Turmoil and water

It will be bad news. Just wait until the Hillary voters discover that our town of McCook was named after a Civil War General. Can you imagine having to change the name of a long time established town? Maps will have to change to the new name and every address will be changed as well. Nearly everything that we do that has the old General’s name on it will have to be changed. Oh wait. General Alexander McCook fought for the North, the side that won the Civil War, the side that was fighting to free the slaves. That is a good thing we won’t have to change.

Still it will be important to change the names of the ten Army bases that were named in honor of Civil War soldiers that fought for the Confederacy. No matter the frustration and difficulty involved in a name change those courageous gentlemen fighting for the good of their country are now judged to be bad and must be dishonored. Any statues erected over some 164 years ago or plaques to honor their names have to go also. In many of the do-gooders minds America too is bad and must be changed! Such nonsense.

Another bit of nonsense going on in our country today is the relaxed attitudes of those in charge toward those who riot, burn and steal. They should be cracking the heads of the perpetrators but seem to fear to do what is necessary for fear of being called racist. Ridiculous. Call me a racist I don’t care because the caller and I both know that it isn’t so. Water off a duck’s back.

Now the autonomous zone, the independent country of Chop which the rebels have established in Seattle is a little different matter. Patriot and former governor Mike Huckabee has the right idea. Bring the Corps of Engineers to build a fence all around the place that they call an independent country. Cut off their electricity, gas, water and sewage utilities and jam all the cell phone and internet frequencies. When the residents, those who have volunteered to live, or occupy, there get hungry and are desperate to reenter our country, ship them to Guantanamo to live until they can be charged appropriately and punished as necessary. It wouldn’t take long.

In this old writer’s opinion such stupid goings on can be traced back to the “demonstrators” of the sixties who were cowards afraid to be conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War. Those of us who did out duty and fought over there weren’t exactly enamored of how President LBJ, Democrat, and his side kick McNamara conducted the war but we did the honorable thing and served to protect the principle of civilian control of the military which is enshrined in our Constitution. Those cowards that “demonstrated and burned their draft cards” got away with it and are some of the people in charge of the liberal progressive cities and states that are in trouble now. Gee it is nice to live in a small town in rural America where life is in a sense normal.

I was taught that if stopped by the police it was wise to be open and honest with them. Don’t fisticuff with them and for sure don’t grab one of their weapons and run away. Just saying!

Urged a bit by our editor I tuned into a discussion on Facebook about conserving water in our fair city. One of the suggestions being pushed was to tear out our bluegrass lawns and plant the native buffalo grass. Buffalo is naturally short and requires a lot less mowing. It thrives on a lot less water than does our blue grasses that we are used to hence lessen the need for the City to pump more to meet the hot summer time demand. If you want to see an example go the intersection, southwest corner, of West 1st and O Street where the owner, unknown to me, has neglected the lawn all year so far and it is buffalo grass, nice and green, with some taller brome, a non-native specie and some wild lettuce sticking up. Pretty unsightly in my opinion. Another minor problem with the buffalo grass is that it doesn’t exactly thrive in shade but yes we would save a whole lot of gallons of water.

Your old writer for a time was a farmer raising irrigated corn. In my opinion it was optimum to have 20 inches of water to make the most economical crop each year. The 20 inches was provided by irrigation less whatever rain fell during the growing season. Pushing the pencil a bit and calculating how much water was required for an acre of people to exist in our City using water for hygienic purposes and to keep our lawns green was almost exactly the same amount of water required to raise an acre of corn. Humm.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail