National Park Sites that Need Love

Cedar Hill, the last home of Frederick Douglass, is one of the many historic sites around Washington, D.C. that is off the beaten path, and as a result, receives far fewer visitors than the major attractions like the museums and the Mall monuments.

For the most part, it is far away from the other attractions even in its Anacostia neighborhood, but it also suffers from a lack of nearby public transportation, is understaffed, and the facilities are sad looking leftovers from the 70's.  Sadly, the place will not likely get any needed attention because of budget cuts, and smaller park units like this have always been a bit neglected anyway.  The National Park Service is actually one of the more fiscally responsible government bureaus, and as a result, they do tend to delegate funding based on economic impacts and tourist counts.  While the eastern part of Washington could use a bit of economic boosting in general, the fact remains that this particular site does not see the traffic that the star attractions do.  This is a shame really, because Douglass was a pretty amazing fellow, who worked his way up in life not for his own ends, but the well-being of others, and did so from the bare bottom of society, being a slave.

So what do we do about building up the little places like this?  Some would say more money needs to be thrown here, while others insist that the government should get out of the business of that sort of thing.  Rather than feeding the constant sickening political diatribes that are really, really going to damage the Department of the Interior in the years to come, I suggest:

1. Visiting these places and learning more about why they why they exist.  This, after all, is the point of having them around, preservation with an end in education.

2. Volunteering at these places.  We don't have to give much time to them, as yeah, we are busy, and there are other causes out there that need us just as much if not more so.  Even the smallest bit of help goes a long way, however.  In some cases, volunteers are worth their weight in gold, because they assist with making sites better places out of the goodness of their hearts, without compensation for the most part.  Don't get me wrong, professional park staff is needed, but volunteers really, really make things happen.

3. Advertisement by word of mouth, blogs, reviews, and non-governmental organizations like Eastern National.

Whether or not we believe that our parks need to be the responsibility of our government is irrelevant when we do not consider that they exist as part of a democratic history.  People fought to make them happen, and they did so first not by petitioning governmental agencies, but by doing the above three things, which got the attention of the greater people, and then they participated in the exercise of democracy to make sure that such places would wind up as things for the people, not for some business, agency, agenda, or what have you.  The fine folks of the NPS exist to make sure this stays that way, but they cannot and should not do it alone.