Of Water and Dams and Stupid People

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.