How You, Yes YOU, Can Solve the Flint Water Crisis
Between the liberals blaming Rick Snyder for Flint's debacle and the kind hearted people of the world sending cases of bottled water, it occurs to me that there is a simple solution to the crisis in Flint.
Do nothing.
Don't send them money. Don't send them water. Don't try to blame the governor. Do nothing. Go on about your business.
Now before you start, hear me out. Human beings are odd creatures. Left to their own devices they find a way to not only survive but to thrive. When, however, they are not left to their own devices, when everything is done for them and nothing is expected of them, they become weak and helpless and incapable of feeding themselves. Or in this case, incapable of getting themselves a glass of water.
For decades the people of Flint have done nothing to help themselves. When their city went into a tailspin from the auto industry leaving, they cursed the auto industry and then expected that someone else would help them. They looked to the state and the federal governments for aid, then any aid that came was quickly squandered on meaningless projects that lined the pockets of local politicians and their cronies but did nothing to improve the lot of the people. The people responded to that by continually re-electing corrupt and incompetent leaders and demanded nothing from them. As the city's infrastructure crumbled, as the crime rates became intolerable, as the school system became a joke, as more and more businesses viewed the city as a bad place to set up shop, the citizens refused to exact a price on the so called leaders who made themselves wealthy while doing nothing useful. As the city lurched toward bankruptcy, no one in city government had to do anything other than find someone else to blame for their failure because the people voting for them were willing to listen to those lies and believe them.
Now the inevitable disaster has hit. A combination of corruption, stupidity and incompetence on the part of the city government over the course of decades has made the water undrinkable. Feeble attempts to blame the governor do nothing to make the water cleaner, but it does give pause to some who otherwise might feel compassion. Smart people re-coil when they see the blame game being played and they view with skepticism those who make the loudest accusations. Any attempt to provide the people of the city with water paid for from the pocketbooks of others will only serve to allow those truly responsible to stay in power by relieving them of the consequence of their misdeeds. The people of Flint should be told to clean up their own mess. When left to their own devices, people have a way of suddenly becoming stronger than they ever thought they were. They begin to find ways to help themselves. Then they start looking for ways to help their friends and neighbors. Leaders, true leaders emerge from their numbers as the old, failed politicians are swept out of power and their cronies are brushed aside. The new leaders come to power with a mandate and the willingness of the people to support them as they fix the problems.
There are massive numbers of examples in history of people who in times of difficulty were helped by others only to become dependent on that help vs people forced to fend for themselves becoming strong and fully independent. Do not make the mistake of allowing misguided compassion to cause the people of Flint to become so weak minded that they are incapable of getting themselves a drink of water. If you truly want to help them, don't help them.
Do nothing.
Don't send them money. Don't send them water. Don't try to blame the governor. Do nothing. Go on about your business.
Now before you start, hear me out. Human beings are odd creatures. Left to their own devices they find a way to not only survive but to thrive. When, however, they are not left to their own devices, when everything is done for them and nothing is expected of them, they become weak and helpless and incapable of feeding themselves. Or in this case, incapable of getting themselves a glass of water.
For decades the people of Flint have done nothing to help themselves. When their city went into a tailspin from the auto industry leaving, they cursed the auto industry and then expected that someone else would help them. They looked to the state and the federal governments for aid, then any aid that came was quickly squandered on meaningless projects that lined the pockets of local politicians and their cronies but did nothing to improve the lot of the people. The people responded to that by continually re-electing corrupt and incompetent leaders and demanded nothing from them. As the city's infrastructure crumbled, as the crime rates became intolerable, as the school system became a joke, as more and more businesses viewed the city as a bad place to set up shop, the citizens refused to exact a price on the so called leaders who made themselves wealthy while doing nothing useful. As the city lurched toward bankruptcy, no one in city government had to do anything other than find someone else to blame for their failure because the people voting for them were willing to listen to those lies and believe them.
Now the inevitable disaster has hit. A combination of corruption, stupidity and incompetence on the part of the city government over the course of decades has made the water undrinkable. Feeble attempts to blame the governor do nothing to make the water cleaner, but it does give pause to some who otherwise might feel compassion. Smart people re-coil when they see the blame game being played and they view with skepticism those who make the loudest accusations. Any attempt to provide the people of the city with water paid for from the pocketbooks of others will only serve to allow those truly responsible to stay in power by relieving them of the consequence of their misdeeds. The people of Flint should be told to clean up their own mess. When left to their own devices, people have a way of suddenly becoming stronger than they ever thought they were. They begin to find ways to help themselves. Then they start looking for ways to help their friends and neighbors. Leaders, true leaders emerge from their numbers as the old, failed politicians are swept out of power and their cronies are brushed aside. The new leaders come to power with a mandate and the willingness of the people to support them as they fix the problems.
There are massive numbers of examples in history of people who in times of difficulty were helped by others only to become dependent on that help vs people forced to fend for themselves becoming strong and fully independent. Do not make the mistake of allowing misguided compassion to cause the people of Flint to become so weak minded that they are incapable of getting themselves a drink of water. If you truly want to help them, don't help them.