Lots of folks are moaning and groaning about the national parks and monuments being closed, in particular, the ones on the Mall. I am friends with some of those people and I am related to some of them. I think everyone is thinking locally and not looking at the big national picture. All over the nation, little towns exist because of the national parks. Springdale, Utah springs to mind, right outside of Zion National Park. The entire town is there for tourists. Moab, Utah is another town that exists for Arches National Park. Packwood, Washington caters to those visiting Mt. Rainier from the south of the mountain. No one would go to Packwood unless they had to get to Mt. Rainier.
Towns like Kitty Hawk, NC will survive with or without the First Flight National Monument being open. It isn’t a one-horse town and has many other attractions. What about Acadia National Park in Maine? Mt. Desert depends on the NP. How about those little towns and hamlets that exist for Death Valley? What on earth will attract anyone to the area? The Grand Canyon is not near anything. The people in the area are there because of the Grand Canyon. The community has one thing in common.
So, people living near DC want the Mall monuments open? Would it be fair to open THOSE monuments and close the monuments, memorials, and parks out in the nation, often in the middle of nowhere? I think it would be a crime to open the monuments on the mall and not help out Estes Park which is already suffering from flood damage. That tourist town near the entrance of Rocky MountaIn National Park is about ready to fold and will probably do so without an infusion of tourism before cold weather hits for the season.
Frankly, I am tired of listening to the whining about the Washington Mall. That is part of the problem. We focus on what inconveniences us with no thought to what is happening to the rest of America. The parks and monuments have skeleton staffs on board. 20,000 employees have been furloughed. The Department of the Interior simply cannot protect the parks, the animals, the plants, or the people. The answer is very simply. Force your congressman or woman to fund the government. It’s really that simple. It can happen today if the thugs will do the right thing.
