The fact that a whole town of people is getting continuously poisoned by a negligent government and nobody seems to be listening is concerning, but not surprising.
After all, approximately 24 hours after the announcement that the government would cease providing free bottled water to the people of Flint, Michigan, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer’s office was seized by the FBI in relation to a number of financial crimes.
We aren’t focusing on what happened to the 42 people who died in connection to the latest chemical attack carried out by the Syrian government on its own people. We aren’t talking about how there’s actually a major city that will run out of water very soon due to extended drought in the South African cape.
We haven’t talked about what it all means because there’s endless drama spilling out of the White House that’s masquerading as important. Maybe it is important. Maybe this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back and Trump is out, brought down fittingly by a scandal involving a porn star and financial fraud, but probably not.
Who knows? I certainly don’t know. I can’t see the future, as nice as that might be.Related:
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I do know, however, that in terms of other so-called news that’s come from the Trump White House, this isn’t the most explosive scandal — it’s not even the sexiest. Seriously, our president was rumored to be involved with Russian prostitutes and supposedly took part in demeaning sexual acts with said prostitutes.
People near him started getting caught in lies less than a month after the inauguration. There are just more important things to focus on right now, especially when this specific incident might end up on the list of things we’ve already forgotten about in the last year of Trump’s presidency, finding companionship among various rude tweets and other acts of insanity that slowly but surely demean the office of the presidency.
Instead of talking about our president who dictates policy through a Twitter account, let’s talk about the estimated 30,000 children who will likely qualify for some sort of governmental relief for the remainder of their education because only 6,000 of the toxic pipes in the ground near Flint have been replaced.
Let’s talk about the continued civil war ripping through Syria that claims more and more innocent lives as the days pass by. Let’s talk about the fact that another government successfully used social media to carry out some of the most sophisticated chaos-oriented espionage the world has ever seen.
Let’s talk about how states such as Oklahoma continually put education funding on the back burner over and over again and then wonder why everything else is falling apart. Let’s talk about hyper-partisanship and how it’s destroying the republic in ways that we didn’t intend, but should have seen coming.
Let’s talk about the things that matter instead of wasting our time focusing on what can safely be classified as just another scandal, because if there’s anything that I’ve learned during the Trump Administration, it’s that there’s more where that came from.
Kaylie McLaughlin is the assistant news editor for the Collegian and a sophomore in mass communications. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Collegian. Please send comments to opinion@kstatecollegian.com.
