So tonight, while doing homework, I was watching a Ken Burns Series called "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" on PBS. I really enjoyed the history... but something kinda bothered me.
Most of our National Park were established by Teddy Roosevelt. At that time the idea of a National Park was a very new idea to our country. There were no laws or rules about how to create them. What bothered me was how Roosevelt would just declare the land as a National Park or National Monument because he was the president.
Now, for the record, I think National Parks and Monuments are a good idea... I just get a little worried when one human man has so much power and can "declare" something because he holds a certain position. I'm not a historian and I was listening in between trying to get the ideal gas law to work for my homework problem so I could be very wrong. But I would get very upset if our current presidents starts declaring things just because the majority of the citizens elected him to the presidency.
Anyway. That's just my opinion.
Some think that recent presidents started the power-grabbing trend, but really it started much earlier with the Progressives, including Roosevelt. It is those presidents that established so many of the "Big Government" programs we are trying to pay for now. You are right to be bothered!!
ReplyDelete