Thursday, February 25, 2010
Water Protection and Reinvestment Fund
Barack Obama's minions in cyberspace work through Change.Org and offer weekly updates and causes to respond to. On February 11, 2010, the topic was the Water Protection and Reinvestment Trust Fund. This was my reply:
No! It is not up to government actions to step in here. The principle to establish is to let private companies in each community be responsible and to stop befouling our nest and our life support. The growth of bottled water, and the cost of that as a routine part of life, is moving us farther from what we would like to take for granted, namely that tap water is plentiful and safe and economical, like the clean springs and streams we have in our racial memories. Bottled water is only a stop gap that could become an excuse for letting our bodies of water continue to be polluted. But at least it is a means to secure safe drinking water through private effort.
Many households are still on well water and septic systems, and that needs to be watched carefully lest the sewage seep deep enough to pollute the groundwater the well pumps from. We need to find a way to recycle sewage so that nature itself reuses and purifies it, and so that it serves as a nutrient for plant life, rather than flushing it into the rivers and oceans. Our technology can find a way to establish a natural balance threatened by increasing population.
It is a false assumption that private companies do not have the public interest as a priority. Without the public they would have no business and no income. It is by pleasing the public and supplying what people need that the companies become successful. How else can they make money? Making money is not evil. It is the reward for good work done. It is the company's paycheck for value produced. If there were not productive private enterprises, there would be nothing for government to tax to pay themselves and their allegedly important social programs.
Further, we should encourage private investment in better husbanding of fresh-water supplies, such as major snow and ice run-offs. Rather than letting clean water run into the salty oceans, build aqueducts and pipelines to move the annual melts to regions that need it, as has been done for centuries in the desert regions of Persia.
Explore trading water for oil. We have disgraced ourselves in the eyes of the world by destroying the water processing infrastructure of Iraq, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths from polluted water supplies. Did Americans even know this was being done in their name?? As an American, I object profoundly to such crimes against humanity carried out by our government without our knowledge and consent.
Count me as a No vote against government control of our water management, and count me as a No against our wars in foreign lands. I am dismayed that Obama has broken his promises to end the wars. I feel thoroughly betrayed. So much for Change!
