Commentary

Cartoon Slams Privatization

The Village Voice uses a cartoon to slam the proposal to introduce some modest outsourcing to our national parks. You’d think that Bush had already sent a fleet of bulldozers and loads of napalm to Yellowstone. Phase two would presumably be hiring NRA members to hunt down bald eagles and sell them to KFC who would then deep-fry our nation’s symbol and sell the birds back to us with our choice of dipping sauce. Now, of course, political cartoons are designed to be over-the-top, and Village Voice cartoons will be even more over-the-top. So as I watched the cartoon and saw all the park employees morph into slack-jawed hamburger flippers (the predicted outcome of privatization), I wasn’t surprised at the cartoonist’s caricature of private sector employees. What I found interesting (perhaps not surprising) was the depiction of the government employeesââ?¬â??upstanding, sharply groomed, highly credentialed, and highly professional. Where were all these professionals when a third of Yellowstone burned to the ground, or during the now annual event of mismanaged national forests catching fire?