OPINION:
A person would be hard-pressed these days to turn on the nightly news without hearing some news anchor or politician righteously lamenting the damage that is being wrought upon the western United States by the current drought. Unfortunately, those who are screaming the loudest are sometimes engaging in a double standard, where they seldom practice that which they constantly dictate to others. How many politicians and other high rollers have actually cut back upon their own excessive water consumption? As a matter of fact, and as has been redundantly covered on T.V. of late, many of these bureaucratic bon vivants are actually rubbing our noses into the fact that we are now being commanded to do as they say, not as they do.
For example, recently in the rarified air of affluent Cardiff, Calif., the caviar-for-lunch bunch held a sporting event to determine which of their dogs could leap the furthest out into a tank full of fresh, clean water. This in itself posed no great problem, as humans have long held weird sporting events (the Ancient Romans thought it great fun to pit Christians against voracious lions in the Coliseum). The problem is that we are currently in the midst of a severe four-year drought and the tank into which these dogs were diving contained some 24,000 gallons of precious and drinkable water. Could it be that a double standard exists between the social classes, one in which the mandates of the privileged and pampered few take precedence over anything as mundane and logical as shared sacrifice, common sense or even thirst?
To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, if the masses have no water, let them drink champagne.
H. RICK TAVARES
Campo, Calif.
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