The water wars continue.

It continues to get uglier and uglier with the people who do not have water. If those of us who do have water admit to so much as washing a dish, we are evil mean people who should burn in hell because we are the reason they don't have water. No, the reason you don't have water is because you live in El Paso, which is a shitty place, and every bit the third world rathole it looks like. You are not without water because I washed diapers yesterday. Blame Uncle Sam for plunking you down here. Blame the city government for being corrupt and haphazard. Blame Mexico for being a drain on this city's resources. Don't blame the people who have water, though. We didn't do it.

Meanwhile, the rumors continue, mostly via text message (This easily spreads rumors citywide in a matter of minutes.) about water outages, power outages, gas outages, citywide, 100%, total outage, for 48 hours, a week, indefinitely.... People are flipping out. They're all lies. The mayor (who, conveniently, is on vacation in Austin, and has been for this entire time) released a statement that mandatory water cutoffs would be imposed on businesses that did not comply with the conservation order, and some say that a second statement was released about imposing these same mandatory cutoffs on citizens who do not comply, but I can't find anything about that. I think it's just another lie. How would they even prove that? Go around and check every person's water meter? But even then, how would they know what it was before to figure out how much they used? It's pretty easy to prove whether a car wash or laundromat is open for business. It's impossible to tell if a household has been following a conservation order. People spread these rumors around just to scare one another. The result, of course, has been that water consumption throughout the city has doubled in the past two days as everyone rushes to get all their laundry and dishes done, because if the water goes away, who knows when they'll be able to do that again?

I think there is a giant leap to be made from where we are now, to realism. It comes down to a few things, really:

-First of all, people, be realistic. If you have water, and you are genuinely trying to conserve, but you totally just flushed your toilet, you probably don't want to tell the person who doesn't have water about that. I understand it's a slippery slope, and that a lot of times, offering help, like a place to shower or do wash, will get your head bitten off by the ones who do not have water, so maybe it's time to stop offering. I think everyone knows someone who's got water if they get that desperate. Let them come to you. Now, as for the people who don't have water, don't act like you wouldn't use it at least a little if you had it. You would NOT refrain from flushing your toilet if you had the ability to do it. Don't lie.

-Secondly, spreading rumors is idiotic. Stop it. Why would you ever want to do that in the first place? Common sense would dictate that real news does not come via text message with the heading FW: FW: FW: and the tag line "Pass this onto everyone you know". If you forward this type of shit, you are an idiot. Seriously. Stop with the rumors. They're not serving any purpose but to make people mad.

-Finally, stop with the panic. We all want to take care of our own. We all want to do laundry, and dishes, and take showers. Now just isn't the time to go overboard on that kind of thing. Have some common sense. If you usually don't do 10 loads of laundry in a day, now is not the time to start. Just keep it to the essential stuff. I don't think anyone in our local government expects us to really actually just stop using water for everything but drinking as the order states. I do, however, think that they believe we are capable of cutting back, so cut back. Less laundry this week, fewer dishes, fewer showers. Cut back and you'll be fine.... and don't rub it into those who do not have water. That's not cool.