By Mark Schneyer
In her Rosh Hashanah sermon this year, Rabbi Ora urged us to “Choose Life,” and focused our attention on issues that prevent people from having access to clean water. I thought it would be useful to list some of the people and organizations mentioned in her sermon, as well as a few related ones::
- Mari Copeny: Mari, the 11-year-old also known as Little Miss Flint, raised money to provide 1,000 backpacks for Flint kids last year. She is currently raising money to continue providing water to Flint residents.
- Monica Lewis-Patrick and her work with We the People of Detroit: The organization does research and educates on the Detroit water shutoff public health crisis. They also run water stations around the city. A page on their website has links to donate or volunteer to help.
- Our friend Rabbi Alana and Detroit Jews for Justice have also worked on the water shutoff issue.
- Two Arizona organizations that work to provide water for people crossing the desert into the US are No More Deaths and Humane Borders.
Finally, Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who stood up to advocate for the kids of Flint at a time when the state of Michigan claimed there was no problem with Flint’s water, has written a new book, What the Eyes Don’t See, telling the story of her fight and some of her own history as well. She spoke tonight in Ann Arbor, and said the title of the book refers both to the invisibility of lead in water as well as “problems we choose not to see.”
She described her inner dialogue when she was deciding to go public with the truth she was learning. “How can our water not be fine?” she said she asked herself. The government had experts testing and overseeing and enforcing the law, the water must be clean. But the evidence told her otherwise and she launched her fight.
