The National Parks: Our Best Idea
Has anybody else been watching the new film by Ken Burns on PBS this week? I have been fascinated by it. I expected to see a lot of beautiful pictures, and on that score I've not been disappointed.
What surprised me, though, was to learn about the history of the parks, and how they came into being. In particular, the politics -- especially the arguments against the parks -- sound so familiar that words spoken 150 years ago might have been said last week.
Last night's episode (5 of 6) ended with the story explaining how Wyoming is the only state in the union in which the President can no longer invoke the Antiquities Act to set aside land for a National Monument without Congressional approval. This was part of a compromise surrounding the final expansion of the Tetons park, south of Yellowstone. Turns out the people in Wyoming don't like the Federal government telling them what to do with "their" land.
For anyone who has missed this series, I recommend it highly. As I said, it is unexpectedly informative about the origins of our political debates today (e.g. how long the Crazy has been around). Plus it just makes you feel good about the country, insofaras we've been able to do some good things over the years. In my local area, the alternate PBS station will run a marathon of all six episodes tomorrow. As they say, check your local listings (and set those DVRs).
I'd love to hear from anybody else who's been watching. (And bear with me here, as this is my first official "blog" posting, and I don't really know WTF I'm doing.)
-- ARG
What surprised me, though, was to learn about the history of the parks, and how they came into being. In particular, the politics -- especially the arguments against the parks -- sound so familiar that words spoken 150 years ago might have been said last week.
Last night's episode (5 of 6) ended with the story explaining how Wyoming is the only state in the union in which the President can no longer invoke the Antiquities Act to set aside land for a National Monument without Congressional approval. This was part of a compromise surrounding the final expansion of the Tetons park, south of Yellowstone. Turns out the people in Wyoming don't like the Federal government telling them what to do with "their" land.
For anyone who has missed this series, I recommend it highly. As I said, it is unexpectedly informative about the origins of our political debates today (e.g. how long the Crazy has been around). Plus it just makes you feel good about the country, insofaras we've been able to do some good things over the years. In my local area, the alternate PBS station will run a marathon of all six episodes tomorrow. As they say, check your local listings (and set those DVRs).
I'd love to hear from anybody else who's been watching. (And bear with me here, as this is my first official "blog" posting, and I don't really know WTF I'm doing.)
-- ARG
