I had planned to give John McCain’s vice presidential pick a critique this week and question his hasty, reckless, mother-of-five-including-an-infant-with-special-needs (isn’t she busy enough already?) choice of a running mate.

Truthfully, veep picks are only so important in the big scheme of things – what is important is the disturbing message behind the recent “low-flow shower head scandal” that shocked University personnel.

Students in several residence halls have altered shower heads and faucet aerators to allow more water to come through. Why? Because they need more water. They had more water before and they should have the same amount now. Well, when things change, it can be hard to get used to the changes. But I don’t think getting used to a change is the only factor here – I feel there is an undercurrent of entitlement behind this story.

I implore my readers to take a good hard look at their basic needs. Water, food and shelter are on that list – love and human interaction are as well. Maybe cleanliness goes on the list too, but I hesitate to call it a basic need – plenty of people in the world get by in dirty conditions.

It may seem like a lot is missing from a list of essentials, like running water, electricity, transportation, healthcare and clothing. For Americans and the rest of Western culture, these things are, too, considered basic needs. Those people who do not have them are said to be in deplorable conditions.

I don’t have to tell you that most of the people in the world live in deplorable conditions. I spent time in Rwanda in 2006 where I met happy people leading full lives who were lucky to have a slow dribble of cold water in their bathrooms. The bath tub in the house I stayed in ran out of water after a few minutes. Still, most people haul water a mile or more from a well back to their homes.

Even without water (or electricity, healthcare, et cetera) these people live. Those things are not actual needs. They are comforts, advantages, and extra bonuses.American society is a very fortunate one. We have a lot of really great things and really great opportunities. There is nothing at all wrong with that.

It is wrong, though, to feel that we are entitled to all the nice things that we enjoy – they are not guaranteed by anyone. Because of Hurricane Katrina the city of New Orleans found itself without typical American comforts. The government could decide to take away all healthcare programs. Resources like electricity and water are only going to be around for us to use if we stop overusing them.

Dams break, tornadoes touch down, floodwaters rise, crops stop growing – any of these disasters, natural or not, can take away our comforts, advantages and extra bonuses. If we continue to waste our resources and abuse oil and coal and gasoline, we may revert back a state of living like those people across the world who live in “deplorable conditions.”

Then we’ll see who cares how much water is coming out of the shower head.

E-mail Taylor your thoughts on what we might be taking for granted to [email protected].