Point Of View: Spend Money On High Speed Rail, or Dealing With Drought?

In a recent POV, I made the point that in this record drought, it's far more important to spend money on water than on high speed rail.

We asked you to send us your point of view, and the number of emails we received were overwhelming. Many of you think money spent on dealing with this drought is a better use of our tax dollars than the so-called bullet train. And a number of you support construction of desalination plants.

After reading your emails, I went out and interviewed residents of Southern California, and asked them a simple question:

Should we continue to spend money on High-Speed Rail? Or use those dollars to find solutions to our drought? (Watch the video above for the responses from those we talked to.)

I call on Governor Brown to suspend construction of the bullet train and make California's drought a higher priority. Governor Brown, why not listen to the citizens of California who favor spending money on alleviating the drought.

Governor Brown, we can live without a train. We cannot live without water. Building desalination plants is definitely part of the solution. More than 54 years ago, President John F. Kennedy said if we could find a way to convert saltwater into freshwater, it would change the world. Governor Brown, take to heart what President Kennedy said – And change the world.