a prayer

the middle south is in the midst of its worst drought ever. potable drinking water, er... red alert. . ( a bit ironic that a good many of their neighbors were under water just two years ago. how many residents of georgia, tennessee, alabama and around thanked their god they stayed dry after rita and katrina?)

much national news of the regional variety flies right by me, but this trouble i remember from months ago. fractured dessicated earth and farmers wiping tears while realizing the failure of this season nearly before it began. land they'd held for generations approaching utter ruin.

where i'm a goin' with this, is that the water didn't dry up overnight.

so lemme see... you're the governor. nah. dah gubnuh, right, y'all?

aaaah do declare:

"i say, you must only water your lawns three days a week."

the green fucking bane from hell. just like their parched friends in the west. brutal climates where everybody should just quit the fight and xeriscape. nope. jane and joe doe still have the suburban idyll pic of a mowed lawn and boxwoods and blooms. the whole conceit of which began with the purse of a monarch in moderate and relatively stable climate zones. it never scorched and snow was a rare friendly veil at versailles or windsor, ya know? as a matter of course to beat the heat, the locals *need* a pool too.

but americans have a sense of manifest destiny about EVERYTHING. whether it's fast food, gasoline or water. if it's there, i can have it. i should have it. it's mine. i deserve it. i work hard, don't i? gaaah.
doesn't take an environmental cartographer to decode this, now does it?

rain still does not fall, restrictions are tightened a bit, yet folks still turn on the hose. god forbid they let the grass do its own bit of self-preservation and brown out. gasp!! what will jimmy-bob and juney across the street think? apparently not that you're remotely conscious of a dire situation, but that you're being a bastard neighbor with an eyesore front yard.

this from a georgia pol:

"We've learned from this what a blunt weapon the Endangered Species Act has become," said state Rep. John Linder. "We need to understand this lake was created not for mussels but for people."

the *lake* wasn't formed to shelter some lotus-blossom mollusk. the main priority is to generate hydropower at a plant in florida. ahem. maybe if them folk downstream changed the settings on their central a/c units and turned off the lights at the fucking 24/7 super wal-marts... sorry. i was having a night fit...

at last, though, the governor has figured out the solution. he is the leader of the state, after all. he will have a prayer vigil. yup. he will fucking pray for rain. i bet as a boy he laughed and laughed at the legends and folklore of native americans and their fireside rituals. moccasins and mescal. those crazy red heathens -- hoo-aah! however as a good baptist, he knows god will provide. pray, brothas and sistahs, pray.

there is a school of thought about which one may see either side of the coin: "we get the leaders we deserve." the intellectual descendants of jefferson, franklin, hamilton and adams, et al would be parrying and trying to do the *right and good thing*. those of you who know me, know i don't mean just about the water. not so long ago, marshall, clayton and kennan had a grand view. their actions and success made the united states the most respected nation on the globe.

look where we stand fifty years later. the self-termed *greatest generation* golfs and golden-years in well-funded retirement, only to see us scorned by the same countries for whom they sacrificed and fought to save.

"we get the leaders we deserve."

pray, my brotha. pray.