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" Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a forest ranger in the employ of the Commonwealth (God save it!) at a place called Douglas State Forest, on the border between south-central Massachusetts and Rhode Island. (The park surrounded a lake that lay half in each state.) I gleaned several important lessons from this work, chief among them being the irrefutable fact that human beings no more become more aware and considerate of their surroundings if you put them out in the woods than a bear would if you put him in your parlor. (One of my more quizzical duties involved extracting used disposable diapers from up in the trees where people had tossed them, probably because the eight steps it would have taken to reach a trash can proved too exhausting. The raccoons would find these things, try to eat them, and choke to death. Hence, my lifesaving efforts on their behalf.) Now, it seems, the Sequester, perhaps economically and tactically the worst idea in modern political history, is proving once again, and on a grand scale, the essential truth of what I learned in the woods so long ago. So label the Forest Service&amp;#039;s decision to lock outhouses and pull trash bins as what it is: a childish &amp;quot;we&amp;#039;ll show them&amp;quot; maneuver designed to create as much literal discomfort and public outcry as possible. And label the users of Pecos Canyon as what they are: the opposite of responsible hikers, backpackers, hunters and anglers - heck, the opposite of people raised with basic manners and hygiene - who know to pack out their trash and cover their waste. Hugh Ley, who represents the Upper Pecos Watershed Association and the Pecos Business Association, says Pecos Canyon was full of picnickers last weekend - picnickers who left trash and human waste on the ground that could pollute the water and pose a health risk. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve been busting our butts to enhance the area, improving the stream structure to create better fishing,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;And now the largest partner in the whole damn process says it&amp;#039;s not going to put trash cans in day-use areas.&amp;quot; That&amp;#039;s bad enough. Even worse is that if there&amp;#039;s no government-funded trash can or toilet, New Mexicans treat their state like one. So much for your tax dollars at work. And so much for the Land of Enchantment. Pure political analysis \u2014 this whole thing is going to come down, not to &amp;quot;who&amp;#039;s the grown-up in the room?&amp;quot; but to, &amp;quot;Government doesn&amp;#039;t work. See?&amp;quot; At which point, the Republicans win. Pragmatically, it all comes down to the bears in the parlor. They&amp;#039;re not the only ones, apparently, who shit in the woods. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22366/a-bad-turn-in-new-mexico/>