from the Sacramento Bee

Drought is the cause of economic suffering

Yes, California is in the midst of an economic crisis, unemployment is climbing, car dealers are going out of business, school teachers, firemen, policemen and other critical civil servants are receiving pink slips. People are losing their houses and their jobs. And YES, in the midst of this we're also in the third year of a drought and Westlands and Kern County are not receiving their water allocations. Why? It's not because of a fish and not because the farmworkers are Latinos. It's because of the way that water is allocated in this state. Westlands and Kern County are at the end of the line with the most junior of all water rights.

The way it works in California is like the porridge pot in "Oliver." Those at the head of the line, the oldest, get their bowls of porridge filled first and in most cases to the brim. Then, as the line moves along, the next bowls are filled, and somewhere down the line the servers realize that there's not enough porridge for all of those standing in the queue. At that point they start putting less porridge in the bowls until, at the end, the pot is empty and those last people in the line, the youngsters, get none at all. The pot never held enough porridge in the first place to feed them.

Like Oliver, those at the end of the line can stand with their bowls and cry, "More!" but there's just no more porridge in the pot to dole out. While they can blame the people that were in line before them, they really should blame the people in charge of the institution who promised to feed all of the hungry with such a small pot in the first place. Ed.

By Amarpreet S. Dhaliwal and Robert Silva, Amarpreet S. Dhaliwal is mayor of the city of San Joaquin. Robert Silva is mayor of Mendota.

May 20, 2009 -- Central Valley farmworkers – a large share of whom are Latino – have worked with farmers and business people for decades to make California the world's major producer of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other commodities. The agriculture industry is a major producer of California jobs as well as food...(Continued on-line at the Sacramento Bee)