I thank the old friend who sent in this story, writing,
Amazing article that fully illustrates how the federal government has become the enemy of the nation.The behavior of the armed park employees was reminiscent both of Nazi Germany, and of the East German Communist police state. When you were driving between “die Grenze” (the border) and the two Berlins, you were not allowed to stop your vehicle for any reason. The Yellowstone Park employees also went out of their way in their sadism towards the old people, refusing to let them stop to go to the bathroom, on the 2.5 hour trip on the way out.
Note that the “Obama” Administration took the seniors’ money, while refusing them the services for which they paid for, and going out of their way to abuse them. The Department of the Interior’s National Park Service stole their money. There was no basis for the armed female ranger to order them not to take pictures. That was also an East Bloc/Nazi tactic. Government terror. They were perfectly expressing the sadistic hatred of the criminal trespassing in the Oval Office.
I’m going to take a wild guess that the seniors were virtually all either white or Asian.
By contrast, the Arizona State Parks Department, under the administration of patriotic Gov. Jan Brewer, extended a helping hand to tourists stranded in national parks in Arizona. Gov. Brewer and some of her western counterparts were willing to fund the partial reopening of national parks in their states, but Obama refused them, again showing that it wasn’t about money, but about his sadism, just as when her used the sequestration as a pretext to hurt people by cutting services, even while he refused to cut spending.
“Obama” or one of his flunkies reportedly ordered National Park Service employees to “make life as difficult for people as we can.”
EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA
October 8, 2013
“Gestapo” Tactics Meet Senior Citizens at Yellowstone
By John Macone
— NEWBURYPORT — Pat Vaillancourt went on a trip last week that was intended to showcase some of America’s greatest treasures.
Instead, the Salisbury resident said she and others on her tour bus witnessed an ugly spectacle that made her embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her country.
Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard.
The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited English skills thought they were under arrest.
When finally allowed to leave, the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the 2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms that were open along the route.
“We’ve become a country of fear, guns and control,” said Vaillancourt, who grew up in Lawrence. “It was like they brought out the armed forces. Nobody was saying, ‘we’re sorry,’ it was all like — ” as she clenched her fist and banged it against her forearm.
Vaillancourt took part in a nine-day tour of western parks and sites along with about four dozen senior citizen tourists. One of the highlights of the tour was to be Yellowstone, where they arrived just as the shutdown went into effect.
Rangers systematically sent visitors out of the park, though some groups that had hotel reservations — such as Vaillancourt’s — were allowed to stay for two days. Those two days started out on a sour note, she said.
The bus stopped along a road when a large herd of bison passed nearby, and seniors filed out to take photos. Almost immediately, an armed ranger came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t “recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t “recreating,” just taking photos.
“She responded and said, ‘Sir, you are recreating,’ and her tone became very aggressive,” Vaillancourt said.
[I wonder what race the armed female ranger was.]
The seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the door.
“They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside,” she said. “Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals.”
By Oct. 3 the park, which sees an average of 4,500 visitors a day, was nearly empty. The remaining hotel visitors were required to leave.
As the bus made its 2.5-hour journey out of Yellowstone, the tour guide made arrangements to stop at a full-service bathroom at an in-park dude ranch he had done business with in the past. Though the bus had its own small bathroom, Vaillancourt said seniors were looking for a more comfortable place to stop. But no stop was made — Vaillancourt said the dude ranch had been warned that its license to operate would be revoked if it allowed the bus to stop. So the bus continued on to Livingston, Mont., a gateway city to the park.
[Given that the park employees knew that the people on the bus were all old, and can’t hold it in for three hours at a time, that was pure sadism.]
The bus trip made headlines in Livingston, where the local newspaper Livingston Enterprise interviewed the tour guide, Gordon Hodgson, who accused the park service of “Gestapo tactics.”
“The national parks belong to the people,” he told the Enterprise. “This isn’t right.”
Calls to Yellowstone’s communications office were not returned, as most of the personnel have been furloughed.
Many of the foreign visitors were shocked and dismayed by what had happened and how they were treated, Vaillancourt said.
“A lot of people who were foreign said they wouldn’t come back (to America),” she said.
The National Parks’ aggressive actions have spawned significant criticism in western states. Governors in park-rich states such as Arizona have been thwarted in their efforts to fund partial reopenings of parks. The Washington Times quoted an unnamed Park Service official who said park law enforcement personnel were instructed to “make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
The experience brought up many feelings in Vaillancourt. What struck her most was a widely circulated story about a group of World War II veterans who were on a trip to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II memorial when the shutdown began. The memorial was barricaded and guards were posted, but the vets pushed their way in.
That reminded her of her father, a World War II veteran who spent three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
“My father took a lot of crap from the Japanese,” she recalled, her eyes welling with tears. “Every day they made him bow to the Japanese flag. But he stood up to them.
“He always said to stand up for what you believe in, and don’t let them push you around,” she said, adding she was sad to see “fear, guns and control” turned on citizens in her own country.
AZ Parks Dept. opens arms to campers in federal parks
Posted: Oct 01, 2013 1:34 P.M. EST Updated: Oct 01, 2013 4:08 P.M. EST
By Steve Stout
KPHO
PHOENIX (CBS5) -
The Arizona State Parks Department said it will try to minimize the damage to the state's tourism industry by accommodating campers displaced by the shutdown of the federal government on Tuesday.
Ellen Bilbrey of the State Parks Department said tent campers, people in RVs and trailer campers can contact the department to find available campsites in the event they are forced to move from campgrounds run by federal agencies.
Camping reservations at state parks can be made at the Arizona State Parks website or by calling 520-586-2283 or 602-542-4174.
In other news, the Arizona Department of Transportation said State Route 64, a state highway that runs through Grand Canyon National Park , will remain open although the park is closed by the federal shutdown.
The Hualapai Indian Tribe said Grand Canyon Resort Corporation, which it owns, would continue normal operations at its Grand Canyon West attractions, including the Skywalk built in 2007, and lodging destinations.
The National Park Service closed 401 national parks with the government shutdown on Tuesday, affecting more than 20,000 federal Park Service employees, who are furloughed until an appropriation is passed.
About 3,000 people providing essential services, such as security, emergency services and firefighting, continue to work at national parks, according to the National Park Service.
3 comments:
Not all, but much of the lands that these parks represent were bought with taxpayers' dollars, and some lands were donated by the owners of the land to be used as a park for US citizens. The buildings, roads, bridges, etc were built by taxpayers dollars, and they are maintained with taxpayers dollars and the fee now charged to use the parks that were once free to users. The salaries of the employees are paid for by taxpayers. What good are these parks without the use by US citizens as well as the foreigners that use them?
I was a federal employee for 22 years and the government was shut down a number of times and I and all the rest drew our full salaries.
If you are someone who uses woodland, wildlife, mountain, or such park you know that you will never encounter a black person there. Nobody cares about their grills out there.
The correct response would be to "permanently furlough" every government official you can find.
It WILL permanently reduce the budget by that headcount.
Note, knives and arrows would work best - that way there's no BS about evil guns. But whatever tool works.
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