Knickknack Wisdom

Published in edited form March 19, 2014 in Tulare County's Foothills Sun-Gazette


     I was reading in the Book of Job earlier this week, in Eugene Peterson's bible The Message, and came across a useful phrase in Chapter 13, verse 12.  In Job's response to the advice of one of his friends, what the New International Version translated from the Hebrew as "Your maxims are proverbs of ashes," Peterson translated into American English as "Your wise sayings are knickknack wisdom."  I love the poetry of the NIV, but the clarity Peterson provides can't be beat.


     The moment I read those words I realized that's what I've been hearing at City Hall this past month.  I mean Lindsay's City Hall, of course; maybe you hear the same kind of "wisdom" at your council meetings.  Maybe that's what's being spoken in most governmental bodies, I don't know.  But knickknack wisdom is what prevails here in my adopted home town.  A perfect example of that is provided by the contrast between two items of intense public interest covered at the last couple of council meetings:  water and pets.


    At the Feb. 25 meeting, Councilwoman Rosaena Sanchez presented a study session on mandatory water conservation measures.  I've never seen a council member present a study session before:  study sessions usually come from staff for the council to consider.  She did not have a Power Point presentation or handout - she simply wanted to discuss the possibility of moving from voluntary measures to something more guaranteed of success in saving our frighteningly limited water supplies, especially since City Hall is doing very little to promote voluntary measures.  Given the drought we're headed into, the fact that we're getting only emergency deliveries from the Friant-Kern Canal (our major source of water) and our countryside orange-growing neighbors who provide more than half of our jobs aren't getting any deliveries from the Friant-Kern, the topic appeared timely to me.


     Councilwoman Sanchez did not receive much in the way of support.  Except for Councilman Mecum, who was absent for good reason, the other council members disdained from joining in her concern.  Mayor Padilla tried to keep a conversation going by asking questions, but Councilman Salinas flatly said he didn't think they were necessary and  Councilwoman Kimball said she didn't think we should be telling people how to water their lawns.  Finally, City Manager Rich Wilkinson said the point was moot, that the high cost of water was a natural limitation on how much people use, so let's move on.


     Directly following her study session was another provided by City Planner Bill Zigler titled "Study Session for Keeping Fowl and Other Animals Within Residential Districts."  Prompted by a man downtown who has a problem with a neighbor's rooster, Bill presented a detailed list of current laws available for dealing with problem roosters and other animals and the difficulties the City has enforcing them.  Council directed him to solicit ideas about animals from the public, which he did.


     Just two weeks later, at the March 11 meeting, Bill presented a survey answered by 29 people (0.0003% of the population) which he had carefully analyzed statistically, graphed and then delivered in a colorful Power Point presentation.  From these data he concluded that the public is in favor of limiting the number of animals per household to somewhere between 5.5 and 10, depending on how you viewed the statistics.  After much discussion, the Council directed him to work up a draft animal control ordinance for the City of Lindsay, which will be presented at the March 25 council meeting.


     Is it just me, or does anyone else see a terrible confusion of priorities here?  I'm as disturbed as the next person by seeing dogs running loose in the street, concerned for their safety as well as the public nuisance.  But the water I see running in the gutters from careless lawn overwatering disturbs me far more, the clear evidence that we are not shifting down HARD in our consumption of water while our neighbor orange growers face losing not just their crops, but their groves.


     It baffles me why we're not even being asked here in Lindsay to gear down our water use, to shift our priorities from maintaining our leafy-green well-to-do appearance to maintaining our community integrity.  Are they afraid we might actually respond, cut our consumption in half, and cut their water revenues in half, too?


     Providing water is one of the City's primary responsibilities.  They need to be figuring out how we can work together as a community to ensure that everyone has enough, not just those rich enough to pay the price of a green lawn.  Maybe if we learn to work together on that, we'll develop the neighboring skills we need to deal with problem animals.
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Trudy Wischemann is a water researcher who has taken in 'way too many animals off the streets.  You can send your water conservation and/or animal control ideas to her c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.