Don’t drink the water!

Bread may or may not be the staff of life. Water on the other hand is essential for survival. Like electricity, you never think twice about water safety until it’s compromised.

On Thursday of last week, a major American city of 300,000 had their public water supply compromised by a careless corporation. A week later, residents in some parts of the city are now allowed to drink the water. Still, there are more questions than answers forthcoming.

We live in a state that considers water one of our assets. A bottler of water extracted from the depths of Maine’s bedrock ships it across the globe. Next to lobster, water is Maine’s most famous export. Intelligent people would want to do all within their power to make sure Maine’s pristine reputation is upheld.

Water from Maine gets shipped around the globe.

Instead, our governor, like so many of today’s shortsighted politicians insists that regulations that have been in place dating back to the early 1970s, when a Maine’s U.S. senator, someone named Ed Muskie (you may have heard of him),  made sure that water was protected (along with the air that we breathe).

What is it about politicians, the other half of that two-headed hydra along with “business interests” that warrants selling our environment out for a mess of pottage? Is greed and craven political gain more important than clean water and clean air we can breathe?

This tweet by someone that goes by @DubMasterC, related to the situation in Charleston, West Virginia, says it all for me:

If Al Qaeda had poisoned the water of 300K people, we’d have already invaded the wrong country. Since it’s a corporation, carry on. #TYTLive