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A modest proposal

While the politicians in DC are at such loggerheads, hundreds if not thousands of ordinary outside-the-Beltway Americans who see themselves as centrist - and largely apolitical - have been subjected to a series of indignities which seem to be calculated to cause as much disruption and annoyance to them as possible. The closure of the World War II Memorial, the gating of remote rural parkways, the placement of orange cones to block access to scenic overlooks, the forced closing of non-government businesses on Federal lands - All of these unwarranted and spiteful actions which are being done to ostensibly sway the debate in Washington - are actions that we the people should never allow our government to do against us. Because if we allow it this time, next time it will get worse.

We must reestablish that We, The People, are the boss. Not the politicians in Washington. But how can we do something about this? The People don’t even have a seat at the negotiating table. We are treated like a piggy bank from payday to payday, and then periodically, the government seems to go into these convulsions over its voracious appetite for money. The People’s money. Our money. (And make no mistake about it, it is all our money - even
the part that we’re borrowing from China.)

And if The People did have a seat at the table, what would they negotiate for?

I would like to suggest one possible demand.

The National Park Service should be sliced out of the federal government (and the federal budget) and be dissolved. Ownership of all federal parks and memorials should revert to the respective states or district in which they reside.

Why?

First, to prevent the Federal Government from using our parks and monuments as tools of political persuasion ever again. The National Park Service is being used by the Federal Government as a crude weapon in the budget battle. They are being used, perhaps not so much by the White House and the Democrats as by the Federal Employees Unions and the Public Service Unions in general (yeah SEIU, I hear ya) to browbeat the American public into demanding the RepubliKans surrender and we all feed Jabba the Federal Hut all the dollars He wishes to consume.

The National Park Service, the openness of our amazing parks and the sanctity of memorials such as the World War II Memorial, should never be allowed to be used as a club to bruise The American People in order to sway political debate. Dump the NPS and give the parks to the states. They can hire the temporarily unemployed NPS staff and hopefully weed out the Nimrods who ordered these public relations tantrums.

But what makes this proposal insanely great, besides being an appropriate punishment for an overreaching Federal Government, is the logical sense of it.

The states have a vested economic interest in operating parks in a manner that promotes tourism, rather than disrupts it. Preserving parks and facilitating the tourism they inspire will help pay the costs of preserving our monuments, which are precious to the people who live among them. Many parks are already the centerpiece of a strong local tourism-based economy. This is a good thing for everyone and should be encouraged.

We should take this slice off the federal Leviathan as our piece of the final shutdown bargain. This will be the pound of flesh for the indignities to which We the People have been subjected.

I know many of my neighbors here in the DC area are Federal employees and you become uncomfortable when Federal jobs are lost. I do not generally buy into the stereotype of lazy government employees who want to do nothing but suck from the government teat. But there are those among you who have forgotten that they work for The People, and not The People for them. Let this be a reminder.