The Lord Speaketh to Those

Who Have Wasted His Water

So you think you can escape the water nags by seeking sanctuary in the church or synagogue of your choice?

Silly you.

San Diego City Hall is adding ecclesiastic punch to its effort to cajole/seduce/pester the commonweal into voluntarily cutting back on water usage by 10%.

Stand by for Drought Sunday, June 24, when pulpits throughout San Diego County are tentatively scheduled to ring out with talk of flow-restricters on bathroom showers and keeping the kids away from the front-yard hose.

The message: The Lord may have made you to lie down by still water, but He didn’t mean you to waste it!

It’s all been done before, you know. When the county went on the water wagon in the 1950s, the ministers, preachers and rabbis were also called to pitch in.

The result, according to news accounts, was a downpour of rain prayers, don’t-waste-water sermons, and “Nip the Drip” vespers (after the award-winning slogan submitted by a woman in Escondido).

There was even Soil Stewardship Sunday, in which local spiritual leaders spoke of watersheds, crop rotation, leeching and the advisability of switching to water-efficient succulents in your garden.

It’s hard to tell what role divine intervention played, but something worked: Water use dropped by 13% in 1957 (the only complete year covered).

To plan the current offensive, Roman Catholic Msgr. Daniel Dillabough, the Rev. Marshall Sharpe of the Southeast Ministerial Alliance and the Rev. Von Lyons of the San Diego County Ecumenical Conference will meet next week with mayoral trouble-shooter Sal Giametta.

Everyone has his or her favorite water conservation passage from the Bible. Mine is from Jeremiah 23:15:

“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”

I did a lot of searching of Scriptures before making my selection.

One thing bothers me, though: I couldn’t find a single passage that mentions putting a brick in my toilet.

Around the County . . .

There’s no stopping now.

* North County bumper sticker: “I Make Policy, Not Coffee.”

Yes, the driver was a woman.

* Mikhail and me.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Joan Kroc have been invited to Monday’s fancy lunch for Soviet President Gorbachev in San Francisco.

* Only in North County.

When a 25-year-old Solana Beach man needed help picketing an Encinitas auto body shop, he knew exactly where to look.

He hired several migrants for $5 an hour to carry signs criticizing the shop for charging $11,000 to paint his uncle’s 1954 Rolls-Royce.

The shop owner wasn’t impressed. See you in court.

Unisex Political Potholders

It’s news to me.

* Potholders were once a common campaign giveaway, usually sent by the candidate’s wife to women voters.

Now potholders are back, updated for our Liberated Times.

Assembly candidate Jeff Marston is sending them, touting his Pete Wilson endorsement. Assemblyman Pete Chacon is sending them, touting his Cesar Chavez and Jesse Jackson endorsements.

In both cases, the potholders are going to both men and women.

* That was then, this is now.

Howard Wayne, running against Mike Gotch in the April primary:

“Mike Gotch used to be an environmentalist--but he’s changed. (His) giveaway of Belmont Park is just a hint of what could come if he’s elected to the Assembly.”

Howard Wayne, endorsing Gotch for Tuesday’s runoff:

“In addition to a strong environmental record, Mike also supports the death penalty, stiffer sentences. . . “