During the depths of the Great Depression, families were torn apart, homes were lost and people were starving. Things got so bad that the newspapers entered into an agreement with the government to NOT PRINT some of the worst news. The one thing that the government feared more than anything was that the people would embrace Socialism. Then a young man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected with a promise of real change....
My husband and I just got back from a two day trip to the Shenandoah National Park. We drove up and down a well-kept road with mile after mile of stone fencing and breathtaking views. (There's a reason for the name of the Blue Ridge Mountains!) This was our first visit to this wonderful park. Like other parks and natural resource areas, this wonderful place was built by the "CCC Boys." The Civilian Conservation Corps was one of those "wasteful make work" programs that Republicans despise to this day. Thousands of young men were given the opportunity to work for three meals a day and to learn new skills. Many of them taught themselves to read and write on their own time. The CCC is credited with restoring our decimated forests and building so many of the wonderful resources we take for granted. My husband and I also love to drive to Bombay Hook Natural Resource Area in Delaware - another of those make-work programs. Today this and other wetlands area are homes to millions of birds. Some are there all year around. Others winter there. Others just use it as a place of rest and rejuvenation. The wetlands are, of course, nurseries for our fisheries. Would places like Shenandoah National Park, Bombay Hook and a host of other national wetlands that support the Atlantic Flyway be here if it had not been for FDR? I don't think so. I would imagine that Shenandoah would just be another summer homes development for the wealthy few. Those nasty wetlands would have all been drained. As we were packing to leave, I switched on the television to check the weather and put on "Good Morning, America." They were showing a segment about education. Diane Sawyer said that when we had an active space program, the US was responsible for 75% of the world's technological breakthrough's. Now it's only 25%. If this is what they call a free market, I think I'm ready for something better.