Opinion
SHOHAM GEVA
EDITOR IN CHIEF
CLAIRE BRYAN
AND REGAN DETWILER
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
LAURA SCHINAGLE
MANAGING EDITOR
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Monday, January 25, 2016
I
f you were anywhere near the
Michigan League over Martin
Luther King Jr. Day weekend,
you likely noticed
hordes of high
school
students
running around
in suits. What
was going on?
Had the career
fair come early?
Was the Univer-
sity
of
Michi-
gan
promising
admission to the
best-dressed
minors?
Not quite. That weekend, more
than 600 high school students trav-
eled to Ann Arbor to participate in
a Model United Nations conference
called MUNUM. For four days, they
assumed the roles of diplomats and
world leaders from different coun-
tries, and debated and attempted
to resolve some of the world’s most
pressing issues.
The day after the conference
ended, dozens of rightfully angry
people gathered in Ann Arbor to
demand justice for Flint. In the eyes
of the protesters, justice seemed to
imply that Michigan Gov. Rick Sny-
der (R) be recalled due to his com-
plicity in the Flint water disaster.
Other calls for justice have included
reparations for the damage to the
property and people affected by the
lead-tainted water.
But money and personal conse-
quences for the officials deemed
responsible are necessary — but
insufficient — components of justice
for the nearly 100,000 people who
were poisoned by their government.
Justice is a dubious concept when so
many people have been subjected to
immeasurable long-term harm.
The closest thing to justice that
our state can deliver to the city of
Flint, aside from monetary compen-
sation — aid in dealing with long-
term consequences of lead poisoning
and punishment for the complicit
officials — certainly includes policy
reforms to prevent a similar situation
from happening in the future. That’s
where our government officials
would be best served by taking a les-
son from the idealistic high schoolers
who flooded Michigan’s campus for
the MUNUM conference.
At MUNUM, I directed a com-
mittee of about 80 high school
students, and challenged them to
reform a global trade agreement
that requires almost every country
in the world to adopt and enforce
copyright, trademark and patent
protection laws. If that issue sounds
a bit dense, that’s only because it is.
International trade law isn’t exactly
a topic of casual conversations —
especially among high schoolers.
But there is an important reason to
discuss this issue — the law in ques-
tion often restricts low-income coun-
tries’ abilities to provide affordable
life-saving drugs to their citizens
during health crises. Powerful, devel-
oped countries claim the agreement
is necessary for economic reasons.
Low-income countries often counter
that it prioritizes company profits at
the expense of human health.
The students in my committee
debated this issue as if it affected
them personally. They came to a
resolution far more comprehen-
sive than anything I’ve seen sug-
gested elsewhere, least of all by
the U.S. government.
The reason they were so effec-
tive in representing the interests of
other people affected by an issue they
probably hadn’t thought about before
seemed to be their ability to empa-
thize. Empathy is a skill Model UN
tries to cultivate, prompting students
to totally assume the mindset of dip-
lomats with a national identities dif-
ferent from their own.
If there’s any single thing I could
point to as a cause of the Flint water
crisis, it’s the complete failure of
Michigan leaders to empathize with
the people they were appointed to
serve. But this lack of empathy doesn’t
necessarily stem from a personal fail-
ure on the part of our leaders (though
that certainly may have played a role).
Rather, this total failure to
understand and advocate for the
interests of Flint residents is sys-
temic, and therefore susceptible to
repetition. It’s called Public Act 4,
a 2012 law that strengthened the
power of emergency managers. In
2012, Gov. Snyder remarked that
“these new laws recognize the vital
importance of financially stable,
economically vibrant communities
to Michigan’s future.”
But by enhancing the authority of
leaders far removed from the people
they serve, it lowered the likelihood
that these leaders would adequately
value the interests of the people they
were appointed to represent.
