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Are People Suffering Because We Don’t Want to Piss off the Feds?

Isn’t it amazing there was no large-scale effort to help the people of East Palestine, Ohio by immediately providing bottled water? How could this be? We provide transportation, food and water, clothing, healthcare, housing, cell phones, and cash for people in this country illegally, yet we can’t muster the wherewithal to provide our fellow citizens with clean water?

In past emergencies, large breweries have often been a quick source for this water. Why not now?

I’ve worked in the beer business for decades, and I know Anheuser-Busch (now Anheuser Busch InBev, ABI). I also know they have an incredible marketing and public relations operation. They have a large brewery in Ohio and can produce damn near unlimited canned water. They could probably ship it in other larger containers too.

Yet they have done nothing to date to help the folks in East Palestine. To tell you the truth, I was somewhat stunned they hadn’t yet come to the rescue—probably on a wagon pulled by Clydesdales.

They could get tens of millions in free advertising—both national and international—and score some serious brownie points with folks across the country. And of course, help out some people in serious need, too.

But it seems my concern was unfounded as ABI lived up to its reputation and contacted the state immediately with an offer to provide water. But the EPA has said the water is OK.

Sure, that’s why downstream Cincinnati is closing Ohio River water intakes.

And the word on the street is that ABI—and the state—are afraid to upset the Biden Administration and the EPA by sending the water anyway.

Think of that! A large company ready to donate life-saving bottled water—at no cost to anyone other than itself with a governor who was quite ready to accept it. Yet the company is afraid to act so as not to contradict the political overlords at the EPA and perhaps make the pathetic secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, look even more incompetent than he already does..

ABI knows the EPA has the power to destroy almost any company of any size. With one simple move, the bureaucracy could unleash a never-ending flood of headache and costs that no private company can fight forever. 

And regardless of the industry, the reality is all businesses answer to—and bow down before—the federal government and the EPA.

Even individual states fear them. Lots of people are afraid to cross the feds and the Biden Administration. These folks have almost unlimited power and their whims and feelings drive damn near everything done—or not done.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is fighting like hell for his people, but he’s in a difficult position. He knows that if he does piss off the feds by trying to protect the health and well-being of his people, the cleanup and lawsuits will fall solely upon the state.

Right now, that seems to be the direction this is going, even though the federal government has historically been quick to provide aid to communities devastated by forces beyond their control. But not so in East Palestine.

We supposedly are a free people who control our government. But in reality, the government controls the people, and we are far from free. The government should fear the people, not the other way around.

It is not too late but we must take our government back. We need to get rid of “leaders” and return to the constitutionally limited representatives of the people. Right now, the greatest country the world has ever seen is self-destructing before our very eyes.

We can’t sit back and watch adults and children sicken and die—perhaps years down the road—all because we don’t want to make the EPA, pathetic Pete, and the Biden Administration look bad. 

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About John Conlin

John Conlin is an expert in organizational design and change. He holds a BS in Earth Sciences and an MBA, and is the founder and President of E.I.C. Enterprises, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to spreading the truth here and around the world, primarily through K-12 education. He has been published in American Greatness, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, American Thinker, Houston Chronicle, Denver Post, and Public Square Magazine among others.

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