Talk in the park

The just-departed head of the National Park Service has spoken out against the Trump Administration’s efforts to “suppress” the agency, posting a lengthy statement on a Facebook site for park rangers in support of employees. “I have been watching the Trump Administration trying unsuccessfully to suppress the National Park Service with a mix of pride and amusement,” Jonathan Jarvis wrote on the Association of National Park Rangers site. He was referring to the communications blackout the Administration ordered last week at the Park Service and other agencies restricting what they should convey to the public about their work. Communications such as news releases, official social media accounts and correspondence with other government officials are limited from disseminating information for now while the Trump team finds its footing. Accordingly, the Park Service cannot share most information with the public about Park Service policies. But Jarvis, who retired earlier last month after a 40-year career with the agency, noted that what may be “national policy” to Trump officials is simply history to others like him, and should not be muzzled. “Edicts from on-high have directed the NPS to not talk about ‘national policy’, but permission is granted to use social media for visitor centre hours and safety,” Jarvis wrote in the post, which was widely shared on multiple social platforms. “The ridiculousness of such a directive was immediately resisted and I am not the least bit surprised.” For example, he asked, “At Stonewall National Monument in New York City, shall we only talk about the hours you can visit the Inn or is it ‘national policy’ to interpret the events there in 1969 that gave rise to the LGBT movement?” “So at Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site in Atlanta should we not talk about his actions to secure the rights to vote for African Americans in the south, or is that too ‘national policy’?” he continued. “These are not ‘policy’ issues, they are facts about our nation.”