GRRRRRRRRRRRR - Dubya

[blueeowyn]

Archaeologists on the Block?
Park Service May Ax Its Experts in 'Outsourcing' Initiative

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 15, 2003; Page A17

Apparently our beloved popularly [not] elected president is trying to privatize most of the US government. I have heard of them privatizing airport security (EEK!), and other things that make my skin crawl. Next on the "let's privatize it" block seems to be the archeology department of the National Park Service.

How short sighted can the idiot be? I mean really. Many of us who are familiar with the government know that they have to go with the lowest bid ... even if the final cost is hig her and the quality is much lower. So, irreplacable stuff will be cared for by people who are in it for the money, not for the love of it. Massive amounts of institutional memory will be lost, the dollar will rule, etc.

BlechU

Comments

[speaker2animals.livejournal.com]

NPR radio also did a news story on the plight of the Park Service. I agree that privatization would likely lead to disaster (and lots of billboards littering the parks).

On the other hand, sometimes I think the Park Service spends too much of its time maintaing facilities for tourists, and not focusing on the preservation of the wilderness. Others feel that the parks are useless without people to enjoy them.

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

Well, I can see the rock & hard place they are in on that area. If the parks aren't open to tourists, the service will lose support for funding.

Unfortunately, this rock & hard place has affected the use of timber in park lands with devastating effects (it is believed that a lot of the damage from fires (and difficulty in containing them) is from how logging is allowed within the national forests, promoting a lot of easily burning scrub brush. *sigh*

Preservation of wilderness, preservation of monuments, preservation of archaeology, education of the people, preservation of the people from their own stupidity (e.g. the people who leave food out for the cute bears). It is a huge job.