Earth Month Action Plan
Week 1: Donate money online to a non-profit organization that will go toward bottled water for the people of Flint. This would be more cost effective than shipping my own water because I wouldn’t be paying the shipping fees. This would be doing only my part, so this would a “personally responsible citizen” –tier action. While this is a good start, it only assists people already affected by the issue of contaminated drinking water.
Week 2: Send a letter to an Ohio representative. There is no better way to bring an issue to the national government’s attention than communicating with a representative. This would probably also fall under “personally responsible citizen.” It would likely only have an impact if many, many people sent letters about the importance of safe drinking water.
Week 3: Create a Facebook page or group where concerned members help to spread awareness about the water crisis. This would require a level of organization, so this would make me a participatory citizen. Social change requires many informed citizen that will demand change from the government. This is a step above simply giving water to citizens of Flint. It may be a little difficult to find members for a group like this in Ohio, since it does not directly affect us. However, college campus like OSU’s would be a perfect place to find potential members for a group like this. Handing out pamphlets on the oval may be an effective tool to raise awareness.
Week 4: Conduct independent research into how the Flint Water Crisis began, and how it can be prevented in the future. From what I’ve read thus far, this was an issue of budget cuts and changing tap water sources, as well as lack of local power. Therefore, it would be helpful to look into the relationship between national power and see what legal power municipal governments have in overruling national budgets that directly affect them. I personally think that a committee in all medium-large cities that looks into potential side effects national decisions could have on them might be very effective. This would definitely require the most effort, because if there is an easy, viable governmental restructuring solution, it would probably be instituted already.