Late yesterday afternoon my social media feeds lit up with announcements from friends and others that they had been laid off by the federal government.
I'm sure this is difficult for those losing their jobs. But where was the outcry when Biden shut down the oil pipeline build and told them “learn how to code” ? Our federal deficit is no longer tenable for us. Cuts have to be made. Maybe these people will be rehired once we stop sending money to foreign countries for b.s. progressive ideals. And for those crying about the constitution being disregarded maybe you should read the constitution again, no where in the constitution does it guarantee federal workers jobs. What the President is doing is legal and constitutional as you will see.
I'm in my 70's and so distressed in the blatant disregard of our Constitution and laws. I participated in many End the War protests in the 1970's and know what can be accomplished by protests.
Will these latest unjustified firings lead to all the National Parks being closed this summer? I would expect so, and I hope this is one of the buttons that gets pushed with normal regular folks both red and blue to say enough is enough.
It is time to pull our collective heads out of the sand and see what is really happening and to get vocal. Very vocal. The coup is happening right in front of us.
Thank you for publishing this piece. It really brings home the impact of Government actions taken in ignorance by people blind to their impact. There is always a person on the receiving end of any action. You are right to bring to light the human side. We are all more than dollars and numbers. We are each the beneficiaries and the custodians of our countries' natural resources, wherever we live. Those resources need to be preserved for the benefit of all - for pleasure and education - and their accessibility and management, including important ecological management be swept away with a pen.
Thank you for publishing Ranger Brian's thoughts. My heart breaks for him, and all the other employees of NPS. I was thrilled to learn that Effigy Mounds had been designated as a park. I had visited there as a very young University student, a long time ago. We were doing a "dig" nearby. I worry what will happen to Effigy Mounds now that the employees have been decreased. I now live in Massachusetts. The 250 anniversary of the American Revolution is this year. There are so many Parks and historic sites connected to the Revolution. People will be coming from all over. I am afraid that their experience will be diminished. There will not be enough Rangers to tell the stories, there will not be enough maintenance people to keep the parks functioning. Is this the "plan" of those in Washington? Forget about the Parks, forget about the Rangers? I am sad, but mostly I am ANGRY.
I’ve never visited Effigy Mounds, but it sounds like a fascinating site. I share your frustrations. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. All the best.
This is a post that I hope that everyone who has been thinking about going to a NP soon or have done so in the past will consider doing. This past week I went to Fort Pickens NP near Pensacola FL to visit a place near my new residence. As many of you know the NPS publishes numerous publications on a variety of topics. I found the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom" publication of interest and as I usually do take one to read and keep. It dawned on me later on that such publication might be severely limited in print going forward OR totally revised into an alternative version of history. I would encourage everyone in future visits to grab these current publications while they are still available. Also, consider downloading electronic versions of these documents before they vanish.
I can tell you how the layoffs (firings) are happening. First, OPM identified employees within their first year or two of employment (called probationary). They have fewer protections than career employees. They were fired. The form letter that fired them stated that it was due to poor performance, thus making them ineligible to protest. Supervisors are not allowed to provide reference letters. 2 weeks ago the electronic performance management website, where all yearly evaluations are housed, was taken off line. Now, they are firing veterans and the disabled with the same form letter and ostensible lack of legal recourse. Reason, poor performance. Yes, for all employees. Even if you have perfect and exemplary performance and the cash awards to back it up. Who knows who will be next? To be very crystal clear, these evil, horrible workers are those that clean toilets, cut hazard trees out of camp grounds, pick up trash, lead interpretive programs…the list goes on. When the public hears “Federal workers” they think a faceless suit. Not a park ranger making far less than a McDonalds employee picking up trash and rescuing lost hikers. Humanize us! They aren’t just trying to fire us. They want us dead.
I'm so sorry, Jen. I'd like to quote you on my Facebook, if you don't mind: When the public hears “Federal workers” they think a faceless suit. Not a park ranger making far less than a McDonalds employee picking up trash and rescuing lost hikers.
True. My brother was a Ranger for the Park Service for many years. At first, he was a "seasonal" meaning he moved from Park to Park. He enjoyed that, and had the opportunity to work in a variety of places. Later, he was assigned permanently to Everglades National Park. He married, had two children, his wife was a teacher. To make enough money, he went out west to fight wild fires, usually during late summer and fall. Right, Park Rangers are not paid nearly enough for what they do. Now, the staffing of all the Parks will be decreased. I am ANGRY.
I too am sick to my stomach and heartbroken. This is only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. It’s going to be a very rough and painful number of years. And the damage will linger longer after these “people” are out of power.
Your essays have been really resonating with me lately. Is everyone as filled with stress and anxiety as I am?
