America is facing a massive drought. I have been hearing and reading that in the South billions of dollars in crops have dried up, and that whole herds of livestock have been sold prematurely because of lack of cheap or reliable feed. Water, always a precious resource, is neither falling from the sky nor filling the streams and waterways that support human and animal populations alike. Regardless, in the August 22 issue of Time magazine, there is a picture of of a lush green golf course surrounded by parched desert. I do not doubt that hundreds, if not thousands, of other golf facilities continue to operate despite the widespread drought disaster that is threatening the food supply of millions of American citizens.
In national drought emergencies such as the one we are currently facing, golf courses should be among the first entities to lose access to water. Non-agricultural and other such projects not essential to sustaining life that consume massive volumes of water (for reasons including a reliance on water-hungry, non-native species of grass to keep the golf balls zipping along the fairways) must not receive sufficient water to maintain their expansive and manicured lawns when agriculture and animal husbandry are failing. The livelihoods of whole populations (cattle and sheep ranchers, cereal farmers, and their dependents) are on the line, right now; therefore, those among us rich enough to afford membership at golf oases carved from the hard-scrabble desert will have to forfeit water-intensive past-times in the interest of their neighbors' plight. (I am just now realizing the futility of this argument, as the rich care little for the condition of those not as rich as they, and any such restrictions on water-use during a drought will likely be seen as a nanny-state government overstepping its role in society, or something similarly asinine.)
The security of the people of this nation is at risk, and everyone living in this country will have to make sacrifices in its interest. Allowing golf courses to water their massive and, in the greater scheme of things, wholly unnecessary operations violates two of the core principles of the Constitution, those being promoting the general Welfare and insuring domestic Tranquility. The general Welfare is ill served by allowing operations to continue that consume exorbitant amounts of water in order to satisfy the fleeting interests of a handful of affluent individuals, operations that ignore the fact that, for lack of water, crops are failing and livestock is starving in the dust; domestic Tranquility is in jeaopardy of being shattered by food riots sparked by a further weakening of the economic strength of the majority of American citizens who are so poor that they may not be able to eat when food prices spike (which they will invariably do, very soon).
Drought, inevitable and perpetually occurring, affects each of us; we must all sacrifice in its presence. As to my own personal sacrifice, I have ceased with my favorite past-time of contaminating large pools of ground-water with used engine oil and setting them on fire.
Convert your lawns to gardens of sustainable native plants; flush only when it's solid; use low flow shower heads and take Navy showers; turn off the tap while shaving and brushing your teeth; and for the love of Liberty, cancel your golf membership.
We are all in this together, and together, our small, personal sacrifices can turn the dwindling tides.
Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
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