March 20, 2016

Seeing all 59 National Parks in 59 weeks.

Nice.

I want to do that! Well, not in 59 weeks, but I would like to see them all. Or maybe just all 47 Wisconsin state parks. I'm more of a small-scale type person.

Upon what landscape does the human body and soul belong? Your human body and soul?

40 comments:

Heartless Aztec said...

Cape Hatteras National Seashore during late summer at the start of hurricane season. Late August through September - after the tourists have left - and the locals are hunkering down.

Rana said...

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the four beautiful Michigan lakes that are in close proximity to it.

jimbino said...

When you do visit the national parks and other lands of our common patrimony, please keep a record of how many of our minorities are in attendance.

You will find that our rich public lands are nothing more than White Country Clubs, more racist than our public universities. Last time I did a grand tour, I kept a keen eye out and counted 4 Black visitors among 4000 altogether.

Sebastian said...

"I want to do that! Well, not in 59 weeks, but I would like to see them all. Or maybe just all 47 Wisconsin state parks. I'm more of a small-scale type person" There you go again, exercising your White Privilege.

Mikec said...

Jimbino. How is it possible to bring racism into everything? You must spend hours thinking up racist angles to everything that happens.

Unknown said...

Sure, you could visit one a day, but you wouldn't--at least I wouldn't--get any pleasure from the exercise. Turning it into an exercise would take all the joy out of it.

rhhardin said...

Is the Adirondacks a national park? I spent way too much forced time there as a youth.

Mountains fence you in and spoil the horizon-to-horizon view.

Paco Wové said...

I'm disappointed, Jimbino. You had a perfect chance to misspell 'America', and you didn't take it.

traditionalguy said...

Humbolt National Forest

Ann Althouse said...

@jimbino

1. Such a cliché. It's the Modern Dictionary of Received Ideas. Under "National Parks," you read: Black people never go there.

2. I don't want to look at the other people. I want to look at the landscapes. The other people are kind of blocking the view. If I want to people watch, I'll go downtown, in my own town or some other town.

3. Not everything is for everybody. Most white people probably don't care much about driving a long way to gape at an especially dramatic landscape. Lots of people -- including me -- don't get what's so good about camping (other than saving money). Some people are afraid of heights and of bears and murderers. Going out in the wild can seem like a very bad idea... especially if you weren't brought up on it as a child and don't have friends who are into it.

JAORE said...

Oh Jimbo.... is your television still black and white?

Seriously, seek help. If there is not a branch of psychiatry dealing with cases like you, I see a rich opportunity for shrinks.

Curious George said...

"jimbino said...
When you do visit the national parks and other lands of our common patrimony, please keep a record of how many of our minorities are in attendance.

You will find that our rich public lands are nothing more than White Country Clubs, more racist than our public universities. Last time I did a grand tour, I kept a keen eye out and counted 4 Black visitors among 4000 altogether."

Blacks are being excluded?

Bill said...

Death Valley. And no, I'm not being morbid; it's teeming with life, but not obviously.

Fabi said...

Isn't that what our national parks are all about -- another opportunity for whiners to find racial grievance?

Did you really count to 4,000, jimbino? It wasn't 3,872 or 4,094? Race-mongering require precision. I'd like to see your documentation before you turn it in to the Rgt. Rev. Sharpton.

Ipso Fatso said...

I have never understood this kind of reasoning. Why do you have to see each and every, state park, federal park, MLB stadium, or(insert you list here)? I can understand wanting to see Yellowstone or The Grand Canyon but not all X national parks. There are plenty of things to do in life without living out of a list.

One place I will never get to see? La Cucaracha, which was a bar on the alley just outside the guard gate at Cook County Jail at 26th & California in Chicago. I was going there one Friday night in the late 1980s and they had torn it down.

Michael said...

Interesting way to spend a year plus. Gave me the idea to think of the parks I have visited. Grand Canyon. Great Smoky. Everglades. Yosemite. Yellowstone Acadia.Badlands. Biscayne. Denali. Grand Teton.Haleakala. Kenai fjords. Mammoth cave. Redwood. Saguaro. Redwood. Shenandoah. Virgin Islands.

I haven't been to Joshua Tree or Death Valley and probably wouldn't make a special trip to visit. Most of these parks I visited very briefly on trips where I was nominally on business. Wherever I travel I try to carve out a half day or so to visit something of interest.

