A first-hand report from Bob Zimmerman:
…we still plan to hike in Great Smoky National Park, but we have chosen a trail where we can park outside the park on private land and then hike into the park. We intend to defy any ranger we meet who tries to stop us, but by not putting a vehicle in a vulnerable position under their control, we give them less power over us in such circumstances.
Finally, I want to make one more point. This is the United States of America, supposedly “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Yet, in my essay above I describe how American citizens are either hiding from or protecting themselves from agents of our government, even though they have done nothing wrong. When I was growing up such behavior was unthinkable. Not only was no one afraid of the federal government, if a federal agent or federal elected official tried to impose such restrictions on Americans they knew they would be in big trouble, almost instantly. Thus, they were very careful to respect the rights of the citizens, and such oppressive behavior was rare.
Today, however, such behavior is becoming common. And it carries no bad consequences for the government and officials who do it. One would think this was the Soviet Union, not America.
People have to understand that they have elected people who don’t like America. They want to “fundamentally transform it.” And we’ve been letting them.
More at The American Thinker.
[Update a few minutes later]
Scott Walker is pushing back against this fascist idiocy.
So, even though the Federal government is shut down, Federal facilities should be left open?
These parks do in fact belong to us. And just like our houses, cars and other property, we need to pay for their upkeep. We do that by paying taxes, and electing a Congress and a President to allocate money and hire people to perform the upkeep. Since Congress is refusing to allocate the money, wouldn’t the prudent thing to do be to close those facilities?
If you owned a business and your employees couldn’t come to work for whatever reason, wouldn’t you lock the doors? If you’re business is closed and you maintained a parking lot for your business, wouldn’t you make some effort to prevent non-customers from parking in your lot?
Your analogy is broken. A forest is not a “business.” And there is no need to close the parks, even with the government shut down.
If you’re business is closed and you maintained a parking lot for your business, wouldn’t you make some effort to prevent non-customers from parking in your lot?
No. Why would I?
maintained a parking lot for your business, wouldn’t you make some effort to prevent non-customers from parking in your lot? So you don’t have a bunch of people hanging out and drinking or otherwise creating a problem. Apparently in libertarian-land all the teenagers are well-behaved, and nobody’s got an RV they’d rather not have cluttering up their driveway.
Apparently in libertarian-land all the teenagers are well-behaved, and nobody’s got an RV they’d rather not have cluttering up their driveway.
Dude, I understand you live in Chicago, but you really need to get out of Chicago every now and then. In places where the government doesn’t act like thugs, the people and children don’t either.
I learned how to drive on parking lots of businesses there were closed on the weekend. I thought my daughters to drive in the parking lot of their school, when it was not in session. On any given weekend, you can drive around my town and find impromptu car shows in parking lots. We are talking classic cars restored with great care by their owners. Private businesses and the local government has no problem with this, and there is not problem with vandalism in the area.
Ack…
I learned how to drive on parking lots of businesses
therethat were closed on the weekend. Ithoughttaught my daughters to drive in the parking lot of their school, when it was not in session.wouldn’t the prudent thing to do be to close those facilities?
Ok, why would it be prudent? A public restroom, for example, needs to be cleaned every once in a while. So I can see the need to close down federally run public restrooms when there’s no one around to clean them. A trail or a tree doesn’t need daily maintenance. So no need to close them down.
Oh, no! People might discover that they don’t need government everywhere and all the time to enjoy themselves. Next thing you know, people would start asking questions about why the government is so large, so stupid and inefficient. They might demand that countless unelected, unaccountable and unresponsive bureaucrats and petty government functionaries are not actually needed. Why, imagine what would happen if all the government Deputy Assistant Third Undersecretaries for Diversity were fired. Oh, the humanities!
This, of course, is a major reason why it’s being done.
Chris probably believes that a private company running a concession on a Federal park where there’s normally no Federal presence needs to be shuttered too because Obama.