Citizen Brand

Beauty and the Beast

One of my favorite blogs to keep tabs on is National Parks Traveler.  Kurt and Jeremy frankly do the best job of any blog when it comes to covering their subject matter - our national parks.  If you don't read it, I encourage you to do so.

I took a virtual hike through NPT tonight and found a story that makes it clear that some people in our federal government simply have too much time on their hands.  It seems our intrepid department of Homeland Security thinks that perhaps Osama Bin Laden may be contemplating a move to one of the American national parks.  I jest of course, but what other reason would they have for dreaming up the concept of making all of us show a new federal Real ID in order to enter any of our national parks.

This Real ID would contain all of your personal information readable by bar code such as social security numbers; addresses; phone numbers; and, some day according to Jeremy, things like retinal scans for easy identification.  I love technology, but I also am a big fan of privacy and this concept is a bit on the big brother side of the equation.  Thank goodness there are about 600 organizations lining up against it including the National Association of State Legislatures, the National Governors Association and the National Library Association.

Check my ID when I get on planes, trains and cruise ships but I think we should be able to move freely about the last places in this country that are still the way they were before there was a Stars and Stripes.

Now to end this on a good note, check out this link to a book of Ansel Adams photographs of our national parks.  Glance at a few of his incredible images from our parks and the thought of a federal ID program to enter these incredible spaces seems ludicrous.

Home Movies

Ken Burns is at it again.  The man who turned the historical documentary series into the original must see TV is going to do the same thing for our national parks that he did for the Civil War, Baseball and Jazz.  Kurt over at National Parks Traveler tells us all about it.

This series will have a special twist.  This series produced and directed by Burns and written and produced by Dayton Duncan is looking for help from all of us.  I will just borrow Kurt's description of what they want:

To help them tell this story, they would like to collect home movies of visits to National Parks by families and individuals for possible use in the film. They are looking for home movies from the time period of the 1920s through the 1980s and are most interested in footage of families and tourists in the parks.

    If your home movies are used in The National Parks, you will receive a DVD of the series. If you happen to have footage of the Yosemite firefall and it is included in the series, you will receive the DVD, plus your choice of one other Ken Burns film. If you have home movies you would like to submit, please follow the criteria listed below.
    * Home movies from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.
    * They are most interested in families and tourists in the national parks, not scenery without people.
    * Do not send original footage: VHS or DVD copies only, please. THE MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED.
    * Clearly mark the tape or disc with your name, address, phone number and e-mail (if available), so they can contact you if your footage is selected.
    * Include a brief description, e.g., the Smith family, George and Martha, Bill and Sally, in Grand Canyon, 1955.
    * Send to the address below by August 1, 2007:
    Anne Harrington
    WETA
    2775 S. Quincy Street
    Arlington, VA 22206

My family visited Rocky Mountain National Park almost every year when I was growing up.  I still go every year now.  And I have the proof in some home movies from the 1950's and 1960's.  Look for the Swenson clan when this series debuts in 2009.

    If your home movies are used in The National Parks, you will receive a DVD of the series. If you happen to have footage of the Yosemite firefall and it is included in the series, you will receive the DVD, plus your choice of one other Ken Burns film. If you have home movies you would like to submit, please follow the criteria listed below.
    * Home movies from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.
    * They are most interested in families and tourists in the national parks, not scenery without people.
    * Do not send original footage: VHS or DVD copies only, please. THE MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED.
    * Clearly mark the tape or disc with your name, address, phone number and e-mail (if available), so they can contact you if your footage is selected.
    * Include a brief description, e.g., the Smith family, George and Martha, Bill and Sally, in Grand Canyon, 1955.
    * Send to the address below by August 1, 2007:
    Anne Harrington
    WETA
    2775 S. Quincy Street
    Arlington, VA 22206

My family visited Rocky Mountain National Park almost every year when I was growing up.  I still go every year now.  And I have the proof in some home movies from the 1950's and 1960's.  Look for the Swenson clan when this series debuts in 2009.

Rocky Mountain High

Congratulations to the State of Colorado for selecting John Denver's Rocky Mountain High as a second state song.  However, even this simple act has resulted in some controversy.  Some critics apparently are objecting to one line in the song which goes like this -- "Friends around the campfire, and everybody's high."

Republican state legislator Debbie Stafford says that she and others believe the song is condoning drug use and therefore voted against it.  In the March 23 edition of The Week, legislator Bob Hagedorn countered Stafford by saying the "friends" are not necessarily smoking marijuana.  Hagedorn says the "friends" could just as easily be "having a couple of six packs or even pigging out on s'mores."  You have to like that attitude.

Thanks to Bob and all the other Colorado lawmakers for not letting a handful of over protective colleagues ruin a great honor for the late John Denver and a great song.  The song means a lot to me personally as it was popular when I was in high school and college and as I have documented here in Citizen Brand before, Colorado has always been my home away from home.  It has always been a personal anthem for me as the lyrics tell a story of a young man coming of age in the mountains.  Enjoy this version of it.

"http://www.youtube.com/v/0dnIxbi7TwQ"

Gone to the Mountains

Off to Winter Park, Colorado  for our annual trip over the Great Divide.

Take care of things while I'm gone.  See you back here on the 14th.