For those not
> aware, the group of people comprising our rangers are the most educated and
> brightest people employed by the Federal Government, on average. They put up
> with bureaucratic BS and low pay because they love our parks.
Let's hope they're smarter than the tour guides that get into shouting matches with vets who object to the revised history lesson provided to tour groups at some of our nation's war memorials and museums.
WmB
To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net
This is a well established fact. More Ph.Ds in our corp of park rangers then any other known employment group, other then college professors themelves.
Having encountered a few underemployed PhDs in my time, I'm inclined to believe him It does beg the question, though. Most people in a large organization where politics dictates who gets rich and who gets poor develop a rice-bowl mentality, whether they have three postgraduate degrees or a GED. The level of job satisfaction tells me nothing in a vacuum.
I doubt Dubya could be qualified as environmentally friendly by even the broadest assessment, but this can't really be any surprise. Who's the last Republican president who was? Teddy Roosevelt? I think it's noteworthy that despite Dubya's evident desire to drill in the ANR for oil, Congress wouldn't authorize it. Bro Jeb is pushing for lease buybacks or bans or something on off-coast drilling in Florida, and if that flies, it will spread to all the other coastal states. So where is the drive in the anti-environmental cabal? Yes, there might be benign or even (by some folks' definition malignant) neglect of national parks, but given that they're natural, presumably the only permanent downside of neglect would be overuse of easily accessible areas. It's not like someone has to keep the topiary in order.
And the environment is not a decisive issue for very many people. Ironically, it is for me, but I don't like this president anyway. Maybe that's the point. Nobody that is super-excited about the environment is probably fond of Our President, and if they are, Vess sure as heck isn't going to reach them with this.
To the best of my knowledge Gettysburg Military Park is run by the National Parks board and they need constant supervision and maintenance over there. They've had one cannon and a monument struck by cars in the past month.
I don't want to get too deep into this, but a lot of our National Park System is under attack by special interests groups, oil, timber and mining. Look how close Gettysburg came to having a Wally World built on it a couple of years ago. In New York State, Cuomo privatized an awfult lot of the state park system. For instance, you have to call an 800 number in California to make cabin reservations in the parks that have lodgings. Used to be a simple phone call to the park or a day trip there would suffice. The California number is/was one of his political contributors and they really haven't got a clue as to what's going on. Double reserving (renting the cabin to two different parites) happens too often (once is too often), and the rangers there (used to be almost the same level as State Troopers) have been replaced with minimum-wage folks who really don't give a great big damn. The roads in the parks aren't maintained that well any more, and garbage pick-up has fallen off in some of the parks as well (just what you want in a park with bears, they'll take care of garbage pick-up for you -- just don't get too close!). Anyway, I have no love for Mr. Vess, but I also have less for the Shrub. I'll vote Dem next election and now I'm going back to modeling. I have a real nice 1:150+/- castle that I'm working on by Auhagen out of Germany or Austria. I want to put it into a small (14"x14") diorama.
-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------
The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger
I mean, even if having a PhD is evidence of being 'the brightest,' I'd be surprised if there were more PhDs in the Forest Service than in, say, larger branches of the federal government (e.g. DoD) or in corporate training and development roles.
Neither a requirement nor a disqualification. Some Ph.Ds are fine people. I wouldn't even mind if my sister married one--except that I don't have a sister.
Mark Schynert, JD [It's really a scam, guys--you used to get an LLB if you were gonna practice law, but when they charge so much, and make you get a bachelor's degree first, they gotta hand out some fancy letters.]
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