ASSOCIATED PRESS

Working families in America often make impossible choices between food, clothing, and housing. When families struggle to afford basic necessities, they often sacrifice the things most of us take for granted.

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Suspend democracy. Cut taxes for the rich. Make the poor drink toxic river water. And everybody's happy. Except those who were poisoned in the process. All 102,000 of them. In the richest country in the world.

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Christians mean well; but if their intentions were truly just about being allowed to practice their religion as they see fit while "inviting" others to share in their faith, then they must quit pushing their symbols and principles on those who turn down this invitation and stop looking down their noses at everyone who chooses a different path.

How would you feel if you realized your children's water was being poisoned, and your government didn't seem to care? That's the story of the parents of 8,000 mostly poor and black children in Flint, Mich., that has finally hit our media front pages. The fact that most Americans realize this would never happen in affluent white Michigan suburbs (or any other white affluent communities in our country), still doesn't penetrate our very souls. This fundamental contrast between black and white experiences in Michigan, just north of my hometown of Detroit, points to the structural racism that is still the primary moral contradiction of American life.