Letters to the Editor
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America's Water War -- Trail of Tears
I found it most interesting that you kept going back to that phrase -- which of course originated when my Cherokee ancestors were forced out of that exact area (north Georgia, north Alabama and eastern Tennessee)in the 1830s.
Living in Florida, I am quite aware of the water wars that have been going on between Florida, Alabama and Georgia since Bush was our governor. I haven't seen Crist enter that fray other than to insist on Everglades restoration. My question: What good is Everglades restoration if 100 years from now where I now sit in South Florida is going to be under meters of salt water, which increasingly appears will be the case?
Rod Proctor
tharvey@hughes.net
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Praise for Buffalo!
Look at a map, Southerners and Westerners. Buffalo has plenty of water. I just got back from Buffalo. It is a nifty city. Plus it's right near Toronto.
In a couple years, Buffalo and Detroit and the rest of the Great Lakes area will be the hip, smart destinations, as California was in 1849 and in the 1950s.
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To captainlarab
How kind of you to share your wisdom with us ignant southerners.
About growing our own foods? Done that, they died. Because there's no rain and watering is verboten. Oh, yeah, and squirrels steal the tomatoes.
A rain barrel, hmmm? Great idea! Except that during the time of year when there was actually rain, they're a health hazard. Mosquitoes breed there, you know? And, it doesn't actually help if there is no rain.
Your points about watering are pointless, b/c using anything but gray water for plants has been verboten in the A for several months. Most of that goes to trying to keep our oak trees alive.
Ground cover, check. But, again, you seem to misunderstand. There is no rain. Not very little rain, but there is NO rain. It rained once in the past month and a half, and for fifteen minutes. An hour later you would never have known that it rained.
Essentially, your tips are really great for somebody facing a drought. This, however, is not a drought, this is the new normal weather, this is desertification.
And another point raised in the article (not sarcastic this time). The poor black folks are the victims of overdevelopment in the A. Not only has gentrification driven them from the cities to suburbs where they can't commute to work b/c the public transportation out there sucks, but now they will eventually be driven from the southeast, because overdevelopment is largely responsible for the fact that we have no water reserves.
Also, about Sonny's prayer? Some folks in my fair city seem to misunderstand his... actions. This is not just him praying for rain as a matter of course for a religious man facing a drought, no, no, this is what he is doing about the drought. This is public policy! Other governors might take action, but Sonny prays.
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Oneloa's Problem
This writer properly defines the water problem on a finite planet and is one of the few writers who do. Rather than, "We don't have enough water for the people we have", the problem is more perminantly solvable if seen as, "We have too many people for the water we have."
Thanks Oneloa,
Hermit
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@awesome-o, major tool
awesome-o said, "That is your typical anti-"breeder" interpretation and it illustrates how self-absorbed you are quite nicely. You can't even imagine it is about the love you feel and give which is unlike any other."
Wow, awesome-o. The first thing that strikes me about your post is how unsmug it is!
The second thing that strikes me about it is how off-base it is! I never gave a detailed description of what was involved in the acts of loving I described. I, of course, meant the entire experience going both ways and interacting so as to create an exploding spiral of ultimate goodness.
I know all about love awesome-o. You don't know anything I don't. You just feel it strongly and toward a diffeent person. Maybe you don't love your wife much. I don't know. Maybe I've displaced the love I would have had for my children onto my wife. If so, so much the better!
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Sigh
Look, Fool and Awesome-o, it's not a matter of deciding whether people with or without children are the bigger jerks.
It's possible to be a smug, selfish jackass and decide never to have children.
It's possible to be a smug, selfish jackass and have children.
It's possible to be neither one of these.
And Fool, it's mildly creeping me out that you'd say that the "excess" love you'd give your children would simply be directed to your wife. The love between parents and children is just different from the love between married people, not better or worse. And it's not like there's some finite pool of love you draw from in your lifetime that's depleted the more people you give and receive affection from.
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@Anonymous
Who are you quoting?
I have to say it seriously creeps me out that you are creeped out by a perfectly legitimate and reasonable comment that I made. You have some kind of sick mind I guess.
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the fool, major... (and anonymous)
I, of course, meant the entire experience going both ways and interacting so as to create an exploding spiral of ultimate goodness.
not very clear, from your description of the poor pathetic jerks having kids just to feel loved.
You don't know anything I don't.
yes I do. I know what it is like to love my kid. And there is no way I could have imagined it before I had her.
It's possible to be a smug, selfish jackass and decide never to have children.
It's possible to be a smug, selfish jackass and have children.
Totally agreed. But people leaping into a discussion of water shortages just to hammer on the "breeders" (a really ugly, contemptous term) is pretty jack-assy and lame. I have known too many of these self-righteous pricks when I lived in SF.
by the way Fool I am a woman.
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Whatever
OK awesome-o, I will grant you that there may be something special about mother love. But as a man, I was doomed never to know about it anyway. I also doubt that it is categorically different than other kinds of love, perhaps more intense and unconditional.
But that is not enough to persuade me I must roll the dice and be forever committed to a life with children just in case. I also don't know what its like to be a junkie in love with his heroin, but I feel no need to find that out either even though I'm sure its intense and unconditional.
I'm sure mother love is great. So is wife love and parent love and sibling love and humanity love. I've noticed there are a lot of mothers who seem to value the chance at husband love more than their own kids so it may not always be universally the case that mother love is so compelling. And there are great costs that go with mother love that also have to enter into the calculations. For one, your kid could be born handicapped. For another, your kid could turn out to be an asshole. But no matter what, your kid is going to shut down a lot of your options -- options which are just as morally respectable and worthy as being a parent.