Failure to empathize may sound
like a pretty squishy explanation for
what has surely become one of the
most costly and highest-profile gov-
ernment-made catastrophes of the
Snyder administration. But the entire
concept of American democracy is
derived from the idea that the most
effective and just leaders are those
most able to understand, relate to and
advocate for the people they serve.
Emergency managers almost by
definition don’t fit these criteria.
They are supposed to override local
interests with the goal of taking
tough but necessary austerity mea-
sures that elected officials are some-
times too fearful to impose. This
is deemed necessary, and may be
appropriate for addressing budgetary
concerns in a strictly financial sense.
Public Act 4 gave emergency manag-
ers power over most noteworthy city
operations, and even the authority to
renegotiate contracts.
In Flint, the state had far more
power than should’ve been neces-
sary to restore fiscal solvency. This
power is, in the most direct and fun-
damental sense, what caused the
Flint water crisis.
It’s hard to imagine local leaders
who wouldn’t react promptly to yel-
low water flowing out of sinks, show-
ers and fire hydrants throughout their
city. It’s even less likely that local gov-
ernment would have failed to respond
immediately to concerns over lead poi-
soning, the effects of which will con-
tinue to impact their city for decades,
long after state officials have turned
their attention to other issues.
But for nearly two years, more than
8,600 children in Flint have been
exposed to water with elevated lead
levels, irrevocably raising their risk
of learning, behavioral and attention
disorders. Despite knowing about the
issue for months, the state failed to
acknowledge or resolve the problem.
They continued to deny the lead
concerns until 38-year-old Flint
pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Atti-
sha studied data on the blood lead
levels of child Medicaid beneficia-
ries in Flint, and repeatedly alerted
state officials that the numbers
were extremely high.
The Flint water crisis has since
become a national controversy. Every-
one from Cher to Ben Carson has
weighed in. President Barack Obama
has declared a state of emergency. Sny-
der himself has even admitted that he
and his administration had failed the
people of Flint.
The state has promised money
and profusely apologized for their
mismanagement of the water cri-
sis, but state leaders have yet to
produce adequate solutions to
the problems they created. The
city still lacks adequate plans and
funding to compensate victims
and create special education and
juvenile corrections programs for
the more than 8,600 children now
statistically more likely to need
these facilities.
I’ve seen no evidence that those
plans are in the works. Soon, the
24-hour news cycle will find some-
thing new to talk about. Cher, Bernie
Sanders, Ben Carson, Michael Moore
and the other celebrities who have
thrust Flint into the national spotlight
will focus their attention elsewhere.
But the people of Flint will be liv-
ing with the impacts of this govern-
ment failure long after the bottled
water donations and news trucks have
stopped showing up in their town.
The state officials, reporters and out-
of-town advocates can all move on as
soon as it’s convenient for them to do
so. Those affected by the poisoned
water don’t have that luxury.
No amount of restitution or ret-
ribution can change that basic fact.
Justice for Flint requires that the
state honor the legacy of the city and
people it so monumentally failed by
preventing a repeat incident else-
where. To do that, our legislators
must reform Public Act 4.
—Victoria Noble can be
reached at vjnoble@umich.edu.
Justice for Flint
E-mail Dan at Danct@umich.EDu
DAN PARK
Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Caitlin Heenan,
Jeremy Kaplan, Ben Keller, Minsoo Kim, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh,
Anna Polumbo-Levy, Jason Rowland,
Lauren Schandevel, Melissa Scholke, Rebecca Tarnopol, Ashley Tjhung,
Stephanie Trierweiler, Mary Kate Winn, Derek Wolfe, Hunter Zhao
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
“H
istory is written by the vic-
tors” was perhaps Winston
Churchill’s most well-known
quote. Like many great
quotes,
it’s
one
that
expresses a grand idea
succinctly and elegantly:
Those who win write not
only their own history but
also everyone else’s. While some apply this
only to war, it extends to any type of conflict.
When any two groups engage in competition,
there are, by default, always winners and los-
ers. From sports, to grades, to social situations,
someone always has an edge.
