President Obama announced he would visit Flint, Michigan next week in an unlikely venue: a letter addressed to an 8-year-old girl who lives in the city.
The White House published Obama’s letter confirming his May 4 visit to the city on Wednesday.
Mari Copeny, who said she’s known around town as “Little Miss Flint,” wrote Obama to ask he visit her and other children affected by the city’s lead poisoning water crisis.
Copeny also said she was heading to the nation’s capital to watch congressional hearings about the crisis.
“I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife,” she wrote. “My mom said chances are you will be too busy with more important things, but there is a lot of people coming on these buses and even just a meeting from you or your wife would really lift people’s spirits.”
In a letter to Copeny dated April 25, Obama confirmed he would visit the city.
“I want to make sure people like you and your family are receiving the help you need and deserve,” the President wrote. “Like you, I’ll use my voice to call for the change and help lift up your community.”
Read both letters in full, posted by the White House, at Medium.
At least Mom didn’t sign the letter Alan Smithee.
But Obama is gonna get the plumbing fixed. Right?
Well, it’s not the first mess that Republicans have made for him. I can think of one or two, perhaps even three others.
I can only hope he schedules a televised speech there and uses words like “infuriating” and “outrage” to refer to what happened. I want to see his disgust writ large on his face and hear it as the rushing undercurrent in his tone.
And I want to see and taste the sea of GOP/Teatroll tears that follows.
What should be highlighted here as well as everywhere is that Senator Mike Lee has put a hold on appropriations of federal money for Flint residents to help them with the water crisis in the upcoming budget in Congress. The money that’s been proposed would assist Flint in its infrastructure to deal with the lead pipes which have been leeching ongoing toxins due to negligence from the top on down.The only thing these Goobers in Congress are willing to fund is more for the military industrial complex. These Pukes are doing absolutely nothing in Congress while Rome burns…same as its been since the Teabaggers took over. They’ve decided to abdicate their ultimate responsibility to their fellow citizens, as usual.
Meanwhile, the State of MI is slow-walking under the GOP led legislature and our Governor to provide the necessary funding to help the city move forward as well. With a state surplus, they still can’t seem to get their shit together and make the money available immediately even though they acknowledge its an emergency.