
The Women’s March on Washington was almost a month ago, when just under 5 million people worldwide grouped together to stand in solidarity for women and a variety of issues stemming from the inauguration of President Donald Trump. This article is part of our Marching On series about activists who are keeping the momentum going.
New York’s
What I think we all in New York took for granted were the systems in place to make sure the
The silver lining here is it’s isolated and controllable and we can easily fix it now that the issue is known. And who do we have to thank? A lot of people, really, though I think we can give them one name:
Flint.
The Flint
And one of the hardest working and most vocal among them is Melissa Mays.
Mays was at the Women’s March on Washington on January 21 and gave a speech, pleading for one thing: “Please don’t forget about us because we have not forgotten about you,” Melissa Mays had said on stage.
“We are poisoned, we are sick, we are pissed off, but we have not let that stop us. We have gone to the streets and the courts, and we stand together. We stand with all of you. And as you’re out there fighting for the rights that we all deserve, like clean
Why does she need us to remember Flint? It’s because the clock at the top of Water You Fighting For’s website continues to tick off the days since the
Though, 1,028 days ago, not many knew exactly what was wrong with the
“We received a letter that said our
That letter was mailed on January 2, 2015, according to Detroit Free Press. Or day 252. That same month, Mays started her organization,
Before Mays, mother of three, started in activism and before the
Now, Mays is a full-time activist, working at Family Navigator “to help families here get the help they need,” and at Flint Rising as an organizer, helping spread information about Flint’s
“I work two jobs and the other stuff and have three sons and husband,” she said and laughed.
Flint Rising
Flint Rising was started in January 2016 and is a coming together of Flint groups, such as
“They were still boiling the
“The state put nothing out in anything but English. There was nothing in Arabic, nothing in Spanish,” Mays said. “And their first attempt at putting things into Spanish, they used Google Translate, so it was absolute gibberish.”
.
And it really takes a lot of work, especially when it involves uncovering information not made public.
“The more we put in FOIAs, and the more we fought and went to court,” she said, “we found out they knew about the lead and other contaminates and the bacteria and that people were dying in 2014, and they weren’t telling anyone.”
One of the many things Mays has been involved with is a pending lawsuit, for which she is working with the NRDC, ACLU and Concerned Pastors for Social Action.
“We have a pending lawsuit under the Safe Drinking
“The lawsuit is pushing to compel the relevant city and state officials that operate the
The NRDC has long been involved with safe drinking
“The case we’re working on with her is about compelling compliance with the relevant federal law in the future to insure that this crisis doesn’t happen again,” Tallman said. “We’re also pushing for replacement of all the lead service lines in Flint, which is you know the best and really only long-term solution to getting lead out of drinking
While the lawsuit might be pending, it has yielded one early temporary and much-needed victory.
“The court granted a preliminary injunction. Preliminary injunction is all about the interim emergency relief,” Tallman said. “While the tap
‘Most people just assume with all the media attention and all of the congressional hearings and this and that, that things have been done for us in Flint, and it just isn’t the truth.’
The NRDC also happened to be a sponsor of the Women’s March on Washington, and after organizers from the march and Justice League NYC, along with Mark Ruffalo on his bus tour, visited Flint, Melissa Mays’ name came up to speak to the crowd of marchers.
“They asked if I was willing to speak about what was happening in Flint,” Mays said. “They took a lot of inspiration from that fact it’s been women, moms, sisters standing up, fighting for everyone in this state.”
And from the experience, Mays found she was able to connect with people who really care, which Flint needs now more than ever, since, as the Women’s March motto goes, “This is a marathon, not a sprint.” And the Flint
“It was amazing to see that many people, that many men, women and children come together for human rights that actually care,” Mays said.
“And I had such a good response. People asking questions about Flint, asking what they can do to help. And that’s the main reason I wanted to speak, to let the world know the state’s still lying. That our
As Mays continues her fight at home, she also has been helping other communities in the nation.
“I just got back from Dallas,” she said, “where we’ve been teaching people to test their
And in this crisis, organizing and speaking up have been key. It’s how they got the tests done correctly to reveal the issue. It’s how they got the information out to the world. It’s how they got the support and help they needed.
“[Mays] is a fierce advocate and understands the importance of citizen advocacy to make change,” Tallman said. “And I think she really believes in the power of citizen advocacy and has shown how much can get done when you raise your voice and ask for the information that necessary for citizens to really speak the truth about what’s going on in their own communities.”
And still, on day 1,028, Mays continues to fight because the clock at the top of her website is still running. The
“We’re continually testing because the
On February 10, Mays and members of Flint Rising had a rally outside Flint’s City Hall. Because they’re paying for the
“State taxpayers will not provide additional funding for
Even though, according to MLive, the state still doesn’t advise Flint drink the water unfiltered.
It seems like the clock on Mays’ website won’t stop any time soon. And you can expect Mays won’t either.
Update 4 p.m. : Melissa Mays said via email that this morning, February 16, she testified before a Congress hearing about the dangers of cutting environmental regulations and infrastructure funding. “We can’t let anyone else become Flint,” she said. The march continues.
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