Obama grants Flint girl’s request, plans visit
8-year-old’s letter was inspired by trip to watch hearings
President Barack Obama, responding to the request of an 8-year-old girl from Flint, Mich., will travel there in a week to talk with residents concerned about the high level of lead contamination in their water.
Mari Copeny, who acquired the nickname Little Miss Flint for her vocal activism on the issue of lead exposure, wrote Obama last month when she was preparing to visit Washington to watch Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) testify before the House Oversight Committee on his state’s handling of the issue. Snyder, as well as the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, have come under fire for not acting sooner to limit lead contamination coming from the city’s aging pipe system.
“I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife,” Mari 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.”
Obama responded in a letter Monday, which the White House posted Wednesday on the site Medium. He noted that she was “right that Presidents are often busy, but the truth is, in America, no title is more important than citizen.”
“I want to make sure people like you and your family are receiving the help you need and deserve,” the president wrote, adding he wanted her to be “the first to know” that he’s coming to her city on May 4. “Like you, I’ll use my voice to call for change and help lift up your community.”
In an interview Wednesday Copeny’s mother, LuLu Brezzell, said her daughter was “a little overwhelmed” at the prospect of meeting the president, but “hasn’t stopped smiling” since they received a call from the White House this week that he’d be coming.
“We’ve always taught her to stand up for what she believes in and to use her voice, “Brezzell said.
Flint’s water contamination became a major issue in the presidential race around Michigan’s primary, as Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders cited it as a sign of Republican politicians’ indifference to those who are poor and African-American, while Republicans said Obama administration officials bore part of the blame for the problem.
An ongoing state probe has faulted Michigan officials for making the key decisions that have exposed thousands of children in the community to dangerously high lead levels that can cause permanent neurological problems.
Last month, a task force appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to investigate the water crisis in Flint issued a blistering report, largely blaming state officials in what it called “a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction and environmental injustice.”
The report said the state Environmental Quality Department “failed in its fundamental responsibility” to enforce drinking-water regulations, even as it assured top state that Flint’s water was safe when it wasn’t.