These competitions are often construed as
being completely fair, as all participants engage
in the same task, meaning one shouldn’t, hypo-
thetically, confront any more difficulty than
another during the task. However, this doesn’t
take into account that people are shaped by
their previous experiences, which are different
for each person. These experiences are often
dependent on social identity, with privilege
and social capital playing a large part in life.
The challenges I have faced as a white male of
high socioeconomic status are profoundly dif-
ferent (and overall, lesser) than those faced by
any person of color.
In certain aspects of society throughout his-
tory, privilege has resulted in overrepresenta-
tion of certain groups over others, one of the
most privileged groups being males in leader-
ship positions. We can see this effect across a
number of professions: in education, business,
the military and often government as well.
This overrepresentation in the present leads to
overrepresentation in history, and contributes
to the prevalence of buildings and monuments
dedicated to men.
While you can see this all over, on gov-
ernment buildings or sports stadiums, it is
especially apparent in institutions of higher
learning. Regarded as a bastion of liberalism,
you might think the University of Michigan
wouldn’t hold true to this common practice.
And to a degree, it doesn’t, with four residence
halls named after women (Martha Cook, Alice
Lloyd, Mary Markley, Helen Newberry, Betsy
Barbour) and one academic building named
after a heterosexual couple (Betsy and Bob
Beyster Building). However, there is current-
ly no academic building named solely after
a woman. And given that the University has
more than 500 buildings spread over North,
South, Medical and Central campuses, the
buildings listed above constitute a paltry sum.
Many feminists know too well the ways
in which women have been erased from his-
tory, and in response, they have created the
aptly named “her-story,” in opposition to “his-
story.” However, you can’t really construct
buildings for the express purpose of naming
them after women, which would be the physi-
cal equivalent of writing her-story. While you
could rename current monuments and build-
ings, this is met with fierce resistance.
That being said, three members of LSA Stu-
dent Government — budget allocations com-
mittee chair Nicholas Fadanelli, President
Jason Colella and Vice President Reid Kloot-
wyk — may have found an opportunity to rem-
edy this problem. With construction underway
for the new Biological Sciences Building, and
no name currently assigned to it other than
“Biological Sciences Building,” there is an
opportunity to have an academic building at
the University named after a woman. Colella,
Klootwyk and Fadanelli sought to bring about
this change by writing a resolution and trying
to pass it through student government. What’s
more, they have a perfect candidate to name
the building after: our former University Presi-
dent Emerita Mary Sue Coleman, one of only
two former University presidents who do not
have a building named after them.
Mary Sue Coleman has been one of our
most respected and distinguished former
presidents. She earned many awards while in
office, including being named one of the top
10 college presidents in the country by TIME.
And even after leaving her job as president
of the University, Coleman has continued to
give the school a good name. Since her depar-
ture, she has served as the president of the
Association of American Universities and
was appointed by President Barack Obama to
help launch one of his initiatives. And these
are just a few of the accomplishments she has
achieved so far.
As Fadanelli stated in an e-mail exchange
with the Daily, “The fact that the University of
Michigan does not have an academic building
named solely after a woman is not only shock-
ing, but it is also shameful. We, here, strive to
push for diversity and inclusion in every field
of study, and the lack of an academic building
named after a woman does not send the image
or the message that I believe the University of
Michigan should.”
LSA Student Government will be voting at
their Jan. 27 meeting on this resolution that
would put pressure on the University to name
the building after Coleman. Following LSA
Student Government’s consideration of the
resolution, they will urge Central Student Gov-
ernment to do the same.
I believe naming a building after a distin-
guished woman such as Mary Sue Coleman
will start the University on the right track, and
maybe even rewrite a little history itself.
—Connor Kippe can be reached
at conkip@umich.edu.
Writing women into history
CONNOR
KIPPE
When news of the Flint water
crisis broke national headlines, I
couldn’t believe the reports I was
reading. The citizens of Flint had
been drinking river water con-
taminated not only by lead, but
also with E. coli and trihalometh-
anes, for more than an entire year.
