Do you want running water in your houses? Do you want your cell phones, computers and televisions? Do you want the "necessities" of modern life?

What would you do, if one morning, you woke up and no water came out of your bathroom faucet and the lights wouldn't turn on? You would probably try to call your plumber and your electrician, but you have no dial tone on your phone. You take your cell phone off the charger, except, oh no! It was down to 10 percent last night and it's only at 15 percent now.

You glance over at your electric clock. It is stuck at 11:32. It must be last night because it's only 6:30 a.m. The electricity has been out since last night?

And it's still out. No use plugging in the coffee maker or turning on the radio or TV for the news.

Thank goodness you have a gas or propane stove, so you can cook an egg or two. But it won't light because the spark works on electricity.

Good thing you've got some energy bars in the pantry, but it's dark in there, so you'll have to feel around for it.

You get out a flashlight, and you remember you needed to change the batteries last night, but you didn't, and now the flashlight gives out only a very weak light. Find the energy bar and start chomping down. You stumble across a dark kitchen floor to get to the battery drawer.

Oh, yeah, that's why you didn't put in new batteries. You don't have the right size.

Time to fumble around the closet, find something to wear, first to head to the grocery store and then to work.

Now dressed, you go out to your car. You had put off filling the tank because the price had gone so high. Now, the dial shows less than a quarter of a tank. But it will get you to the store and work.

You get to the store, and you're not the only one in line to get in. It seems the automatic doors are not working, because the electricity is off there, too. They have closed the store for safety reasons and to keep the refrigerating equipment closed so as to save as much product as possible until the electricity comes back on.

Time to go to work. You get to the office and the boss is outside telling everyone to go home until the power comes back on.

OK, that was the doomsday scenario. What's the point of this editorial?

What would you do if all of these things happened? You probably wouldn't think about what made your modern life possible.

Where did the water come from? Some municipalities have deep wells with pumps to bring up the water. It took drill rigs to get down to that water and electricity to pump it to storage or if you have your own well, probably to your house plumbing.

What are the drilling rigs made of? Iron, steel and chromium. What does electricity run on? Power lines often are made of aluminum, enforced with steel and also from copper.

What components form cell phones? Glass, copper, lithium (for the batteries), plastic (from petroleum), and other smaller amounts of materials.

Where do all these components come from? Mostly from the ground. How does one get to these metals and products, such as petroleum and copper? Generally, one obtains these products by drilling for oil and blasting for copper.

Back to the beginning when your water doesn't flow and your electricity is off, are you going to go out drill a well, dig for copper and oil? No, of course not. But somebody did, and you are benefiting from the work done for you.

Yet, if someone threatens to start blasting for copper or drilling for oil near your happy home, you throw a fit? Not In My Back Yard. Think before you oppose the development of products that you use daily!