They Should Not Drink or Bathe?
When the water crisis hit West Virginia, many were horrified, but others mocked the impoverished state - including a Detroit journalist, unaware her city was next. President Johnson’s war on poverty long ago turned into a war on the poor, and residents of both places have been blamed for their own plight. They elect bad leaders and support corrupt companies, people said of West Virginia. They should have paid their bills, people say of Detroit.
Which leads to the question: so what? Then they should not drink or bathe? They should swallow poison or roam the streets in search of water fountains? Their children, who have no stake in this battle, are supposed to suffer, and their parents are supposed to watch? Is that the lesson we are passing on - that poor children are inherently undeserving of a basic provision in one of the richest countries in the world?
—Sarah Kendzior, “Water is a human right, but who is considered a human being?”
