The River

[fritz]

I guess it was because of all the flooding in Texas lately, but tonight I had the desire to dig out the old movie "The River" with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek as the farm family on a flooding river, and Scot Glenn as the bad guy who wanted to flood the valley by building a dam so he could have water for his huge holdings distant from the river.

 

I remembered, in the movie, the farmers eventually prevailed and some saved their farms (to the dismay of the rich big-shot who tried to sweat them out). I wanted to remember that, even when things look real bad, hard work and perseverance can bring good things.

 

So those things happen in the movies, but what about real life? Fast forward to today and substitute Rick Perry for Scot Glenn. Substitute a big highway for the dam that floods the valley. The big highway will put a lot of farmers out of business, as was the movie bad guy's intention.

 

Strange how the two are similar, but the highway ain't no movie. It's a real thing. But maybe, just maybe, it can be stopped just as the farmers stopped the flooding. The first thing we need to do is get the big-shots out of power.

 

Traveling up US 183 toward Austin today, the roads were flooded in several spots. What should have been a two hour trip to Lockhart took almost four hours with all the detours. But it didn't rain today. A brief pause before it is supposed to start again on thursday, due to a tropical disturbance heading this way.

 

When will it end---the flooding and the greed of power-hungry politicians?

 

 

fritz