I got up pretty early, at least early for me, this morning and have been listening to NPR as I’ve been trying to wake up.  I just heard a segment about the Ogallala Aquifer and how it is going to be irreversibly drained in the next 50 years if we don’t slow down pulling water out of it at the rates we are.

The Ogallala Aquifer supplies 30% of the ground water used for irrigation in the United States.  But the tap isn’t going to run forever.

And one of the main reasons that we are using some much water is to grow corn  in Western Kansas to use to make ethanol.  I guess the federal government mandates ethanol in our gasoline, probably to support corn prices, but whatever the reason, we grow it where we don’t have enough rain.

So, instead of growing wheat, which doesn’t need 14 inches of water per season to grow like corn, our farmers are planting corn and using lots of water.

This whole thing is very short-sighted.  It reminds me of the draining of Lake Travis, outside Austin, to sell water to rice farmers downstream.  Growing rice in drought stricken Texas is just stupid.  I remember reading that the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, is going to start using toilet water to drink.  Here is a link to that.

But, the Ogallala Aquifer is  a lot more important than one lake in Texas.  It supplies water to pretty much the whole central US.  Water for crops and water for the cities.   There are some places where the Aquifer is empty.  It says here that is will take  6000 years to naturally refill it with rainfall.  That is pretty long.

I know our farmers have been using water for a long time.  But, it is time that they get up to speed and start growing crops that can grow on their own, with the rainfall where the crops are planted.

We don’t have the luxury to be pumping water out of the ground so we can drive our automobiles with less emissions.

This water thing is going to be a huge problem worldwide in our lifetimes.  I think that wars will be fought over it.  It seems like this is something, we as a society, have our government to watch out for us.  It doesn’t seem like they are doing a very good job.  I really don’t understand politics.

Yesterday I saw something that has bothered me ever since.

Trudi and I were out driving around doing errands, in the rain, and we approached a super busy intersection.  Maybe the busiest intersection in the city, I don’t know.  Anyway, approaching the intersection, I could see that the was a car in the left lane that wasn’t moving, looked like it was stalled.

The light turned red and people were going by the car on both sides, either just moving into the right lane or going into the turn lane and then back into the left lane.  I was in the right lane and stopped a car length or so behind the stalled car.

The was still a couple car spaces ahead of the non-moving vehicle and the guy behind him went into the left lane and went back into the left lane, but wasn’t completely straight, still at an angle.

The stalled car didn’t have its emergency blinkers on.  I noticed that the car had exhaust coming out its tailpipe.

I told Trudi that I thought that the person in the car had an issue, but I couldn’t see into the car since I was a car length back in the adjacent lane.

I realized the light was about to turn green and wasn’t sure if I should just get out of my car to check on the person or call 911.  Just then, the brake lights of the stalled car went off and the guy just rolled at a walking pace, straight into the car in front of him, hitting him, at an angle, right between the passenger’s front and rear door.

The guy that got hit got out of his car and I told him that I think the guy in the car was either sick or drunk.  I was stopped in the right lane and called 911 to report the problem.  Right then, the guy behind me, in a huge pickup, just started laying on his horn.  Like continuous.  I sat there for a second and then started moving forward to let the guy by, but by the time I was past the accident enough to let the guy pass, I was in the intersection.

I was still on the phone with 911 and past the intersection.  She told me that the emergency responders were nearly there, so I gave her my number and kept moving.

I don’t have an end to the story.  I don’t know if the person in the car was sick, drunk, asleep, etc.  What I was wondering is how long they had sat there “stalled”?

It was at least through one cycle of lights.  No one seemed the least bit interested in the car, except for getting past it.  I guess it could have sat there for lots of cycles of stop lights.  I wonder if the car could have been there for an hour?   I’ll never know.

I am still wondering what is the matter with our society that no one stopped and checked on the guy.  All everyone was interested in doing was getting past the car.  Why had no one just glanced over and realize that the person needed attention?   It was fairly obvious to me.  If I would have just been one car length further forward, or gotten to the light a little earlier, I would have known for sure and acted, I hope, appropriately.

And once the accident occurred, all everyone was interested in, once again, was getting past the situation before the emergency guys showed up.  Man, that is a sorry example of our state of current human nature.

I know we live in a society that is constantly on the move, always short of time, especially right around noon on a Friday, but we all need to have it ingrained in our brains that we have to stop and render help once we recognize someone needs help.   That isn’t our normal reaction, so it needs to be taught, I guess.  And we must be doing a bad job of teaching it, since it doesn’t occur unless the situation is tragic.

I don’t know how to fix the problem, but I at least recognize the problem.  I guess we should all try to stick to the saying to treat others as you’d expect to be treated.  We all get in situations where we might need some help from strangers.  Let’s just hope that when that happens, the strangers around us are morally grounded, show a little humanity  and are not in a rush.

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