Skeptical Voter said...

I've visited most of the national parks in the Southwest--which I think includes Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. I wasn't counting blacks like our friend Jimbino. But I was surprised by the large numbers of European tourists I saw at the national parks in the 1980's. My kids are in their 40s now so I'm not doing the national parks so much these days.

But I was born on the desert in Arizona, and my idea of a good time these days is being on foot (but not too far from a car) in the Sonoran Desert. You get a wide view of things and great sunsets. And if you know where to look, there's a lot of life in the desert. It's a big change from where I live in Los Angeles.

Of course these days in the Southern Arizona deserts you are just as likely to see evidence of illegal immigration as you are to see a jackrabbit. When I'm back East driving along a highway cut through the middle of a forest, I get claustrophobic--if you can't see the horizon all around you, something is wrong.

jimbino said...

Althouse said:

I don't want to look at the other people. I want to look at the landscapes. The other people are kind of blocking the view. If I want to people watch, I'll go downtown, in my own town or some other town.

Here's a lesson in what constitutes a free society for Ann Althouse:

In a free society, gummint doesn't force the public to support the pleasures of the few. In a free society, gummint doesn't waste the nation's patrimony on recreation for the nomenklatura and other elites, like White law professors.

Ann, the issue is not whether or not citizens who want to hike, camp, travel or breed should have the right to do so, only that the general public should not be forced to subsidize their lifestyle choices. Especially in the USSA, where our underclasses are struggling to find jobs, housing, food and education for their children. Of course, they have no time to spend in the public lands, spoiling your view.

Your attitude is what may someday bring us all some type of Obamajobs, Obamahomes, Obamafood, Obamaschool, Obamasex and busing of minorities to the public lands.

mikee said...

I have broken into tears during the credits for "Last of the Mohicans" which simply panned across a view of the mountains of my childhood, the Blue Ridge Mountains and Pisgah National Forest.

Ann Althouse said...

@jimbino

These places should be preserved, whether people visit them or not. It's not just a recreational site. It's great land that deserves stewardship.

Howard said...

jimbino: What's more concerning from an equality of outcome and access to economic mobility perspective is how few blacks I see in airports. Less than one percent is my guess.

In my experience living and working with Blacks, they are generally not into the great outdoors, so it's a combination of choice and cost.

As for the parks, Yellowstone has it all.

jimbino said...

Curious George;

Blacks are being excluded?

No, Blacks, Hispanics and Native Amerikans aren't excluded from Disney World, Caribbean cruises or state and national public lands. The big difference is that they aren't forced go pay for Disney World or Caribbean cruises with their tax dollars or their patrimony.

And your comment reveals your misunderstanding of current law regarding de facto racial discrimination.

As Wikipedia puts it:

De facto racial discrimination and segregation in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s was simply discrimination that was not segregation by law (de jure).

Ann Althouse could easily explain this concept to you if she weren't so caught up in her White privilege.

jimbino said...

Althouse says:

These places should be preserved, whether people visit them or not. It's not just a recreational site. It's great land that deserves stewardship.

Does that reasoning apply to the "great" sport stadia, cathedrals, mosques and temples around the world, including the Mormon Tabernacle?

In a free society, non-believers and non-attendees are not taxed to support the parochial interests of others, whether regarding religion, sports, recreation, or entertainment.

What we have here is a non-free society, making Russia, Saudi Arabia and even Isis seem not so bad, after all.

jimbino said...

@Althouse:

It's great land that deserves stewardship.

The US gummint knows nothing about stewardship. You want stewardship? -- try Disney World, Sea World, Ted Turner or even Donald Trump, none of whom tax me or steal my patrimony to support their maintenance of Buffalo herds, sea life or casino cities.

Howard said...

jimbino: The national parks were the first step in developing popular support for the environment. This eventually led to the clean water act and the clean air act which are lily-white pet programs. This has resulted in a huge improvement in workplace and inner city exposures to a plethora of agricultural, industrial and transportation contaminant exposures. Therefore, these parks have helped reduce the impacts to the rural and inner city economically disadvantaged and minority populations. In that way, one of the many positive externalities from these parks have increased environmental justice.

jimbino said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Guildofcannonballs said...

