Growing up, many of us heard that a human life is priceless. We were led to believe that all the riches in the world were worthless compared to a single person's heartbeat. Yet time and time again, we have seen people in power, driven by greed, put prices upon the value of a life. These are men and women who would let the world burn if they could get a profit out of the ashes. They see dollar signs of the heads of humanity and look for ways to squeeze every cent we have out of us, regardless of the lives that they destroy. People like this are a responsible for the poisoning the water of Flint, Michigan.

This is what the water in Flint looks like right now. According to CNN, this water is filled with high concentrations of iron and lead. This is the water that the citizens of Flint have been drinking for the past two years. The health effects of drinking these toxins for children includes long-term mental consequences. This could have easily been avoided if the State Department of Environment Quality had treated the water with an anti-corrosive agent that would have costs 100 dollars a day. No one seemed to think that these people were worth that.

What makes the entire situation worse is the Flint officials distributed clean water to those they deemed worthy. According to "Progress Michigan," while the citizens of Flint drank poison, the officials that were supposed to protect hoarded the drinkable water for themselves. In an email sent by the State department of Technology, Management, and Budget declares that "While the City of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink. The coolers will arrive today and will be provided as long as the public water does not meet treatment requirements."

Also according to MSNBC, the City Government gave a General Motors factory a different water line to tap into, because the water was causing equipment to rust. They did not offer the same kindness to the people of Flint for their health.

It is time for corruption such as this to come to an end. We need a government which does what it is supposed to do. We need representatives who serve the well-being of the people, not the well-being of themselves. It is my hope that from this injustice, some sort of good will come. All we can really do is hope that this crisis is fixed soon.