So, I’m in Atlanta for the ApacheCon conference (which is going great) at the Westin hotel.   I drove in from Raleigh.   Since pretty much all of the southeast is under severe drought conditions (Atlanta being one of the worst hit), I expected to at least be made aware of it when I checked in at the hotel.  After all, you drive by the reservoirs  on I-85 as you enter the state and you can’t help but notice how low they are.  However, not a word was said.  I didn’t really see a message concerning the drought until I went to the Thrashers game on Tuesday night, in which the Governor had a taped message urging Georgians to conserve.

Now, I know why the hotel didn’t say a word, they don’t want to give out of town guests any bad thoughts about Atlanta and, as in Raleigh, the various governments are prioritizing water usage for businesses so that they don’t have to shutdown, which would put many, many people out of work and hurt an untold number of lives.  I can’t help feel a bit sad about the whole thing though, because I think it speaks a bit about what we have become as a country.  Personally, I think Americans, at least in the past, as well as other visitors from out of the country, just visiting Atlanta would totally understand if in the rooms or at the front desk there were some placards informing us of the drought and asking us to do things like:

1. Take shorter showers
2. Turn off one of the nozzles on Westin’s dual-spray “Heavenly Showers”
3.  Not clean rooms everyday (maybe just make the bed)
4. Maybe not even flush the yellow stuff every time (it really isn’t that big of a deal)

They could even go so far as not wash towels everyday.

I want to believe most people would be understanding of the need to conserve in a time of crisis, but I think, to some extent, we’ve been so trained by the media and the current administration to believe that no Joe-Schmoe American should ever have to sacrifice their right to a Starbucks on every corner or a strip mall down the street, much less their god-given right to take 20 minute “Heavenly” showers.

After all, how would you feel if you had guests at your house and they ate every last thing in your fridge and left you with nothing?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 7:50 am and is filed under ApacheCon, Atlanta, drought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.