« There Goes Another Week! | Main | Another Small Workout »
March 10, 2006
A Little Politics
I am a fan of politics, though I don’t often bring such interests into my blogging world. I don’t know why. However, today’s political news is personally noteworthy enough to comment about here. I’ve just heard the official news; Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has resigned.
The Secretary of the Interior serves as the “boss,” “head honcho,” and “ruling administrator” to the Department of the Interior, which, in turn, manages the government agency that I am employed by. Decisions that the Secretary of the Interior makes affect my professional life in a significant way. The short of it is that she was kind of my boss, in a way, way, way removed way.
While I was delighted to hear that George W. Bush appointed the first female Secretary of the Interior in 2000, I was less thrilled to learn of her background in mining and logging. In short, Gale Norton came to be the bane of my existence during our overlapping government careers. Can I provide just a few examples?
On a highly personal level, she assisted in introducing an inquiry into privatizing certain Department of the Interior jobs, and my job was on the list. For a period of time, I had to defend myself and my job skills as more appropriate than hiring some contracted schmuck to do my job. Eventually this privatization inquiry was dropped because officials learned that we were functioning better and at less cost than contracting our jobs out. Still, being laid out under a microscope in that way does wonders for the psyche.
I clearly remember reading a memo from the Norton just after she was appointed to her position written to all Department of the Interior employees. It outlined her motto for public land stewardship, “the Four C’s, consultation, cooperation, communication — all in the service of conservation.” Her version of land stewardship had federal land managers working in cooperation with local landowners and developers to “promote” conservation. Look up the word ‘conservation’ in the dictionary, folks, this is about as ridiculous and oxymoronic as it gets; conservation will never include ideas on land development.
Next, most people are well-aware of Bush’s oil drilling agenda in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Norton was Bush’s biggest supporter. This agenda has not yet been passed through Congress, and so no drilling is happening up there in Alaska. But this is not due to a lack of effort on Norton’s part. Some have argued, and I agree, that Norton has manipulated scientific data and statistics in her presentations to Congress over the years in ways that make arctic drilling appear to be economically viable for a long period of time as well as environmentally safe and secure. I will never agree with Norton, or Bush, or any pro-arctic drilling person. I have flown over and driven through a current epicenter of arctic drilling, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and I have seen its dismal affects on the natural ecosystem.
And, the snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park issue that I’m sure you’ve heard of? Yes, Gale Norton was also a proponent of this. The Clinton Administration removed winter snowmobile use in Yellowstone under the premise that the presence of snowmobiles negatively impact the national park’s resources. Now, under the Bush Administration and the ministrations of Gale Norton, snowmobiles are back in Yellowstone. Nothing has been officially decided; the snowmobiles are in the park on a temporary basis until federal land managers can come up with a permanent use plan. But, thanks to Gale Norton, snowmobiles are here to stay in Yellowstone.
I could go on. The point that I am trying to make is that Gale Norton was hired to be the Secretary of the Interior, the guardian and protector of all federal lands. Instead, we saw Norton manipulating federal policies, deregulating federal land management practices that have been in effect for decades, and making decisions with making money, not protecting land, in the forefront of her mind. One fifth of the United States is federal land, so she had control over a massive proportion of our country. I am not sorry to see her go. I am torn today, however, because I know that Bush will appoint someone else to fill her place. I fear that he or she may be worse, and that we have to deal with them for the next three years of Bush’s second term!
Posted by Meghan at March 10, 2006 2:46 PM
Comments
Great insight into a part of our government that is just a headline to most of us: "Norton resigns." I fear for our resources; I can't fathom snowmobiles hauling around in Yellowstone carrying drunk Dale Jr fans; I don't drive enough or buy enough plastic things to want us to tarnish one of our last pieces of Eden. oxyMORON indeed.
Posted by: Duncan at March 12, 2006 8:04 AM