Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Praying for Rain in Atlanta: No, we're not kidding.

Ok, so our state leaders are totally out of ideas. The continuing drought in the Atlanta area has forced water levels to all-time lows and how does our state government respond?

Pray for rain.

Governor Sonny Perdue has organized a public prayer service to appeal to God for some much needed rain. This is the most ingenious, if not irreverent, pass of the buck I have ever seen. If it fails to rain in the next few days, this will no longer be an issue of resource mismanagement.

"It's not our fault the city is having a water shortage; God wouldn't let it rain. We asked and He wouldn't do it."

Come on, publicly praying for rain? We all know that government is impotent and useless, but these are elected public officials. They at least need to pretend they have a clue about what's going on. Why don't we all get our dowsing rods and wander around Gwinnett, Fulton, and Cobb Counties looking for water in the ground?

This is 2007 and we need to behave like it.

12 comments:

Ty said...

Next let's break out the Peace Pipes and headdresses and do a Rain Dance. This drought is obviously caused by the anger of our Ancestors and the Great Spirits...

MacKenzie said...

Wow, that quote is so infuriating.

Joe said...

I should have clarified. No actually said that. That quote is a hypothetical response to questions about the unimporving water situation should the prayer plan fail.

However, I was serious in saying this may be a way to pass the buck on to The Almighty.

HANK said...

I think Hillary Clinton is somehow behind the water shortage.

Patrick said...

This is what happens when you let governments allocate things instead of markets. If we had a privitized water system, we'd never have shortages.

The left always claims necessities like water are "far too important to be left to the private sector." We're seeing the innate fallacies of that philosophy play out right now.

Why liberals trust beaureacrats over entrepreneurs I'll never understand.

MacKenzie said...

Thanks for clearing that up, Joe.

Regardless, the whole situation is just ridiculous.

Chris said...

I knew as soon as I heard about this last week (while it was in the planning phases) that this kind of criticism would be the result.

When it comes to things like droughts, what should the government do?

We are already actively pursuing lawsuits against neighboring states in regards to water usage - and also trying to change the environmental protection status of certain potential sources. Should Sonny hire Stewie Griffin to build a weather machine? Should we get our top scientists to begin research on a drought vaccine? Perhaps ask everyone in the metro Atlanta area to spit on the ground at the same time. Maybe that will solve the problem.

When it comes to matters beyond the control of man, men of faith turn to the Almighty. It takes about an hour, nobody gets hurt, and there's no government waste involved.

Got a better idea?

HANK said...

I see your point Chris. In fact, I think we should have more public prayer. No money is spent, and no one gets hurt. Liberals are extremely scared of acknowledging God in any public display. Don't they realize the Constitution and Bill of Rights are derived from religion?

The only earthly solution might be the privatization of our water system, as Pat says.

Michael said...

We got less than an inch of rain last night. Amen.

Joe said...

That's my point, Chris. They don't have to do anything. It's a drought. They've been happening for thousands, if not millions of years. It can't go on forever. It'll rain eventually.

We don't need the whole dog and pony show of publicly praying for rain.

Chris said...

Blah, though. That wasn't the point. The point was that it was a waste of time, not that they needn't do anything.

I might be slightly retarded, but I honestly believe that a little bit of prayer will do more to solve the problem than nothing at all. Pat is right about the privatization of utilities like water - but that won't happen right now, or probably ever. Awesome in practice, improbable in reality.

Maybe there will be no rain for the next 4 years, but to ask for it is not "passing the buck" or wasting our government's time. It is the natural reaction of a man of faith.

Ryan said...

That's cheesy.