Christian Science Monitor lauds people's retaking of our national parks

Grand Canyon National Park

While it's a decent news source, the Christian Science Monitor is now known for expressing conservative views.

But in an article today about the White House's goonish closings of our national parks--the National Park Service is run by the Interior Department and therefore it is part of the executive branch of the federal government--the CSM did an impersonation of the National Review.

The populist push to reopen the parks began when World War II veterans pushed aside barriers at the World War II Memorial, an open-air site in Washington.

That was followed by tourists like Bob Noelle of New Jersey photographed gleefully throwing traffic cones aside with the Badlands National Park in the background. Subsequently, the Park Service ticketed dozens of gate-jumpers from Valley Forge to the Grand Canyon, ordering them to go in front of a federal judge who could mete out up to six months in jail.

Federal officials had rebuffed earlier attempts by states to help fund the reopening of the parks, but pressure from the public as well as businesses warning that the closures were wrecking the busiest visitor season ultimately swayed Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to act. Notably, the openings marked a dramatic difference from the 1990s shutdowns, when only the Grand Canyon was partially reopened after the Interior Department made a deal with then-Gov. Fife Symington.

Also as the closures have worn on, the usually well-regarded National Park Service received a black eye as media glommed onto stories about heavy-handed removals of elderly tourists from parks, and the conservative Weekly Standard magazine even suggested that the Park Service, by barricading the public's own lands, had become Obama’s political enforcers and put every American on an "enemies list."

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