I've been watching Ken Burns' The National parks: America's Best Idea and have been enjoying it in spite of Peter Coyote's bitter-sounding anti-commercial narration. I understand the desire to conserve, but tone it down, dude (or is it just me?).
The Parks are far from America's best idea, which is the decision to preserve our natural, individual rights by limiting the powers of government. The national parks are a great idea, but they are down the list a bit.
My take-away from this series is that the history of the parks is a history of value-driven, passionate individuals. And it's not always the common man like John Muir, sometimes it's industrialists like John D. Rockefeller Jr. It's fascinating how seemingly minor events in the lives of isolated people led to great acts of preservation.
For example, although you may not know his name, we owe a lot to Stephen Mather, who was an industrialist (20 Mule Team Borax) who became a conservationist and later headed up the US parks department. His commitment to the parks idea led to the creation of many of parks we now enjoy.
Yes, the parks are lands of incalculable value.
And yes, the parks have been set aside by acts of government, which basically outlaw the use of park property for any purpose other than recreation (almost -- battles were fought through history by people who wanted to disburse park resources by cutting old-growth trees and damming rivers). But people need to relinquish the idea that anything good needs to be done by government, as the world is filled with endless counterexamples. I'm glad the parks are here, but it is not the only way to preserve land for public enjoyment. Such pronouncements are a failure of imagination, not a statement of fact. And, to force goals on the public is morally wrong.
But that said, this is a great series and I recommend it highly. It makes me want to go on a park tour and see them all. Well, west of Limon, anyway.