But there's also hope for the applicability of this wisdom from President Lincoln: "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”
Whether or not lots of Americans had tenable reasons for buying what the Trump crime cult and its noncriminal adherents were selling before the election, it appears to me that for them, post-election public sentiment--including among many Trump voters--is growing as a problem.
This is still America, and though the republic-threateners can maybe extract grievous costs, they can't permanently change that glorious fact.
(Imagine here a picture of Old Glory, waving: _____________ )
The Administration is waging a pretty well-coordinated attack on history and history education, from the Executive Order mandating “patriotic education”, to the rebranding of historic names, to the firing of NPS employees, to the systematic destruction of the federal government itself. This is just one battle in a wider war on knowledge and education—and it is one every thinking person must fight, or risk greater peril.
What can we do to coordinate our efforts, though? I’ll continue to post, re-post, attend town halls, join member organizations… but it just doesn’t feel like these normal channels are enough.
I did draft and send a letter to my Members of Congress, expressing concern not just for this issue, but the wider assault on history education we are living through. Hoping enough of us that care will do so...
Some comments from social media have asked why American Battlefield Trust and others haven’t responded to this yet. The best analogy example I’ve found is when someone brought it up in a recent ABT post, they were replied with “go away whiner”. It’s safe to say some of us might be on our own and that’s terrifying
We live close to the Smokies, the most visited national park in the country. These firings will not only impact the park but the surrounding towns and businesses. A myopic decision for sure. One that needs to be corrected asap.
Kevin, you mentioned "an oligarch that hovers over the president." In your worthy effort, your goal was of course not to dwell on identifying him fully, but I'd like to identify him a little further all the same: "A colossally--and colossally smugly--conflict-of-interested oligarch that hovers over the president."
Also, neither the president nor the oligarch have any real interest in history (the only exception is when 47 said his favorite era of US history was the Gilded Age and he actually seemed to understand what he was talking about it. I can only speculate that someone spelled it out for him and it matched so well with everything he wanted that he latched onto it)
River Gorge National Park in West Virginia the weekend after Trump won his second term. It was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak moment. The gentle, loving treatment of the land and its visitors by NPS stood in stark contrast to the visceral greed and hatefulness espoused by the President-elect.
I fear this is only the beginning. I don’t think Musk, Trump, or their cohort understand, nor seek to understand, the beauty of Acadia or the meaning of Antietam. They are transactional people who see parks as an expense on a ledger and the men and women in the flat hats as expendable. That is an unspeakable loss for all of us. My wife and I are parks travelers, we love the parks and support them. Heck, one of my best friends is a ranger at Camp Nelson. We have no desire to go to Disney World or the Bahamas, but cannot wait to go to Cape Cod or Yosemite. The techno-oligarchs are taking these and many other important functions from us, which is truly terrible.
Kevin- I think that people who aren't as familiar with the National Park Service as many of us who subscribe here need to realize that it has always been grossly underfunded, especially given the depth and expanse of its mission. Like the NPS personnel that you quoted, the public gets a bargain because of the many public employees who could make more in the private sector but accept less because of their commitment to the mission . Other than that point, I can't add anything to what you and Jerry have set forth.
The American public overwhelmingly rate our National Parks as national treasures, and fully appreciated the thousands of NPS employees lending their expertise and passion for their rôle as interpreters and guardians of these precious resources. How can there NOT be massive BLOWBACK to the Elno savaging of the NPS, when the public can WITNESS it with their own eyes - not through the eyes of FoxNews,or tRump, or fecking Musk, but through personal experience?
Days of reckoning - they's a-coming, people, bank it.
I'm glad that you have inserted this important point about chronic, gross underfunding, and glad that Kevin has seconded your point.
In our mostly lost struggle to see Fort Monroe (at Point Comfort, the 1619 place) respected with sufficient NPS involvement, the main argument against us was the claim of public financial impracticality. So for us, it was ironic and galling to contrast that mega-canard with Ken Burns's point that although proposals for national parks elsewhere have regularly drawn local opposition based on supposed financial impracticality, the obstructive complainers have regularly ended up gladdened after their communities have drawn prosperity from new national parks that the obstructors had opposed.
But that problem now has to be tabled for a while, I guess. Trying to build a bigger fleet is less important than preventing the scuttling of the present one.
The NPS has, indeed, been underfunded for decades, which makes this latest round of layoffs so deeply disturbing. I fear we haven't seen the end of it.
I'm sure this is difficult for those losing their jobs. But where was the outcry when Biden shut down the oil pipeline build and told them “learn how to code” ? Our federal deficit is no longer tenable for us. Cuts have to be made. Maybe these people will be rehired once we stop sending money to foreign countries for b.s. progressive ideals. And for those crying about the constitution being disregarded maybe you should read the constitution again, no where in the constitution does it guarantee federal workers jobs. What the President is doing is legal and constitutional as you will see.
