“A MOST MEANINGFUL CHAPTER IN THE BIBLE”[1]
GENESIS, CHAPTER 1, VERSE 26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’
Verse 27: “So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him; male and female, he created them.”
The basic beliefs of Judaism and Christianity, begin with the acknowledgement that God is our creator, and that He created us in His image. Human beings are made in God’s image they are worthy of honor and respect; they are neither to be murdered nor cursed. “Image” includes such characteristics as righteousness, holiness, and knowledge. Christians further believe that they are to be conformed to the “likeness” of Christ and will someday be like Him.
Our Responsibility. We are the climax of God’s creativity; we have been honored to play an exalted role in the creation. We must care for God’s environment but in such a way as to insure the health and welfare of man. In the Central Valley of California, secular environmentalists have succeeded in overcoming God’s words as to the importance of mankind.
California is in its third year of drought, and many farmers in the state's crop-rich Central Valley are looking at dusty fields, or worse, are cutting down their orchards before the trees die. Hardest hit is Westlands, the biggest irrigated region in the country, where much of the nation's fruit, nuts and produce are grown. This year, farmers have been told they are getting only a small fraction of the water they need.
And so a few weeks ago, Ty and Janet Lompa were doing the unthinkable: cutting down 110 acres of walnut orchards. That's roughly 10,000 trees and a third of their entire acreage.
Ty Lompa helped plant many of these trees with his father, and they used to water the orchard with flood irrigation from the project built by the federal government. But when water started to become an issue, "we immediately switched over to micro-irrigation," says Lompa. "So we have absolutely no runoff."
But the Lompas' farm relied entirely on federal water — they have no groundwater of their own. They can keep part of their orchard alive with water they carried over from last year, but the rest can't be saved. You can't leave trees in the field and just let 'em die," Ty Lompa says. "You're gonna get bugs, you're gonna get disease, so they have to come down." The Lompas are furious because they blame government, not nature, for the death of their trees. And Janet Lompa tells her four children that "the politicians gave the water all to the fish" when they ask why there's no water.
Politics Takes Control. California gets its water from a huge estuary called the Delta, where two big rivers join in the center
Farmers throughout this region echo the sentiment that politics, not the drought, is the problem. So much water was being pumped out of the Delta that a tiny smelt there, an endangered species, is disappearing. So late last year, a federal judge ruled that the amount of water being delivered to the south had to be sharply cut back.
In April, in a sweltering tin shed in the middle of the Westland's water district, about 200 farmers gathered to hear what Tom Birmingham had to say about the crisis. Birmingham is the executive director of the irrigation district. Yes, the drought is a problem, he says, but he believes the much bigger problem is that court ruling. "Since mid-February, as a result of that biological opinion, we've lost approximately 300,000 acre-feet of water. It's floated out the Golden Gate."
That means it was given to the smelt and taken from thousands of people who have built their lives around feeding our nation.
A SOLUTION. California’s representatives and Senators need only design and bring to the Democratic controlled Congress legislation that will serve to over-rule the Federal Judge who favors the tiny smelt over the men, women, and children of the Central Valley. But Barbara Boxer and her colleagues are too busy with “Cap and Trade”; “Obama-Care” and “Global warming” to care about ordinary people and their efforts to feed their families. Maybe even (God Forbid) buy a few Christmas presents for their kids.
Merry Christmas, Senator. Hopefully some constituent will give you a Bible for Christmas; maybe you will even read it.
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