We watched Ken Burns' "The National Parks" tonight. Interesting.
Did you know that capitalism funded the national parks?
We learned that John D. Rockefeller Jr. contributed millions to purchase the land bought for Smokey Mountains National park. You know, money from that profit that came from Standard Oil.
We heard about the people who used to live on the land that was taken for the Smokey Mountains National Park: "Their hearts were broken and most of them left crying."
But before all of the land had been taken for the National Parks, the depression came and promises made to fund the parks were left unfunded.
Then came FDR, who allocated federal money to purchase park land. "The first time the federal government spent its own money to buy land for national parks."
PBS' website described the program:
Except for those whose hearts were broken and left their homes crying. And the taxpayers who pay for the land but will never visit it.
Don't get me wrong, the national parks are truly amazing places and it's good to preserve them. What I find hypocritical is the position that some take that capitalism is destroying us even though it has enabled individual philanthropy that benefits many people; and that forcing people from their homes for the public good, although our forefathers might agree is "radical," might not agree that it is "uniquely American."
Did you know that capitalism funded the national parks?
We learned that John D. Rockefeller Jr. contributed millions to purchase the land bought for Smokey Mountains National park. You know, money from that profit that came from Standard Oil.
We heard about the people who used to live on the land that was taken for the Smokey Mountains National Park: "Their hearts were broken and most of them left crying."
But before all of the land had been taken for the National Parks, the depression came and promises made to fund the parks were left unfunded.
Then came FDR, who allocated federal money to purchase park land. "The first time the federal government spent its own money to buy land for national parks."
PBS' website described the program:
The National Parks: America's Best Idea is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.
Except for those whose hearts were broken and left their homes crying. And the taxpayers who pay for the land but will never visit it.
Don't get me wrong, the national parks are truly amazing places and it's good to preserve them. What I find hypocritical is the position that some take that capitalism is destroying us even though it has enabled individual philanthropy that benefits many people; and that forcing people from their homes for the public good, although our forefathers might agree is "radical," might not agree that it is "uniquely American."
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