It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. Reason #1189 to Boot Bush: In 2000, George W. Bush promised to completely eliminate the $4.9 Billion backlog of maintenance orders at the National Park Service. In a declaration of National Park Week in April 2004, he still tauted that campaign promise. But in a report to Congress on September 27, 2003, the General Accounting Office estimates that the backlog of maintenance orders at the National Park Service has surpassed $5 Billion. (Sources: Presidential Proclamation of National Park Week, April 16, 2004; Statement of Barry T. Hill, Director Natural Resources and Environment, before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands, September 27, 2003) ![]() ![]() ![]() |