It's not just for drugs any more

I have been enormously impressed by the Badlands National Park.  Have you been following this story?  My source is Scientific American, which I consider reputable.  Incidentally, my sister Pat and I have spent many happy days at Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  One of the trails we regularly hiked is marked by metal stakes in the ground, maybe 4' high (I'm bad at judging such things) with red paint on the top few inches.  Stand by a stake and sight the next one, walk to it and sight the next one.  I was used to trails you followed because they were beaten dirt in the midst of undergrowth and stuff.  The Badlands are really fascinating.

ANYWAY . . . One of the first things the Trump administration has done is to shut down scientific public communications. The National Park Service was ordered not to tweet.  The EPA was not only prohibited from using social media but required to remove a page on climate change from its website.  Grants and contracting were frozen.  The USDA was silent for several days.  While the main Twitter feed of the National Park Service followed orders, Badlands National Park started tweeting climate change statistics, 140 characters at a time.  Here's a screenshot of some of them:

If I'm not mistaken, they started sending out these tweets on January 24.  That afternoon, everything was erased.  However, a new account called AltUSNatParkService was created.  Here was their stated reason for existing:

(I believe credit for these screen shots goes to Dana Hunter.  Good job, Dana!)

See, the thing is, sometimes you have to Just Say No.  When "they" tell you you have to do something, or you're not allowed to do something, sometimes you have to Just Say No.  Let's not beat around the bush -- that can get you into big trouble.  But somehow I feel if the folks at Badlands should lose their jobs, or the ones behind AltUSNatParkService are found out and punished, they'll feel that it was worth it.  The truth needs to be spoken.  Lies need to be exposed.  And simply giving in to bad orders gives too much power to the bad order givers.  Sometimes you have to Just Say No.

In 1846, Henry David Thoreau was jailed for not paying his poll tax.  He was visited in jail by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Emerson said, "Henry, what are you doing in there?"  Thoreau responded, "Ralph, what are you doing out there?"  Disobedience is sometimes called for.  Disobedience in order to stand up for the truth and refuse to legitimize tyranny is not unpatriotic.

Sometimes the genuine patriot needs to Just Say No.