Jimbino just wants somehow, someway for someone to say "you don't mean that" like Albert Finney as Leo the lion in the Coen's great Miller's Crossing.

walter said...

Next up: 57 states in 57 days

Christy said...

I've heard that camping and picnicking are unhappy reminders of a time when, refused at restaurants and hotels, blacks were forced onto public lands when traveling. Just saying. Could be why blacks as a community don't embrace the great outdoors.

My soul belongs in the mountains near running water, ideally a waterfall.

walter said...

Maybe it's worth considering it as an "urban" vs suburban issue...proximity to Starbucks etc.

Unknown said...

Althouse, you'd get a lot more out of reading a book about the national parks than actually visiting them.

Don't flit. Sit.

jimbino said...

@Christy

...blacks were forced onto public lands when traveling. Just saying. Could be why blacks as a community don't embrace the great outdoors

Whether they embrace the great outdoors or not, the question remains: why are our poorer minorities heavily taxed to pay for something they don't care to use? It's a case like that of taxing the gas used by most everyone in order to give the rich free rides in their electric Teslas. What a country!

jimbino said...

@Christy

...blacks were forced onto public lands when traveling. Just saying. Could be why blacks as a community don't embrace the great outdoors

Whether they embrace the great outdoors or not, the question remains: why are our poorer minorities heavily taxed to pay for something they don't care to use? It's a case like that of taxing the gas used by most everyone in order to give the rich free rides in their electric Teslas. What a country!

Titus said...

Maybe do it in Wisconsin. I liked your pics from that pretty place up in Superior.

Have you ever been to Door Country?

My mom always tells me it is like The Cape-I am like yea, sure mom. There is no Ptown in Door County.

J. Farmer said...

@jimbino:

"Whether they embrace the great outdoors or not, the question remains: why are our poorer minorities heavily taxed to pay for something they don't care to use?

Unless I'm mistaken, the national parks service is funded from federal discretionary spending. Not sure "poorer minorities" contribute much to that since they are likely paying very little, if anything, in federal income tax. Even then, the total national park service budget is about $3 billion. That's a little less than one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget.

Tari said...

rhhardin, the Adirondacks are a state park, the largest in the country, Actually, it's larger than any national park as well, but since 50% of the land inside the Blue Line is privately owned, that's kind of cheating. At least, I've always thought so, but then again, I've never been an Adirondack landowner wrestling with the Park Agency about whether I can build a garage on my own land, so maybe it's not cheating to assume the whole place is run by the State.

The mountains and especially the trees fence you in horribly in the ADKs. To me it's the lakes that make the park pretty. Hiking in the ADKs stinks; trees, trees, trees, 5 miles later, you're at the top: view! Then back down through the trees, trees, trees. I'll take the mountains in the West or just some Big Texas Sky any day, over all those damn trees.

Roger Sweeny said...

You will find that our rich public lands are nothing more than White Country Clubs, more racist than our public universities. Last time I did a grand tour, I kept a keen eye out and counted 4 Black visitors among 4000 altogether.

The God of White Privilege sets up a force field around National Parks that keeps most black people out. He also causes black people to say, "Don't study; that's acting white" and "I can't wear a condom; it doesn't feel natural." He is a subtle and powerful God.

Kenneth Burns said...

My paper's coverage area includes Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and we regularly hear from teams like this -- always teams -- who are visiting all the national parks. We usually do local coverage of some kind. I'm always interested in these stories, the motivations behind projects like this. I see these guys will be here in July. Gonna be hot outside!

jimbino said...

Kenneth Burns:

...visiting all the national parks. We usually do local coverage of some kind. I'm always interested in these stories, the motivations behind projects like this.

You remind me of Ken Burns, of course, and his documentary about national parks, that, like those of Nova, NatGeo, Discovery and their ilk, continue to show parks populated by nothing but lily White visitors.

There's the documentation of Amerikan racism that will last for the ages!

jimbino said...

Kenneth Burns:

...visiting all the national parks. We usually do local coverage of some kind. I'm always interested in these stories, the motivations behind projects like this.

You remind me of Ken Burns, of course, and his documentary about national parks, that, like those of Nova, NatGeo, Discovery and their ilk, continue to show parks populated by nothing but lily White visitors.

There's the documentation of Amerikan racism that will last for the ages!