Flint, Michigan Water Crisis Cartoon Analysis

✅ Paper Type: Free Essay	✅ Subject: English Language
✅ Wordcount: 1723 words	✅ Published: 18th May 2020

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The Worries Of Flint, Michigan water

Flint, Michigan water has been an ongoing problem for the past six years. Its pipes have been contaminated with so many poisonous chemicals such as lead, and legionella. Many only saw that lead was the number one problem in the water, but what many didn’t know is that Legionella can cause an illness outbreak (Rose). One primary common illness is pneumonia, its an infection in one or both of your lungs (pneumonia). This crisis started when the state filed for bankruptcy and decided to save money by switching Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the flint river to save money, that which runs through the town known to locals. But what residents couldn’t see was far worse. About half of the service lines to homes in Flint were consisting iron (the water eroded the pipes which put lead and iron) because the water needed treatment, lead began leaching into the water supply, in addition to the iron (Ganim and Tran).The artist Sacks has created this cartoon to show how little care Governor Snyder actually cared about the water crisis until it affects his career. Snacks illustrates in this cartoon by many elements such as the tombstone, The buoy, and the boat.

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In the cartoon, you’ll see the tombstone is one of the focal points in the cartoon. It shows the starting point of cautioning threat levels that started with the state changing the water supply. If you look closely you’ll see that in the water it’s about three different shades of color levels. At the seafloor, you can see that it is so dark because governor Snyder saw the problem of the water had a nasty taste, and odd odor. Also, the health risk that the water bestowed to the kids. What was more alarming was to find out that a report in “september 2015 by a flint pediatrician named Mona Hanna indicated that because of such elevated blood levels the children world wide had nearly doubled from 2014-2015, and caroting to her it nearly also tripled in parts of neighborhoods”(Denchak). Hanna also stated that “of course lead is one of the most damaging things but it’s more damaging to children because of their entire life course trajectory, The over all total of children that were supplied with lead contamination water was about 9,000 for children who were only 18 months” (Denchak). Well you see in every tombstone there’s an epitaph which is written on the tombstone itself to describe who that person was. In this case the artist Steve Sacks pointed out that Governor Snyder didn’t pay attention when the crisis started. He puts this image on him to show the audience what kind of a person Snyder is and to show appeal to logos about each one of those epitaphs.

Another critical element in this cartoon would be the color of the Buoy and the reason why it’s all rusty. If you notice it says Flint water supply, most buoys are used to warn those who are about to hit danger, Most of these buoys are red, but this one is brown and rotten which adds more chemicals to the water being it made out of metal.But most of all this buoy highlights the lack of attention on Governor Synders part when his job is to do best for flint. This buoy is implying that Flint’s water supply is a dangerous place to cross. The flint water has been known to flow through the heart of the town,the waterway has also been received a raw sewage from the city’s waste plant, and toxins from landfills has not surprisingly caught fire twice (Denchak). This leaves his audience angry because there’s many signs that are shown to him but still doesn’t take charge. Since the water does make it to the town, everyone realizes on water bottles for everything because it the only safe thing to drink and use to shower since the pipes in Flint Michigan are all contaminated with lead and iron. The way that it’s related to the buoy is by showing you that all their drain pipes are all rotten and messed up. There has been nemours protest for Governor Snyder to do something about it and help them out, but he made the situation worse. Water bottles were running out and Governor Snyder wasn’t doing anything about it to supply more and it has gotten to a point were “ residents had to carry out their own plastic water bottles with signs that they had written that said “ you did. You fix it!’’ and others chanting “ Hey hey, ho ho, Snyder’s got to go!’’ “ stand up for Flint!’’(Sanchez). Everyone stood up to do the right thing instead of drinking from the nasty water pipes. They stood up to show Governor Snyder that they had enough of this problem and want the pipes to be fixed.

The last key element that stands out in this cartoon will be how government Snyder is on a red boat looking at the tombstone, which he says, “ now it’s a crisis “. In this part of the cartoon, the artist is trying to say that the government was trying to make his career look better. In reality, it did required him because he needed to put in money, to help out everyone. Instead he’s running away well in this case he’s rowing away from the problem. The audience in this case might all see that it’s not a self drive boat, it’s a rowing boat. Meaning he didn’t move so quickly to fix any problem and was not worried about the timing of it. An article the author wrote down what someone wrote about Flint “ In July 2015, Dennis Muchmore wrote: I’m frustrated by the water issue in Flint I really don’t think people are getting the benefit of the doubt. Now they are concerned and rightfully so about the lead level studies they are receiving. These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we’re just not sympathizing with their plight)” (Graham). Governor Snyder never admits when he actually found out about the Flint water supply being poisoned with lead, this is just shows the audience how little he actually cared about helping out. It also shown that republicans like Rick Snyder only ever do treat an issue like this as business as in the article states that “ Republicans define it more narrowly than their political rivals by focusing on uplifting the wealthy. “A rising tide lifts all boats” is a well worn mantra of the right!”( When Will Republicans learn). In this cartoon Sacks points out mostly appeals to pathos because of all the frustration that Flint Michigan is going through right now, and all the anger they have on Governor Snyder for not doing what he’s supposed to be doing.

Finally, in Steve Sacks eyes, he is explaining what exactly is going on with little words and a cartoon. It also shows that Governor Snyder failed to help out Flint and before it came to this nightmare. This cartoon was made not for just Flint to see it, but for everyone around the world to see what type of Governor they have and what he isn’t doing to help. Sacks wants his audience to see all the bad that the water is doing to Flint and the kids who are drinking the water.

Work Cited

David A. Graham,What Did the Governor Know About Flint’s Water, and When Did He Know It?, The Atlantic, Jan 9,2016 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/what-did-the-governor-know-about-flints-water-and-when-did-he-know-it/423342/

Joan Rose, Ph.D., is the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University and a member of the Water Quality and Health Council. https://waterandhealth.org/about-us/joan-b-rose/
Melissa Denchak, Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know, NRDC, November 08, 2018