Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 - Casual Day

Spent the day mostly on the computer doing some work for our upcoming workshop, and recovering from our ride yesterday. Got a bit frustrated reading all of the news about how the National Park and Forest Rangers are having to take on the role of the Gestapo during the government shutdown, with stories about locking down hotels in Yellowstone and trying to close down 1100 square miles of ocean to prevent people from recreating on Federal property, throwing people out of the homes because they're on the same, closing down a horse camp in Alabama in the middle of the night, kicking out hundreds of people and animals after a long trail BENEFIT trail ride run by volunteers, doing everything possible to make life miserable, which, last I heard, was the opposite of what the government's job is supposed to be. If we hadn't had the same kind of jack-booted experience in South Carolina earlier this year, I would have found some of the stories hard to believe, but after meeting up with that attitude first-hand, so I know they're true. Hard to imagine how we got to this place, how far removed we are from our Founding Fathers vision of a free country full of people capable of governing themselves, to a nation where we can even decide for ourselves how to take care of our families and animals, and accepting responsibility for ourselves and even our neighbors. Now we're creating a culture where we're not allowed to do so. So sad!