Early Tuesday morning, Rasheed Wallace published a passionate piece on The Players' Tribune about the Flint water crisis that everybody outside the city of Flint, Michigan seems to have, unfortunately, moved on from. In the piece, which is called "The Truth About Flint," Wallace starts things off by reminding people about just how important water—clean water—is when it comes to completing simple everyday tasks. He writes:
"When you woke up this morning, what’s the first thing you did? Took a piss and flushed the toilet? Brushed your teeth? Took a shower? Whatever you did, I’m guessing you used water."
From there, the former NBA star—who readily admits that he's "not a water expert or anything like that" before writing that he doesn't "need to be to know when something's fucked up"—makes it his mission to shine a spotlight back on Flint, even though the initial outrage surrounding the contaminated water situation in the city has died down. He discusses how Flint residents are still being forced to boil water before bathing with it, and he also documents the things he saw and heard when he visited Flint for the first time to deliver cases of water.
"On my first visit," he writes, "I saw a third-world country inside the United States. Boarded up homes, shuttered business, no street lights on at night. You have maybe 12 to 15 homes on one block, but only two of those are occupied. Part of Flint was already in extreme poverty, but what I saw was something else: people missing clumps of hair, rashes on adults and children alike—all because of poisoned water. Imagine that: The poorest people paying the heaviest price."
Wallace has made several more trips to Flint since then, including one back in August with Stephen Jackson and ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols. And while he admires the hope that many people in Flint have, he also writes about how he can't believe that so many people in other parts of the country—including many government officials—have seemingly forgotten about what's going on in the city. He writes:
What if this had happened in New York? You mean to tell me that the people of Flint—just because it wasn’t a natural disaster—can’t get no help? That’s ludicrous! The government just approved funding at the beginning of October, nearly two years after we learned that the water was fucked up. What took so long?
And towards the end of his piece, Wallace points out what might be the biggest injustice of all. Even though the water in Flint remains contaminated, residents are still being sent water bills on a regular basis by the city of Flint and asked to pay them. He writes:
You want to hear the real ass-kicker, though?
Wallace's ties to the state of Michigan date back to when he won an NBA championship with the Pistons in 2004 during the first of his five seasons with the team. He later joined the Detroit coaching staff in 2013 and served as an assistant for one season. Detroit lies roughly 65 miles southeast of Flint, and Wallace writes in his essay about how part of his motivation to visit Flint came as a result of the support the city showed him during his time with the Pistons.
You can read his entire Players' Tribune story here.
