The month is approaching half
over and I’ve yet to post anything. Not due to lack of writing anything, I just
haven’t felt that what I’ve written is something I care to share with the
world. It has been an interesting month, to say the least. I saw a meme on
Facebook to the effect of, “January was a trial, 2017 starts February 1.” Yeah.
No. I didn’t think January was that bad but February hit with a vengeance.
Yesterday, Oroville, California,
was evacuated. For the first time in several years, the snow and rain has been
plentiful. Reservoirs have filled to above seasonal norms. This is a good
thing. In order to have room for future flooding, water has had to be released.
I remember when I was 14 or so going to Shasta Dam to see water flowing over
the dam. It was incredible.
The problem with Oroville is
that the spillway developed a huge hole. Releasing the amount of water necessary
was not really possible because even less than that would have, and did, make
the hole even larger. So, water began flowing over the emergency spillway.
There was a basin with a road running to a recreation area which acted as a dam
of this. That was not only breached but the road was washed out. The parking
area was under water last night in video I watched and water was flowing down
from that area as well. Not a little, either.
As I watched this video, I read
some of the comments people had made and went to bed wondering that people can
be so stupid. So ignorant. So thoughtless. So rude.
“We should just give California
back to Mexico.”
“This is all your stupid
governor’s fault.”
“If you weren’t taking care of
so many illegals, you could afford to fix your dam.”
Just a small taste.
Really? I’m not sure what the
actual numbers are but one report I saw said that nearly 200,000 people were
evacuated. Another said over 188,000, which is pretty close to the first. A
lot of people. The roads were packed with people leaving and traffic was moving
slowly. People had to comment about that, too, and give their unwanted and
thoughtless advice. There were, however, also quite a few comments to the effect of, “Leave
politics out of this, we’re talking about people here.”
I guess we’re so polarized right
now that we don’t care about people unless they agree with what and how we
think. “I’m a Democrat, you’re a Republican, you can go to hell. It’s your
politics that has caused this.” And vice versa. We are all human; we all bleed
red. Why can’t people wake up? Why can’t we be kind to one another? Why can’t
we care that people and animals die in situations like this and that we should
be asking what we can do to help rather than tear down?
I have relatives, albeit
somewhat distant, who live in that area. I have quite a few relatives buried in
cemeteries in that area. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not afraid or
ashamed to state that I am from California. Northern California. On my mom’s
side, I’m fifth generation Californian and I’m completely okay with that.
But I wanted to mention
something regarding the comments people were making such as “We should just
give California back to Mexico.” Or that we should just let the state secede.
Think about that for a minute. Just think about it. Do you see any problems
with that? The state admittedly has some money issues that are related to
politics. However, everyone who lives in the state is not responsible for that.
I currently live in a largely Democratic state but that doesn’t mean that I am
a Democrat or have liberal leanings. It means that I live in a largely
Democratic state. The fact is, I have somewhat liberal conservative leanings
but that really is beside the point.
What if California were no
longer part of the United States? Hmmmm.
Do you like milk? Cream?
Do you ever eat almonds or
grapes or lettuce or strawberries or tomatoes or walnuts?
Do you eat beef?
Do you use hay at all?
How about wine? Do you like
that?
Try this for size, 99% of the
walnuts consumed in the US are grown in California. 95% of the garlic is. 99 %
of artichokes consumed in the US. 95% of the celery. The milk and cream
industry in California in 2015 was $6.29 billion. Grapes—do you eat those?—$4.95
billion. Flowers—ever give someone flowers?—$1.08 billion.
Do you get the idea?
Sure, give California back to
Mexico. Go ahead. Better yet, let the state secede. And when either of those
happen, and you are hungry because that salad or that steak or that bottle of
wine or those grapes or whatever-the-heck-it-is that you really, really want
costs five times what it does now, think about it.
Better yet, get your stupid head
out of the sand and wake up. Smell the roses, or coffee, or whatever.
Be a part of the solution
instead of part of the problem.
