Last updated on 2020-05-19
Out on the otherwise deserted Yellowstone Avenue, Donnie Santee told me he drove out from Iowa thinking the park would be reopened by now.
SANTEE: “And I think America needs to get out, and if you think the bug is something to worry about, you keep locking these people up and you’ll have a problem you’ve never seen.”
Santee says people like him know how to protect themselves and others from the virus, and he says President Trump is right to push that these parks reopen.
SANTEE: “If you get rid of individualism, then you get rid of America, and I think that’s what this is really about.”
[Kirk Siegler, “Some Business Owners in Yellowstone Feel Unsure About Park’s Reopening,” NPR: All Things Considered, 2020.05.18.]
I hear in this interview the brittle voice of Trumpist weakness.
We all like doing what we want. We all like feeling in control of our lives. We all like to think we are informed and wise enough to exercise that control in ways that will do us good.
None of us (at least no one I know) likes being denied the chance to do what we want to do. None of us likes losing control over our lives. None of us likes feeling like we’re lacking information or that we can’t make sense of the information we’re given.
Encountering things we cannot control or change or understand can make us feel small and vulnerable. Our prehistoric ancestors confronted their vulnerability by banding together in families, tribes, and communities that set the stage for our cities and nations. Had our ancestors not sought community, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
But here at the highest point of global civilization (at least a plateau before we climb again, let’s hope), some people bump into their limitations and revolt against the logical, self-preserving course of humanity’s development. In their insecurity, they reject common understanding and grasp for false absolutes. In their ignorance, they reject complexity and science and cling to self-affirming slogans. They take quack pills and peddle quack conspiracy theories to trick themselves and others into thinking that they uniquely command the facts while everyone else wallows in abject ignorance. They turn away real experts as know-it-alls while assuring themselves they know all they need.
Socrates said the wisest of men recognize that they know nothing. But Socrates appears by his final fatal choice to have understood that even an individualistic gadfly like himself derives meaning and purpose from living in the polis, in community, not in lonely exile.
Those who cry freedom! amidst ongoing pandemic (and dare threaten some tantrum of revolt if not given that freedom now, regardless of consequences) cry from their own insecurity and ignorance. Their manly confidence and patriotism are only a few slogans deep, easily shattered by an unpleasant fact, an unplanned change, or a relentless microbe.
Some of us deal with the uncertainty of the pandemic and the uncertainty of life by seeking good information, good neighbors, and good leaders. We study, we share, and we act in the best interest of others. Unfortunately, some people see uncertainty and cry, “Why not?!” They don’t call ahead; they just drive from Iowa to Yellowstone, assuming the park must be open because they want it to be. They subordinate science to their personal preferences, dressed up in duckspeak about individualism in front of a national treasure preserved from individual rapine by ongoing collective action.
Yes. Well said Cory.
Living with the unknown, with the questions, with the doubt, with the anxiety is a central part of life. How one manages that indicates the level of maturity, of mental mastery. Those who are outraged at being told No, exhibit neither characteristic.
I start back with the NPS on the 26th for the 2020 season. I obligated myself for this position before all this began, that’s what service and obligation is all about. Our kids (even the one currently on active duty with the military) as well as my loving wife are concerned.
My boss, a veteran of over 25 years with the Park Service, has no idea what this season will entail.
Needless to say, we will do our best to stay safe and still provide our citizen visitors with a meaningful experience while still protecting our facilities and ourselves.
Those of us who serve know why we do … it is our honor.
Buckobear, keep us posted on how work goes. Do you know where you’ll be working? Are you staying in a campground for the summer? What sort of social distancing guidelines do you have for working with visitors?
You’re right, Debbo: there is always more uncertainty than certainty. That is one of the central challenges of intelligent existence. Intelligence inevitably leads us to doubt. The only way to shut off doubt is to shut off intelligence.
