(Nevermind that Williamson was convicted for several business scams in 1962 and served 3 years in prison before being paroled. What’s the worst that could happen?) Skepticism aside, we were out of the red, had balanced budgets, and even received a national budget award in 2006. We were no longer under state management in 2004 and we had a new, publicly elected mayor, Don Williamson. Same Darnell Early now in charge of Detroit Schools.) But you know what, things got better. (Same Darnell Early that was here during the water switch. Darnell Earley became the temporary mayor after Stanley resigned. Then started a long history of people sent to help. City council president, Scott Kincaid, said at the time “he did not believe a financial emergency existed.” (Kincaid was the president of the city council here until just a year ago.) Let that sink in.) That was the first time the state sent someone in to help, as the city was in dire straits. (By the way, citizens elected Stanley to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2008. In 2002, citizens recalled mayor Woodrow Stanley for mismanaging the city and placing it in $40 million dollars worth of debt. Our government has been in crisis for a long time too. Their sense of hope has left, walls of distrust built up, broken homes where single mothers are left to pick up the remains of their family. Our community members are just as damaged. If you were to drive through certain streets, you would see the vacant fields, boarded up business, and charred remains of where houses once stood. In truth, our city has been in crisis for decades. How is it possible that a city that was built for 200,000 people can have an entire water system that is unfit to drink? How is it that a city, once home to the creation of General Motors, has been sending out water to its citizens that is full of lead? I wish the answer was simple, but I’m not sure it is. It’s seems impossible to think that a city in the United States, in 2016, can be in such a state. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the matter. Even Cher has thrown her thoughts into the public forum. At the moment the lack of clean water is in the news media. Then again, what’s right isn’t always popular, and what’s popular isn’t always right. What I’m about to say might not be popular.

I’m going to share my own opinions about how we got here and how to fix it. By now, the world at large has heard about the Flint Water Crisis.

Flint journal contact info