Park Service EMERGENCY

NPS Superintendents and employees need our help, NOW

Yesterday I learned from Kevin Levin’s Substack which has dealt with Civil War topics for years, that Trump’s leadership at the National Park Service had ordered ALL National Park Superintendents to lower their rangers and staffs performance ratings to no higher than 3…out of 5.

That’s right 3 is now the best you can get….no matter how hard you work and how dedicated you are. I needed to confirm that and reached out to 18 people on my e list who would be in a position to know directly, or help me find out.

I have confirmed it as true, from a source who talked directly to a supervisor and this source stated that the reason is that it makes it easier to fire them. Last year when Trump tried to purge across many agencies, many of the people had 4 and 5 ratings and they were re-instated. They don’t want that problem with their next Park Service purge.

The administration is trying to back this down but the evidence and news stories are out there. But I have not seen a story on National TV…yet.

I’m going to make as much good trouble about this as I can. I have a way to film a short video message with Ft. McHenry and the BIG Star Spangled Banner Flag in the background and blast this horrible policy.

( my photos or Jack Dana from a Sailabration event in 2012. )

My goal is to get the most hi-profile person or persons I can and make the movie and distribute it widely.

What I’m asking you to please do is reach out to your elected Federal Reps with this news and then write a letter to your editor, an op ed, write a Facebook Post or any kind of social media with this outrageous news…share this Substack…

Trump is killing our Parks…or his goal is to fire folks he believes are too DEI or too WOKE with racists and white supremacists like him who will create the white is always right history he wants.

They are now reviewing merch and books in all of the Park Visitor Centers to delete what they deem as DEI and WOKE materials. I bought one last week you likely won’t be able to find after the book purge in an NPS Visitor Center.

They want to do that at Gettysburg, but that Visitor Center is NOT an NPS operation or property it is a Foundation and they NEVER closed during the Government shutdown. I want to see how that goes.

I want to be VERY clear, the following are my personal opinions and in no way reflect any “official” policy or comments from the Antietam National Battlefield or the Illumination Committee.

I was just at Antietam last weekend as a pro bono volunteer to document the 35th Antietam Memorial Illumination where over 1,000 volunteers come out every year and place 23,110 Luminaries across the battlefield in the morning and then light them after lunch so that the thousands of cars full of people can experience the shear scope and size of the sacrifice on those Hallowed fields 163 years ago. 23,110 killed in action, wounded or missing in what is still the Bloodiest Day in American History.

However to me, that’s not what is most significant…it’s not about body count. It’s about the result which was it allowed President Lincoln to issue his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation…which added freeing the enslaved to putting the Union back together as the mission and cause that US Soldiers were fighting for and as he noted at Gettysburg a year later “giving the last full measure” for.

We spent a long cold day last Saturday documenting the event. The Old Guard rifle squad, colors and taps bugler participated in the ceremony at sunset as they did in my photo from 5 years ago.

I don’t know how many NPS employees at Antietam have participated in the past 35 Illuminations, but I can tell you many of them deserve 10’s for their dedication and service to educating the public about the real history at Antietam. It’s been the VERY rare instance when I have come across a 3 or less in ANY of the National Parks I’ve visited or worked in. Theres a few but it’s probably about 3 %.

PLEASE PILE On any way that you can.