At a campaign rally with First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary Clinton promised to preserve Michelle’s beloved White House garden. The crowd cheered. Michelle smiled. And if I recall correctly, something was said about what might happen to the spring kale that was planted this fall.
I have read that the First Lady is urging her husband to protect the garden with an executive order. If I understand correctly, an executive order by President Obama can be undone by executive order by his loathsome successor. I don’t know Melania’s views on food and nutrition, but she doesn’t strike me as the earthy, gardening type. And the only thing I know about Trump’s appetites—culinary appetites, that is—is that he supposedly likes fast food. Just as Reagan removed those solar panels installed on the White House roof by Jimmy Carter, President Trump could pave over the garden for a helipad, turf it into a putting green, or let Ivanka build a catwalk to promote her latest fashions. Right?
So I have a question that came to me while cleaning out my refrigerator (I’m still in mourning and cleaning seems therapeutic at the moment): Could President Obama designate the White House Garden as a National Monument?
We may not be able to preserve Michelle Obama’s beloved organic garden, but let’s pray we can preserve our National Parks, our wilderness areas, and all our environmental protections over the next four years. We have a lot of work to do to preserve the environment—maybe the entire planet—under a Trump administration. We have to get our hands dirty. Until we recover from this shock, let’s start with rooting for the spring kale.
