gives them one. The homes in Flint were built between the 1800's and 1960's-as you move from the center of the city out-some of the homes use the lead pipes. People still have to pay their water bill-at least one or two hundred dollars that are due at the beginning of March. Many people can't afford to move, the invested what they had into what they have."
"What do you see twenty years down the line?"
"It's pretty uncertain right now- with the water situation going on- I see this water crisis being eliminated, sooner or later, but it's really uncertain right now considering how the government is trying to handle the water crisis. The crisis definity brought out unity, definitely in the commmunity and in the country as well. That's pretty much the only positive I could see out of that. It also made people much more aware of the political system. It's a great city to live in, there are not as many bad parts as portrayed in the media."
"I was born in Flint, MI. I got an interesting story, really, really interesting. I actually went to prison. I was in Federal Prison Camp for almost five years-sold a lot of marijuanna in my teenage years. That kept me from getting a lot of good jobs that I really really wanted, so I decided to start my own business. I started my business while I was still in college. My sister helps out, my mom does the prep-and I also use interns. JobCorps interns so kids can come here and learn, get a hands-on experience."
"What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?"
"Be a better listener. Listening, as an art, is very important. A lot of times we tend to not listen. If you just listen you'll go very far in life."
"Goals for the future?"
"I do a lot of speaking events. With this business, I really would like to franchise."
"My family's been affected terribly by the water crisis, man, we can't take baths. I got four children, all of them toddlers, babies, so I gotta be real careful about how I cook foods. How I wash her bottles out. Who can I trust? I'm scared. What is the purpose of this, why are they trying to cover this up for? They'll give us water for free but still some families ain't got cars to come get it, got enough cases to take care of their entire family. It takes too much time- to wash it. And you use electricity, you gotta boil the water. We gotta pay for the water-the water we can't even use."
"Do you like Flint?"
"I love Flint, man, I love it. This is my home, I've love this city. You know all the neighbors, you know the kids are safe."
"I wanna be a police!"
"I wanna be a police like him!"
"How about she be my partener?"
"The love of community here is very strong. The reality for me as a person living in Flint-so I have a five-year-old, and we eat out a lot. You don't know, if you've been drinking bottled water for over 28 days and you get your blood tested, the probability is that your blood lead level will be zero. And you're going to be all excited and happy, with kind of a false sense of hope. But, we frequent the restaurants a lot, we love that Flint is kind of growing downtown.
So I worry. I worry that I have a child that's been exposed to it. And not even on a level-I can't even, it's hard for me to imagine some of the people that are living right in Flint that that's what their children have drank all day long, everyday, for the last two years. And I'm upset that my daughter has been exposed to it maybe 3-5 times a week.
And so we get a combination of those that are scared, rightly so, and those that are paranoid-and there's no right or wrong. You have a level of everybody-that's their reality. And then you have some that, I have seen a lady come in and say, "Yeah we live in Flint but our house has all new pipes so I'm not worried."
And so I'll say, "Well you have a filter on, right?" And she'll say, "No, 'cause my pipes are all new." And I'm looking at her like, I know this is a well educated woman, "But the pipes that broughtt it to your house are not." So that's the level we get (at United Way). So it's been a struggle-but we've worked well as a team. And now with the funding we're able to get back at the root of it, to ask the question, how to we get focused and stay focused on what needs to be done, when water isn't the only issue.
On fundraising and what keeps her going.
"We had this group call us from Indy, it was a band and he also worked, just a local band, and he also worked at a local brewery. And he said "We wanted to do a little benefit concert and we're calling it "Beneflint'" and they had T-shirts and Poseidon was on it and he put a calll out to the arts community in Indy, and next thing he knew he had to start turning away bands. So it turned into a one night little concert of their band, into a one day, twelve bands concert. So then we had the manager of Pearl Jam, and he was like "Oh, my band wants to give $100,000." And all of a sudden they wanted to set up a crowd-rise and they kept calling people and before we even had the crowd-rise set up, within a day they had raised $300,000. So that was cool. And then I had this lady call me who was probably in her late eighties, she was from New Jersey. She was wanting to know how she could help Flint, and I was here, and we close at four, but I was here and it was like 5:45 and I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with her. And I learned from her that she just lives on social security, it's just her, and she just had to replace her roof and she said, "You know I just depleted my savings two months ago, But I just can't not help, so I've saved up $100 dollars in two months" you know that's all she has left of her, "and I want to send it to you." So for me, that's just as important as Pearl Jam that sent me $300,000. So that's what keeps me going."
"Everybody needs to find a medical home with a doctor they trust-you know, we've had a community that's been marginalized. All the families need enhanced medical screening, all children that are 0-6 certainly need early education, and then the entire community needs a change in diet. Into iron and calcium rich food, because the lead that's been absorbed into your bones and in your organs, your body will use it over time. You need the calcium and iron so your body will take those-if the body doesn't have it-it will grab the lead. Can you imagine how hard it is to get people to change their diet. This needs to be available for the next ten years."