If you read that guy Santee closely, you see a sort of totalitarian collectivism in his thought: “And I think America needs to get out….” Individualism might come into play, but it’s a shallow “me-ism” that comes about because of his slavery to Trump. What he really thinks is that everyone in America should think as He does. That’s Trumpism. Dear Leader says it, that’s what I think, and that’s my idndividualism. Dear Leader opens the parks, well, everyone should be in the parks. He’s not advocating individualism. He’s a Trump robot.
Right, Donald. It’s a thoughtless selfishness, affirmed by a third-rate dictator. It’s an insecure selfishness, unable to confront a world filled with people who are staying home and not affirming his desires, thus prompting him to expect everyone else to behave like him.
I was Shocked to see the Yellow-baiting Rounds primary TV ad PROPAGANDA (sound off). Pearl Harbor pictured. No wonder we have dangerous idiots here. Congress, regulate and sanction political muckrakers. Fisher & Rounds Insurance. I wouldn’t trust Rounds to empty my bed pan.
EB5 Rounds has such a lack of history that he thinks China bombed Pearl Harbor. I blame his insurance industry for his lack of curiosity. Shorty sure took Chinese money though. He and Joop knew it wasn’t Japan they were grifting from. Too bad he has such a loser in his primary or she could bring that up or is Scyller Borglum just grifting too.
Dan Ahlers, it’s up to you to toss some gravel at EB5 Short Rounds. ( SHORT ROUND: an artillery round which falls short of its target.) If that ain’t the truth, nothing is true.
BTW. Dan Ahlers has a donation site up. Show him some love and ring his donation bell and then ask him where he is on this liberal information site.
Here ya go leslie, what you’re saying. https://www.danahlers.com/post/mike-rounds-perpetuates-conspiracy-shifts-blame
True that!
Cory — you asked to be updated. The family concern and objections have just been too much and my overriding obligation is to the woman I have been in love with for the past 40 years. This has been a devastating choice for me to make, but in light of the current situation, I could make no other …. therefore:
To my NPS coworkers and family,
It is with great reluctance and a breaking heart that I must forego my appointment as a seasonal ranger at MIMI for the 2020 season. My service as a Park Service Ranger has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever been privileged to do. I have been so looking forward to working again this season. However, this is not to be.
My wife XXXX has been very reluctant to express her concerns for my, and our safety due to the current pandemic threat. The uncertainty concerning the aspects of my public contact position in light of the current absence of virus testing, community spread
mitigation, our vulnerability due to our ages and the absence of any vaccine or viable treatment for the foreseeable future has led us to this decision.
I cannot in good conscience expose her to this risk and could not feel confident that I was not bringing the possibility of contamination into our home at the end of the day. As the Brits would say, I’m “gutted.”
I apologize for any inconvenience and increase in workload that my decision will cause and can only hope for your understanding and forgiveness.
I look forward to reassuming a position as a uniformed ranger with MIMI once the current health and safety situation is resolved and hope that it happens soon.
Please be careful this season and know that my thoughts are with all of you. Should anyone have any questions or need of assistance, please feel free to call, text or e-mail me.
Thanks for your understanding,
…aka…. Ranger Bear
Tough to be socially distanced down there with 6 random strangers, Mr. Bucko Bear, behind the big We Deliver door. I know we all feel your angst and pain at not being able to do what you enjoy.
Good words Ranger Bear, and wise ones. Take it easy.
I’m sorry you are unable to do as you wish. I admire your devotion to and love for your wife. You are a good man.
grudz — impossible to even go there 32 feet underground. I’ve reached out my arms and touched the sides of that elevator (and 15 others in Montana over 100 times, 50 years ago on active duty) and for the past four years as a sworn ranger and volunteer. As I said, my heart is broken …. and we could have prevented this. I hold no forgiveness for those responsible, …. they know who they are. I didn’t just enjoy this duty and obligation, I loved it, it was part of me, and now I have lost a huge portion of my life. Hopefully, I will be able to return and make it up to our citizens and my co-workers.
Good words, Debbo, to Ranger Bear’s hard choice. Ranger Bear, I suspect setting a good example for your neighbors is meager comfort at having to back out of a commitment and decline to do work that you love… but in the process, you are honoring a commitment you made forty years ago.