I was going to write about the battle going on in school boards these days but after reading Heather Cox Richardson’s blog a couple nights ago, I’m just going to provide the link to it.1 The law that she discusses about what can and cannot be taught in social studies classes in Texas is extremely disturbing. One can only imagine that the next step will be to pass laws restricting what can and cannot be taught in science classes – Creationism and the Flat Earth Society are coming to a school near you!!
I also read something yesterday about ‘La Nĩna’ which is likely to exacerbate the drought conditions in the Southwest. “La Niña” is a natural phenomenon characterized by cooler sea surface temperatures than the average in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, near the equator, which causes changes in climate around the world. In the southwest, La Niña typically causes the jet stream (upper-level winds that carry storms across the globe) to move north. That means less rain for a region that desperately needs it.2
Currently, Lake Mead and Lake Powell are at minimal levels. They are the largest reservoirs in the country and supply drinking water to 40 million people and irrigation water for rural farms, ranches and native communities. “In August, the Office of Recovery (USBR) declared water shortage for the first time in the Colorado River, which will lead to mandatory cuts in water use for the southwestern states beginning in 2022”.2
I’d like to bring your attention to the word ‘mandatory.’ ‘Mandatory watering restrictions have become commonplace throughout the West. Even here in Bozeman this past summer, they put watering restrictions in place for a while due to the drought. In years past in Southern California, there were areas where it was illegal to refill swimming pools and it is very common to have mandatory watering restrictions in place, e.g., only water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. These are MANDATORY restrictions issued by local and state governments.
And why are these mandatory restrictions put in place? They are put in place to protect the general population and, by and large, people understand and abide by them. Most people seem to understand that if there is no water to drink, everything else is pretty much irrelevant. There are certainly conflicts regarding how much water gets allocated to irrigation for farmers and ranchers versus drinking water for communities, but you really don’t see anything on the scale that we are witnessing regarding the mask and vaccine mandates, when it comes to water restrictions in cities and states.
In the Bozeman paper this morning there was an article regarding the current state of COVID in Montana (not good!). The author had a brief interview with Governor Gianforte in which he defended his administration’s policies toward the pandemic, which have included signing into law the nation’s only prohibition on private businesses requiring vaccines in the workplace, and several measures that limited the power of the local health departments to implement measures to curb the virus’ spread. In this interview, Gianforte states, “The government’s role is to educate, to communicate – it’s not to mandate.” Think about that last statement for just a minute – “the government’s role is to educate, to communicate – it’s not to mandate.”
Recapping, the government of Texas is mandating how social studies classes can be taught! Texas is mandating that women no longer have access to abortion. Montana has mandated that no business can require vaccines in the workplace and is also moving to restrict abortion access by government mandate. Many Republican states are mandating who, when and how people can legitimately cast ballots.
You can see why I might be a little confused about the words ‘government mandate.’ I think the confusion stems directly from the word ‘hypocrisy’. Sometimes ‘mandate’ means the government has the right to impose restrictions necessary for the benefit of the population at large. Other times, ‘mandate’ means the government has the right to impose restrictions based upon personal viewpoints, whether or not they affect the public wellbeing or not. The latter definition is kind of like when a parent’s excuse for doing something is simply ‘because I say so.’ Given that many of the new ‘mandates’ put in place by Republican-controlled states across the nation have no basis in fact (e.g., election fraud) and are, in fact, not consistent with the majority of people (e.g. abortion rights), we can only assume that they have assumed the role of parents and are acting because they can.
Just understand that the next time someone tries to question any of these policies ‘mandated’ by Republicans, rather than offering fact and scientifically based cogent arguments as to why these policies were put in place, you can expect to hear, “they are good because I said so – don’t argue! Now sit down, shut up and eat your vegetables!”
Sadly, the wrong former Republican – Colin Powell died – just saw the news. I guess he bailed on the Republican party about the same time I did. I don’t call it the R party in the present tense – it’s the T party now, where Donald Trump, just like Hitler, demands loyalty to a person – himself – rather than any principles of decency or the party. Folks should take note that soldiers in the German army pledged their allegiance to Hitler, personally, when sworn in. Not their country. I see DT following the same exact path – but thankfully, not as competently.