water, water... but only if you can afford it

No doubt, you're aware that much of the southwest is in a severe drought situation.  More than once I've had friends from other parts of the US remark that they wish they could send some of their excess rain here.  Well, we'd like that too.  The primary water source for much of the area where I live is a man made lake - Lake Cachuma.  The last official number I heard was the end of March and it was down to 27% of capacity.  I'm sure it is lower now and we likely won't see any significant rainfall until October.

Lake Cachuma - everything in the foreground is supposed to be underwater

As you can imagine, the government is encouraging folk to save water.  Lawns are dead.  Water thirsty plantings are either pulled out or dead.  Many folk have buckets in their showers to catch water which is then used to water flowers or flush toilets.  Folk who can have stopped their daily showers.  The old adage, "If its yellow, let it mellow, if its brown flush it down," has been taken to new extremes.  Many households have cut back water use significantly.

You may have heard about Nestle continuing to pump water from California aquifers and sell it around the country while those who live on top of those very aquifers struggle to have enough water for daily needs.  Then there are the oil and gas companies who inject huge amounts of water in injections wells or in fracking, both using large amounts of water, and possibly/likely contaminating the aquifers upon which people depend and upon which much of California agriculture depends.  We even see stories out here of farmers using the contaminated water from oil fields to water the vegetables that many of us eat.

Well there is a third group of folk that really make my blood boil.  In the grand scheme of things they don't use as much water as either Nestle or the oil companies, but the symbolism really is infuriating.  They are the folk pointed out in this article in the Washington Post - rich folk who think that because they can afford it, they should get all of the water they want and use it in any way they please, screw the poor folk who can't flush their toilets, I deserve my lush green lawn.  In April after a state order to cut water usage by 25%, the folk in wealthy Rancho Santa Fe actually increased their usage by 9%.  According to the NY Times, daily per capita water use in Santa Fe is 427 gallons.  In July, they used 644 gallons per person per day.  Compare that to San Francisco, one of the most water effiecient areas of the state, where the daily per capita use is 44 gallons.  You read that right, 9.7 times as much water per person in Santa Fe vs. San Fran.

Here is a telling quote from the Washington Post article

People “should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns, golf on brown courses or apologize for wanting their gardens to be beautiful,” Yuhas fumed recently on social media. “We pay significant property taxes based on where we live,” he added in an interview. “And, no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water.”

We're rich so we shouldn't have to play by the same rules...

Fines don't work because the folk are rich.  Social conscience doesn't work for at least some of them... I'd like to see a limit on water use... give them a number of gallons per person per household  - make it a generous allotment, say 50% more than the state average - and when it goes above that, shut off the water.  And the tanker trucks that then drive in carrying water for those who can afford to buy from them... well, make those sales illegal until the drought is over.

This is one more example where the necessities of life are being sold to the highest bidder and for those who cannot afford to compete... too bad.

Sin vs. human need

I used to participate in a Christian bulletin board that was populated mostly by fairly right wing folk who tended to be close to libertarian about the cold sins and very authoritarian regarding hot ones. They thought the government should not be involved in educating children or restricting business activities and certainly shouldn't be taking taxes from them but it was the governments business to restrict with whom or how you had sex. Sin was a big word for them but it only had to do with individual behavior, never corporate or systemic issues.

Whenever the discussion of entitlement programs came up, invariably someone would argue that the government should not be forcing them to help others... that indeed, were it not for the onerous tax system, they would take care of those in need. Now, these are folk who have more than a healthy respect for the fallen nature of humanity but they seem to forget their own theology when helping those in need comes up. Suddenly the better nature of human beings comes into play and we can count on good Christian people to do what is necessary to take care of those in need, providing food, shelter, education, etc.

Sin is not as important a word in my theological vocabulary as it is for them. Indeed, I rarely use the term. In this instance I would be more likely to use the terms selfishness, greed, and lack of a sense of community responsibility. I have no expectation that good Christian folk either could or would meet the needs of those in their communities if suddenly the government programs disappeared. For those of us who live in our comfortable suburban settings, it is all too easy to ignore the needs of those across the tracks. For those of us serving the needy, we know the needs are overwhelming. For those of us struggling to keep our heads above water, our children fed, the heat on... our needs are too immediate to have resources to help others.

Yes, I have seen and experienced the sacrificial love of many good Christian (and non-Christian) folk. As government funding for programs for the needy has shrunk, I have seen many good people work and give to pick up the slack. I do not believe that generosity is strong enough to overcome human greed or selfishness. I do not believe that enough good folk are open to the needs more than a few blocks away in a sustained way to meet those needs. I do not believe that without government intervention that there would be adequate resources to make a difference. The power of human sin is just too great. And I am always surprised that my brothers (they are all men) on that forum think otherwise.