Because of the government shutdown, Ive been hearing a lot of rumors/stories regarding our US National Parks. Apparently the first thing to completely shut down when a crisis like this happens. I know one of the big bugaboos of the Republican party is that we should be allowed to drill for oil on our preserved lands. Supposedly (so they say) THAT would relieve our dependence on foreign oil... which I figure is about as big a crock as youre ever going to hear. I guess, the endgame is to sell off everything that belongs to our government... lands that are held *IN TRUST* to future generations... to private enterprise. Probably the same lovely folks who finance their campaigns. Surely, this idea is NOT what the people want or would be ultimately good for them. Found this article on Salon, admittedly, a liberal source... but if the message is true, all Americans should at least KNOW about it... and judge for themselves. Im sure that no lower-class, middle aged Tea Party member would relish the thought of a wealthy Chinese National OWNING the Grand Canyon... but that seems to be the road these great statesmen are on. Private enterprise... its GOOD for you! Just think, in only a couple of years, theyll have sold off the US Post Office brick by brick and we can spend $4.00 to mail a letter instead of $0.46 cents. I told you free enterprise was good for you! From The Article: For Congress, though, it’s not enough just to defund our parks so they slowly fall into total, unusable ruin. In this country, it’s also important that we “Drill, baby, drill,” not to mention, “Log, baby, log” and “Mine, baby, mine.” All of these efforts create serious threats to our parks. In September 2012, the National Park Service identified forty-two park units where non-federal oil and gas drilling is or could be happening in the future. At the time, twelve had active oil and gas operations. Yet for plenty of politicians, this is still not enough. In the 2011 primaries, Michele Bachmann proposed drilling for oil in the Florida Everglades, one of the country’s most endangered ecosystems. Joe Miller, the Tea Party candidate for Senate in Alaska, has run on a platform that includes turning the pristine Denali National Park and Preserve, the home to Mount McKinley, the U.S.’s highest peak, into an oil well. And GOP thought leader Grover Norquist says to hell with all of it, let’s just turn them over to the states, or better yet, sell them to the private sector.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 09:44:06 +0000
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