I was in Target last week buying new inkjet cartridges. The kind young clerk who’d helped me said, as he handed me my receipt, “Things are going to be better this year. It might take longer than we’d like, but they’ll be better.”
I thanked him and said “I hope you’re right.” I didn’t say that I hope he won’t be disappointed, or that I do not share his hope. I didn’t say that I expect things to get much worse for the things, people and places I love.
That was Wednesday. Thursday things turned bad fast, as our Commander in Chief took control over water stored behind Tulare County’s two main dams and pulled the plug. In doing so, he was blindly, incoherently overriding an entire system of interdependent local governments created specifically to orchestrate the complex dance of flood control and water storage, water rights, distribution systems, irrigation schedules, city water supplies and storm runoff, not to mention first responders concerned with evacuations of people both sheltered and homeless. It was hard not to be aghast once the big picture emerged.
That he bragged about it made it worse. According to SJV Water’s fine coverage, on Donald J. Trump’s X page, above a photo of a charming stream you might find in western Oregon or Maryland, he wrote:
“Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago—There would have been no fire!”
Maybe in Pennsylvania or North Carolina, places that do not rely on the gigantic water import/export projects like we do in most states west of the Mississippi River, folks could believe that he’d done a good thing. But here? Even people with little exposure to the ins-and-outs of our river systems asked “How would that water get to LA?” People with lots of exposure were impaled by the loss of water we’ll need for ourselves this dry year.
What caused the President of the United States to suddenly take over the job of opening the floodgates of two dams, overriding the many people who’ve been doing it for years? Overriding also a longstanding body of laws and regulations governing that water? What caused him to throw into chaos this critical infrastructure managing our most critical natural resource? Had those flows not been reduced thanks to the efforts of local water managers and elected officials, he would have endangered the lives and property of thousands of people.
One politically savvy friend suggested Trump’s purpose was to win over more blue-state votes, particularly down south. My friend’s assessment is that the president’s local political base here is secure even if my red neighbors end up with mud on their faces, literally. I wondered if there are some political adversaries in our watershed that President Trump wanted to punish.
And then it hit me: he was showing our governor who’s got the real power here. He risked burying us in mud just to smear mud in the face of Gavin Newsom, a political rival.
I don’t know about you, but I take that personally in a regional sort of way. I am more than grateful for the men and women who catapulted themselves into action the moment it became clear what was happening, and who used whatever political capital and/or personal weight they have to minimize the impact of this insane decision. What if some of those people had already been removed from office, or had been cowed by that possibility into carrying out Trump’s disastrous order?
“Better dead than Red” was a common phrase when I was growing up, although being Red meant the opposite of what it means today. “Red” then meant “Commie,” which could be either a communist regime or someone so politically Left, they’d fit right in. Now it pertains to the far right. Regardless, what those four words mean is that authoritarian regimes must be resisted even if it means a quicker trip to the grave.
I really hope that’s not the challenge we’re facing.
Trudy Wischemann grew up in defense contractor country where Might meant Right. You can send her your ideas for alternative defense strategies c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247. This column is not a news article but the opinion of the writer and does not reflect the views of Mid Valley Times newspaper.
