Our governor, Rick Snyder, issued what he called an apology a couple weeks ago for what\u2019s known as the \u201cFlint water crisis.\u201d Governor Snyder\u2019s statement, in my humble opinion, didn\u2019t meet the\u00a0criteria for an effective apology, and the result has been \u2013 no surprise \u2013 more conflict. So yesterday, he tried again; he’s getting closer, but he still hasn’t truly apologized.<\/p>\n
In April 2014, the city of Flint switched from Detroit water to water from its own Flint River, in order to save money. But it was immediately apparent to residents that Flint water was \u201cbad.\u201d Their complaints to the state went unheeded for over a year, until evidence demonstrated that Flint children had elevated levels of lead that could have come only from the water. Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015, and Governor Snyder appointed a task force to determine what went wrong.<\/p>\n
The task force issued preliminary findings<\/a> just after Christmas, pointing to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality\u2019s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance as the culprit. The DEQ director and his spokesman \u2013 who initially criticized the lead-level reports as \u201cirresponsible\u201d \u2013 resigned<\/a>. Then Governor Snyder issued a statement that included this<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cI want the Flint community to know how very sorry I am that this has happened. And I want all Michigan citizens to know that we will learn from this experience, because Flint is not the only city that has an aging infrastructure.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI know many Flint citizens are angry and want more than an apology. That\u2019s why I\u2019m taking the actions today to ensure a culture of openness and trust. We\u2019ve already allocated $10 million to test the water, distribute water filters, and help in other ways\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n One way to measure an apology is by comparing it with Peacemaker Ministries\u2019 \u201cSeven A\u2019s of Confession<\/a>.\u201d This statement is good on one of the A\u2019s, \u201cAlter behavior\u201d\u2014it devotes quite a bit of space to what will be done differently in the future. Another \u201cA\u201d is \u201cAdmit specifically.\u201d Governor Snyder, if you really want to apologize, you need to tell us what you did — or didn’t do —\u00a0that you now regret.\u00a0Saying you’re “sorry that this happened\u201d is like\u00a0saying to a friend, “I’m sorry you have cancer.” Using the word “sorry” doesn’t convert a statement into an apology.<\/p>\n Perhaps he does not\u00a0see how he is\u00a0responsible for the tragedy in Flint. If so,\u00a0he\u2019s being honest, not taking the blame when it would be politically expedient to do so. Or perhaps he’s leery of the repercussions if he admits responsibility, a fear that\u00a0stops many of us from apologizing.<\/p>\n Now Governor Snyder is being excoriated in the national media<\/a>.\u00a0Perhaps that prompted yesterday’s statement in Flint<\/a>, where he acknowledged \u00a0that the state’s response had not been “good\u00a0enough,” and that he’s “responsible for what happens in state government.” And yet he still sounds defensive; he pointed out that he already apologized, and insisted that his office has been “clear to communicate” the issues at the DEQ — neither of which, in my opinion, is true. And he’s still publicly insisting that he didn’t know there was a problem until October,\u00a0even though his chief of staff Dennis Muchmore alerted him<\/a> months before that.<\/p>\n It’s not too late for\u00a0Governor Snyder\u00a0to make a good apology,\u00a0and he’s moving in the right direction. It should include elements corresponding to the A’s of\u00a0“Admit specifically” as well as “Acknowledge the harm” and “Accept the consequences.”\u00a0It could also\u00a0include an apology for his\u00a0poor attempt at an\u00a0apology.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our governor, Rick Snyder, issued what he called an apology a couple weeks ago for what\u2019s known as the \u201cFlint water crisis.\u201d Governor Snyder\u2019s statement, in my humble opinion, didn\u2019t meet the\u00a0criteria for an effective apology, and the result has been \u2013 no surprise \u2013 more conflict. So yesterday, he tried again; he’s getting closer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}