Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a physician, scientist and activist who has testified before Congress, named one of TIME magazine’s most influential people in the world and awarded the Freedom of Expression Courage Award by PEN America—and in 2014, she entered the fight of her life in Flint, Michigan.
Hanna-Attisha at the 2017 March for Science in Washington, DC. (Scattered1 / Creative Commons)
That year, the state shifted the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the city river, and residents began to take note of a dangerous deterioration in its quality. When evidence of lead poisoning from the water in Flint would begin to make headlines, Dr. Hanna-Attisha—an immigrant, doctor, scientist and mother, and, then, a pediatrician at a public hospital in Flint—fought back, demanding accountability and clean water for her city.
A team of researchers, concerned families and community leaders eventually proved that Flint’s kids were exposed to lead and then fought a hostile city government to expose that truth to the world. Hanna-Attisha’s What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City tells the powerful story of that ongoing fight for justice.
In the following exclusive clip for Ms. readers, Hanna-Attisha recounts being hospitalized after a serious car injury when she just five years old—and then flashes forward to a moment in which she flipped the script and talked to young children in a hospital in her white coat, reassuring them that they would be okay after being poisoned by their own water.
Carmen Rios is the Digital Editor at Ms. and Contributing Editor and Co-Founder of Argot Magazine; her work has also appeared at BuzzFeed, Bitch, Mic, MEL, Everyday Feminism and Autostraddle, where she was previously Community Director and Feminism Editor. Like everyone else in LA, she once had a podcast; unlike everyone else, she stays pretty zen in traffic. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.
The post LISTEN: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha Looks Back at Her Fight for Flint, Michigan appeared first on Ms. Magazine Blog.