I'm in my 70's and so distressed in the blatant disregard of our Constitution and laws. I participated in many End the War protests in the 1970's and know what can be accomplished by protests.
Will these latest unjustified firings lead to all the National Parks being closed this summer? I would expect so, and I hope this is one of the buttons that gets pushed with normal regular folks both red and blue to say enough is enough.
It is time to pull our collective heads out of the sand and see what is really happening and to get vocal. Very vocal. The coup is happening right in front of us.
Thank you for publishing this piece. It really brings home the impact of Government actions taken in ignorance by people blind to their impact. There is always a person on the receiving end of any action. You are right to bring to light the human side. We are all more than dollars and numbers. We are each the beneficiaries and the custodians of our countries' natural resources, wherever we live. Those resources need to be preserved for the benefit of all - for pleasure and education - and their accessibility and management, including important ecological management be swept away with a pen.
Well said, Helen. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you for publishing Ranger Brian's thoughts. My heart breaks for him, and all the other employees of NPS. I was thrilled to learn that Effigy Mounds had been designated as a park. I had visited there as a very young University student, a long time ago. We were doing a "dig" nearby. I worry what will happen to Effigy Mounds now that the employees have been decreased. I now live in Massachusetts. The 250 anniversary of the American Revolution is this year. There are so many Parks and historic sites connected to the Revolution. People will be coming from all over. I am afraid that their experience will be diminished. There will not be enough Rangers to tell the stories, there will not be enough maintenance people to keep the parks functioning. Is this the "plan" of those in Washington? Forget about the Parks, forget about the Rangers? I am sad, but mostly I am ANGRY.
Hi Nancy,
I’ve never visited Effigy Mounds, but it sounds like a fascinating site. I share your frustrations. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. All the best.
This is a post that I hope that everyone who has been thinking about going to a NP soon or have done so in the past will consider doing. This past week I went to Fort Pickens NP near Pensacola FL to visit a place near my new residence. As many of you know the NPS publishes numerous publications on a variety of topics. I found the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom" publication of interest and as I usually do take one to read and keep. It dawned on me later on that such publication might be severely limited in print going forward OR totally revised into an alternative version of history. I would encourage everyone in future visits to grab these current publications while they are still available. Also, consider downloading electronic versions of these documents before they vanish.
Thank you for bringing this atrocity to public attention. It’s a very important, well-written post. Much appreciated.
I can tell you how the layoffs (firings) are happening. First, OPM identified employees within their first year or two of employment (called probationary). They have fewer protections than career employees. They were fired. The form letter that fired them stated that it was due to poor performance, thus making them ineligible to protest. Supervisors are not allowed to provide reference letters. 2 weeks ago the electronic performance management website, where all yearly evaluations are housed, was taken off line. Now, they are firing veterans and the disabled with the same form letter and ostensible lack of legal recourse. Reason, poor performance. Yes, for all employees. Even if you have perfect and exemplary performance and the cash awards to back it up. Who knows who will be next? To be very crystal clear, these evil, horrible workers are those that clean toilets, cut hazard trees out of camp grounds, pick up trash, lead interpretive programs…the list goes on. When the public hears “Federal workers” they think a faceless suit. Not a park ranger making far less than a McDonalds employee picking up trash and rescuing lost hikers. Humanize us! They aren’t just trying to fire us. They want us dead.
I'm so sorry, Jen. I'd like to quote you on my Facebook, if you don't mind: When the public hears “Federal workers” they think a faceless suit. Not a park ranger making far less than a McDonalds employee picking up trash and rescuing lost hikers.
True. My brother was a Ranger for the Park Service for many years. At first, he was a "seasonal" meaning he moved from Park to Park. He enjoyed that, and had the opportunity to work in a variety of places. Later, he was assigned permanently to Everglades National Park. He married, had two children, his wife was a teacher. To make enough money, he went out west to fight wild fires, usually during late summer and fall. Right, Park Rangers are not paid nearly enough for what they do. Now, the staffing of all the Parks will be decreased. I am ANGRY.
Sure, that’s fine.
Thanks for sharing this, Jen. ‘The cruelty is the point.’
😡
I too am sick to my stomach and heartbroken. This is only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. It’s going to be a very rough and painful number of years. And the damage will linger longer after these “people” are out of power.
Your essays have been really resonating with me lately. Is everyone as filled with stress and anxiety as I am?
> stress and anxiety
Yes. Yes at the level of "Amen!"
But there's also hope for the applicability of this wisdom from President Lincoln: "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”
Whether or not lots of Americans had tenable reasons for buying what the Trump crime cult and its noncriminal adherents were selling before the election, it appears to me that for them, post-election public sentiment--including among many Trump voters--is growing as a problem.
This is still America, and though the republic-threateners can maybe extract grievous costs, they can't permanently change that glorious fact.
