Re: Stealing State Parks

http://www.truth-out.org/stealing-state-parks/1330351798

----- Reply message -----
From: "Dan Stafford"

Subject: Stealing State Parks
Date: Mon, Feb 27, 2012 9:35 am





Stealing State Parks

Monday 27 February 2012

by: Jim Hightower, OtherWords | News Analysis

Top politicos in many states are closing many of their parks, slashing
hours and services at others, or simply handing over the public's asset to
profiteering corporations.

"Sorry, we're closed."

In one of the saddest signs of the times, this message is popping up all
across the country as

RV parked at Mitchell Caverns, a state park closed in 2011 that has
suffered from

governors and legislators

vandalism since being shut down. (Photo: Mollivan Jon)

are cutting off funds (and shutting off access) to one of the finest, most
popular assets owned by the people of our country: state parks.

More than 6,600 of these jewels draw some 700 million visitors a year to
their grand vistas, historic sites, wildlife, campgrounds, educational
centers, and lodges. Parks are a tangible expression of America's
democratic ideals: common ground for every man, woman, and child to enjoy
and experience. For the middle class and the poor —who can't jet off to
luxury resorts for a getaway —these spaces offer a form of real wealth,
something that each of us literally "owns," knitting us together as a
community and nation.

Yet too many spiritually shriveled, small-minded, and short-sighted state
officials are snuffing out this uniting social force, stupidly treating
parks as nothing but a budget number or —worse —a piece of the "nanny
state" to be axed in the name of ideological purity. Top politicos in many
states are closing many of their parks, slashing hours and services at
others, or simply handing over the public's asset to profiteering
corporations: Idaho's governor has proposed eliminating the entire parks
department; California shut the gates of a fourth of the state's parks last
year; officials in Arizona and Florida intend to privatize their parks;
Washington state has cut off most of its park funding; and Ohio has okayed
oil drilling in its parks to replace state financing.

As Woody Guthrie said of outlaws,"Some'll rob you with a six gun/Some with
a fountain pen." Shutting parks is theft by "in-laws." Political insiders
are stealing the people's property —stealing from America itself.

JIM HIGHTOWER

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book,
Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim
Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of
the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families,
environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.