We did not spend long talking to the women of Flint, Michigan, at the Women’s March on Washington, because our conversation kept being interrupted: they were, simply, too popular with attendees who kept coming over to offer hugs and take photos.
Helen Brock, below, was happy to have the attention; she came specifically so that the contamination of Flint’s water supply would not be forgotten by fellow Americans the way it seems to have been by the government. “They don’t care. They really don’t care. They caught themselves fixing a little, few pipes, but it’s still just as bad,” she said. “It’s like we the forgotten city, now. You know, the news is off it, so they don’t care.”
Just then, a blonde woman in a baseball cap ran up for a photograph. “I’ve been to Flint twice!” she exclaimed. “I love your city!”
Brock giggled and hugged the woman. “Bless her heart! Sorry about that, I’m so excited!” She then explained her other main reason for attending the march in D.C.: the Affordable Care Act.
“You know, I don’t need him to cut off the health insurance, either. If you gonna repeal it, make it better. My son didn’t have any health insurance, and he needed that. When he got older he came off of my health insurance, so he has Obamacare, and he has a pre-existing condition, hypertension. So what is he gonna do?”
The sign she carried made her primary message clear, though; for elected officials to attend to the basic human necessities of its citizens. “Don’t forget us,” she said. “We need some help.”