National Parks theme week continues with an extended look at Ken Burns' documentary series. Again, the Republicans -- and even the Obama administration -- are attempting to slash the budgets for the National Park service by as much as $51 million. Once again, instead of raising taxes on the very wealthy by a couple of percentage points, Congress is trying to make up the difference by stripping money from these indescribably beautiful acres -- land that belong to us.
Video after the jump...
"It is the main duty of government, if it is not the sole duty of government, to provide means of protection for all its citizens in the pursuit of happiness against all the obstacles, otherwise insurmountable, which the selfishness of individuals or combinations of individuals is liable to interpose to that pursuit." Frederick Law Olmsted, "The Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Trees"
"[G]oing to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life." John Miur, "Our National Parks"