What the Eyes Don’t See: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

In the morning, Hurley and The Flint Journal both released stories announcing that Mona was giving a press conference that afternoon. When the governor’s office got wind of what was happening, they called Hurley and demanded to see Mona’s data. Mona was outraged—for weeks she’d been reaching out, time and time again, to state and local officials for help, and they’d ignored her every step of the way. Angry calls poured in from different offices, but Mona’s boss, Melany, told her not to worry.

Mona arrived at the clinic early to meet with Ron Fonger, a journalist from The Flint Journal. Fonger had written lots of articles about the Flint water crisis over the course of the last year—he promised to support Mona by reporting on her press conference after she’d delivered it. Allison came by to deliver the baby bottle Mona had requested, and then Mona went to work sharpening up her presentation. When it was nearly time to leave, she filled Allison’s baby bottle with water from the bathroom sink. The water looked fine—but that was what Mona wanted. She wanted to make a point about “what the eyes don’t see.”

A few floors down in the Hurley conference room, Mona queued up her presentation before a crowd of forty or fifty people. One of Mona’s team members informed her that Mark Valacak, the head of the county health department, was planning to attend. Mona was glad that an ally was on the way, especially when she spotted some doubters from the public works office in the audience. People kept pouring in until about a hundred reporters, photographers, hospital employees, activists, and members of Mona’s team filled the room.

Mona made her way to the podium, and her tireless team joined her at the front of the room. For about 40 minutes, she delivered her presentation, in awe of the silence and focus in the room. Mona reused the story of “Makayla” for this presentation. She held up Allison’s baby’s bottle, as well. Even though the water in it looked clear, she explained, it was effectively poison. In showing her audience the bottle, Mona was hoping to underscore the human angle and open her audience’s eyes to the real costs of what was going on in Flint.

When it was time to answer questions, the media went into a frenzy, lobbing rapid-fire questions at Mona and her team while also surrounding other major figures in the crowd, such as Valacak and Natasha Henderson. Mona scanned the crowd—the mayor was nowhere to be seen. As the press conference ended and Mona stepped away from the podium, she felt full of adrenaline and euphoria. Her team enthusiastically congratulated her on a job well done. But Mona knew deep down that this feeling might not last—she was certain that her press conference had awakened new enemies in Flint.