Instead of a Golf Course, Visit a National Park, Mr. Trump

Instead of visiting golf courses 25% of the time while he’s in office (his itinerary so far), I’d like to see Donald Trump visit a National Park.

 

But of course he never will.

 

Why?

 

Because a National Park would make him feel small.

 

Really, really small. And petty.

 

National Parks have a way of giving that gift to ALL who visit them.  It’s nothing personal. It just is.

 

And yet, it feels very personal.

 

It’s something you never forget. And it’s something you always want to remember whenever you fear you’re on the verge of forgetting.

 

You see, to visit a National Park you have to abide by the rules:

 

You can’t shoot, or kill in any other way, any of the furred, feathered, finned or lizard-skinned residents of a National Park.

 

You can’t build a house, yank coal or other mineral deposits out of it (yet!), or obstruct its rivers (yet!).  Although Trump’s so-called EPA head, Scott Pruitt, would certainly like to change that!

 

No.

 

In a National Park, you’re just allowed to stand, walk, hike, and look around you.

 

(Boring? If you think so, you’ve never visited a National Park!)

 

You aren’t allowed to take anything away from a National Park or leave anything behind in it.

 

“Take only pictures. Leave only footprints.”

 

In a National Park, you have to get outside yourself. And when you do, you can’t help but ponder the bigger picture.

 

I have a hunch that Donald Trump couldn’t stand even the thought of getting outside himself to ponder a bigger picture. He simply can’t conceive of there being any bigger picture than himself.

 

If he can’t exploit whatever situation he finds himself in, or the people he’s with, he’s uninterested. He’ll remove himself from the “tedium” to look for “better” (exploitable) opportunities.

 

All he ever appears to see are the people and opportunities with the potential to enrich him, potentially-exploitable lady parts (whether the ladies in his sights like it or not; “I can’t help myself. I just start kissing”) and losers–anyone who can’t add to his bottom line or the notches in his poly-amorous belt, and anyone who dares consider him anything less than The Epitome of Awesomeness.

 

Then there are his adult sons…

 

And all his sons would see in a National Park are the un-dead–that is, the animals they aren’t allowed to murder and put on their walls because they’re protected by law. (You’ve seen them posing with their dead elephant and leopard in Africa, haven’t you?)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/27/theres-no-sport-in-that-trophy-hunters-and-the-masters-of-the-universe

 

What the rest of us see, enjoy, and wonder at in a National Park isn’t on any Trump’s radar…

 

I pity the Trump family. I truly do.  They’re so clueless they don’t even know what they’re missing. They think they have it all.

 

But I pity the rest of us far more because Trump and his minions are enacting policies that leave the rest of us with less to enjoy.

 

They’re doing their best to gut YOUR National Parks. MY National Parks. OUR National Parks!

 

Our National Parks belong to you and me to enjoy and to hand down, unchanged, to our posterity.

 

Trump, Pruitt and the rest of the exploiters should keep their grubby mitts off them.

 

But pay attention, because hands off isn’t what’s on their minds.

 

They’re coming after our National Parks with hammer and tong and a whole lot more.

 

What are you doing about it?

 

Maybe join the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the Wilderness Society, Greenpeace, and other groups (including political ones like The League of Conservation Voters) that are doing daily battle with the exploiters.

 

Maybe vote out the destroyers and vote in the defenders among us.

 

Maybe call your representatives in Congress and let them know you want our National Parks PRESERVED AS THEY ARE RIGHT NOW.

 

Maybe visit a National Park if you haven’t in a while (or haven’t ever) and discover (or rediscover) why it’s important to pay attention to the goings-on in local, state and federal political races.

 

Your environment is under siege. Do something about it!