Worse yet, they essentially were
poisoned in order to save the city
money. Every article brought new
testimonies — new tragedies —
from victims of the crisis.
This isn’t something that fami-
lies in Flint can simply recover from.
There is no bouncing back: Lead poi-
soning, at any threshold, will cause
irreversible damage to the body.
Children from Flint are the biggest
victims, given that lead exposure
results in effects reduced IQ, anti-
social behavior or immunotoxicity,
to name a few. The most haunting
images from this catastrophe are
those featuring “elected” officials
proudly toasting with cups of tap
water to celebrate the switch from
the Detroit water system to the Flint
River. It’s so haunting because it is
the same people captured in those
photos who would turn a blind eye
the next week to an unending stream
of public complaints, jugs of putrid
brown water brought to city council
meetings and widespread outbreaks
of skin lesions/hair falling out.
Returning to Ann Arbor after
Winter Break, I hesitated briefly
at the thought of drinking a cup of
water from the faucet. I kept ask-
ing myself whether or not I could
trust the tap water after reading
about the tragedy unfolding just
a one-hour drive away — a ridicu-
lous thought in hindsight. Review-
ing the depravity and failure of the
Flint city government and Michi-
gan state government didn’t give
me any sense of reassurance. It only
made me more skeptical and cyni-
cal about whom to trust. Never-
theless, I’m very certain my water
isn’t contaminated (to the extent
of Flint’s), but the question still lin-
gers in my mind: What if the water
here is poisoned, and I just continue
to drink?
The University of Michigan is Gov.
Snyder’s alma mater; he received
not only his bachelor’s degree, not
only his master’s degree in business
administration, but also his juris doc-
tor degree here nearly 33 years ago. It
is disturbing — no, humiliating — to
know that the man at the epicenter of
the Flint water crisis walked through
the Diag, sat in one of the Angell Hall
auditoriums or took a stroll through
the Law Quad.
Why do I mention his attendance
at the University of Michigan? Well,
to be frank, it boggles my mind that
someone like him could come from
this school — my school. The evi-
dence for Gov. Snyder as an active
villain of the crisis couldn’t be any
more clear or well documented:
Unconscionable
shortcuts
were
taken, warnings were ignored or
even refuted, and action was, and
still has been, limited. Believe it or
not, part of the University’s mission
statement is “to serve the people of
Michigan … and in developing lead-
ers and citizens who will challenge
the present and enrich the future.”
Though he is not completely to
blame, Gov. Snyder, as an alum, has
failed the mission of the University
of Michigan, given what has unfold-
ed in Flint. The community of Flint
has been devastated from his admin-
istration’s inaction and negligence.
There is simply no excuse for what
has happened.
As a current undergraduate stu-
dent here at Michigan, I can’t help
but wonder how Gov. Snyder came
to be able to make the unfortunate
decisions he makes today. Was it
during his first four years at Michi-
gan that he began valuing money
over the lives of children, was it
when he began to work at Irvine
or was it when he returned to Ann
Arbor to create Ardesta LLC?
The
University
of
Michigan
shouldn’t be attributed to the mis-
takes of our governor. However, if
men like Gov. Snyder can come from
schools like the University, perhaps
our degrees should begin requiring
all students to take a course in eth-
ics and morals. This might make it
more difficult later on to devalue
human life. While I recognize it
is idealistic to say starting salary
shouldn’t matter, our institution
needs to reaffirm that our degrees
mean we are not only educated, but
also committed to the public good.
If the world of money after college
will try to corrupt us, our education
should serve as a deterrence. Some-
where along the way, Gov. Snyder
forgot about what it means to be an
alum of the University of Michigan.
Somewhere along the way, he began
to drink poisoned water.
Hunter Zhao is a member of
the Daily’s Editorial Board.
Gov. Snyder, Michigan alum
HUNTER ZHAO | OP-ED
VICTORIA
NOBLE
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