The recent debut of the new series by Ken Burns entitled The National Parks: America's Best Idea will no doubt help shed light on an issue that was slowly being pushed under the rug.
With bigger issues taking the national stage such as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy taking a roller coaster ride over the last several months, and other issues that arise from day to day, it is easy to see how people would lose site of our National Parks, and the fact they are in danger.
Yet, the series mentioned above brings to light that there has always been a struggle to keep the parks, well, natural; and to keep the historic sites and monuments from being consumed by residential and industrial expansion.
As new generations take offices of leadership and influence, it is their job to ensure we keep what people such as John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Stephen Mather, and many more helped make a reality. That reality is having places where we Americans can go and be reacquainted with how beautiful our country is and remember the many sacrifices it has taken to get us to this point.
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Just noticed your blog - your most recent one on Yellowstone snowmobiles - has appeared with a link in my "newspaper".
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I'm not a big fan of Ken Burns' movies, though not exactly not a fan, either. I wrote my own essay on this on my site. It no doubt won't be something you agree with, but perhaps it's worth a read - as someone who loves the parks, loves Yellowstone, but doesn't necessarily love the politics or the actual history of these places. That essay is here:
A critique of national parks as America's "best idea"
Keep up the interesting stuff,
Jim