(Imagine here a picture of Old Glory, waving: _____________ )
Hang in there, Margaret.
The Administration is waging a pretty well-coordinated attack on history and history education, from the Executive Order mandating “patriotic education”, to the rebranding of historic names, to the firing of NPS employees, to the systematic destruction of the federal government itself. This is just one battle in a wider war on knowledge and education—and it is one every thinking person must fight, or risk greater peril.
I couldn’t agree more.
What can we do to coordinate our efforts, though? I’ll continue to post, re-post, attend town halls, join member organizations… but it just doesn’t feel like these normal channels are enough.
I don't really know at this point other than calling/writing your representatives.
I did draft and send a letter to my Members of Congress, expressing concern not just for this issue, but the wider assault on history education we are living through. Hoping enough of us that care will do so...
Some comments from social media have asked why American Battlefield Trust and others haven’t responded to this yet. The best analogy example I’ve found is when someone brought it up in a recent ABT post, they were replied with “go away whiner”. It’s safe to say some of us might be on our own and that’s terrifying
The ABT is not going to do anything that upsets its donors.
There has to be a way to raise the issue in a non-partisan manner.
We live close to the Smokies, the most visited national park in the country. These firings will not only impact the park but the surrounding towns and businesses. A myopic decision for sure. One that needs to be corrected asap.
You are absolutely right, John. Unfortunately, I wouldn't hold your breadth for any corrections.
Thanks for reporting this awful news.
Kevin, you mentioned "an oligarch that hovers over the president." In your worthy effort, your goal was of course not to dwell on identifying him fully, but I'd like to identify him a little further all the same: "A colossally--and colossally smugly--conflict-of-interested oligarch that hovers over the president."
Also, neither the president nor the oligarch have any real interest in history (the only exception is when 47 said his favorite era of US history was the Gilded Age and he actually seemed to understand what he was talking about it. I can only speculate that someone spelled it out for him and it matched so well with everything he wanted that he latched onto it)
Thanks for the clarification, Steven. :-)
Kevin, could you keep us informed about layoffs here in Mass so those of us who live here can somehow help?
I will do my best, Joe.
Elect a Nazi and his henchmen and you lose your democracy.
My wife and I took a trip to New
River Gorge National Park in West Virginia the weekend after Trump won his second term. It was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak moment. The gentle, loving treatment of the land and its visitors by NPS stood in stark contrast to the visceral greed and hatefulness espoused by the President-elect.
I fear this is only the beginning. I don’t think Musk, Trump, or their cohort understand, nor seek to understand, the beauty of Acadia or the meaning of Antietam. They are transactional people who see parks as an expense on a ledger and the men and women in the flat hats as expendable. That is an unspeakable loss for all of us. My wife and I are parks travelers, we love the parks and support them. Heck, one of my best friends is a ranger at Camp Nelson. We have no desire to go to Disney World or the Bahamas, but cannot wait to go to Cape Cod or Yosemite. The techno-oligarchs are taking these and many other important functions from us, which is truly terrible.
My spouse and I, nearly retired, were planning on visiting two or three national park service sites a year. We are heartbroken.
Please don't cancel your trip.
I have nothing to add, Jerry. Well said.
Kevin- I think that people who aren't as familiar with the National Park Service as many of us who subscribe here need to realize that it has always been grossly underfunded, especially given the depth and expanse of its mission. Like the NPS personnel that you quoted, the public gets a bargain because of the many public employees who could make more in the private sector but accept less because of their commitment to the mission . Other than that point, I can't add anything to what you and Jerry have set forth.
The American public overwhelmingly rate our National Parks as national treasures, and fully appreciated the thousands of NPS employees lending their expertise and passion for their rôle as interpreters and guardians of these precious resources. How can there NOT be massive BLOWBACK to the Elno savaging of the NPS, when the public can WITNESS it with their own eyes - not through the eyes of FoxNews,or tRump, or fecking Musk, but through personal experience?
Days of reckoning - they's a-coming, people, bank it.
I'm glad that you have inserted this important point about chronic, gross underfunding, and glad that Kevin has seconded your point.
In our mostly lost struggle to see Fort Monroe (at Point Comfort, the 1619 place) respected with sufficient NPS involvement, the main argument against us was the claim of public financial impracticality. So for us, it was ironic and galling to contrast that mega-canard with Ken Burns's point that although proposals for national parks elsewhere have regularly drawn local opposition based on supposed financial impracticality, the obstructive complainers have regularly ended up gladdened after their communities have drawn prosperity from new national parks that the obstructors had opposed.
But that problem now has to be tabled for a while, I guess. Trying to build a bigger fleet is less important than preventing the scuttling of the present one.
The NPS has, indeed, been underfunded for decades, which makes this latest round of layoffs so deeply disturbing. I fear we haven't seen the end of it.