My wife Ann and I went for a walk
yesterday along the top of the Corps of Engineers’ dam that impounds Canyon
Lake. We usually walk around our long block because it is hillier, and I had
not been to the dam since the Great Shutdown. Some of the signs at the far end
were still up, prohibiting park use; all of the walkers ignored them. There
were no signs at the main access to the dam. It’s an interesting little detail
that at the beginning of the shutdown federal agencies were able to find the
manpower to create and erect signs at both ends of the dam, but the far end of
the dam is inconsequential enough to neglect it when things are back to normal.
It’s one thing to leave the gate
shut that first morning, when all the staff at the park were notified that they
were on furlough. But shutting down the park with barricades and signs actually
took a lot more effort than is expended on daily maintenance there, and why was
it necessary?
But wait, there’s more. Around
Canyon Lake are some seventeen public boat ramps. Some of them have been closed
for a while, due, I am told, to low water levels. But the one closest to my
house has always been open. Living only half a mile away, I have launched my
canoe there many times.
The boat ramp is very simple. There
is a parking lot sufficient to accommodate several pickups with boat trailers,
a small picnic area with a couple of tables, and of course the concrete ramp.
It doesn’t look like anyone regularly cuts the weeds or grass, or performs any
other landscaping. There is no trash receptacle; no toilet, permanent or
portable. Aside from very infrequent repairs, the boat ramp does just fine
being left alone to a bunch of boaters who mind their own business.
I went down there during the Great Shutdown,
just to look at the water a bit, only to be confronted by a chain across the road.
Attached to the center of the chain hung a sign carefully prohibiting entrance
by vehicle, bicycle, or (even!) pedestrians. The installation of that chain and
sign required more work than the area had seen since the resurfacing of the
parking lot. And there was a matching chain and sign at the other entrance to
the ramp. Not only that, but every one of Canyon Lake’s seventeen boat ramps
not already closed got the same treatment.
You gotta ask why. I mean, if the
shutdown was really about the gummint not spending money, where did all this
overtime come from? And why? Clearly this was all more about theater than necessity,
and I doubt people were expected to think deeply into the matter. The folks who
physically installed the signs were probably grateful for the work. The public,
most likely, further demonized their political party of choice, and this time
one party took a worse hit than the other. But if one party was the bad guy,
who made that extra effort to dump on the People?
The chain across the road made me
rethink the news stories I had read about other parks and monuments, and how
rangers had been stationed to block access to them. Who decided to pay the
rangers to block people from walking? Was it about the government shutting down
or not?
And then I think of the fourth
estate. Many reports were slanted against one political party, and others
against the other party, but almost none spoke of how little the welfare of the
people mattered to either party. It was all really about message, manipulation,
and victory, and the press was just as willing to take sides, to the detriment
of the audience.
As a result, I am not willing to
debate the original issue. I am fully occupied with thoughts about how truly
little any of us knows. But metaphysics will have to wait till next post.
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