Caffeinated Politics

I suspect anyone who has visited Yosemite National Park knows that, when you leave, a part of you stays behind. The place pockets a piece of your heart. Yosemite is one of those rare American places where the scale of the land makes you feel minuscule in comparison. The beauty is something that no picture can truly capture. It has ot be seen with the human eye.

Which is why the very idea of carving it up, swapping it off, or monetizing it hits with a kind of moral whiplash. It feels like learning someone wants to hawk the family Bible at a yard sale. (Recall Donald Trump marketed a customized version called the God Bless The USA Bible and sold it with his signature for $1000. The financial disclosure states that Trump earned $300,000 in royalty payments.) So, we have ample reasons to watch every action he takes.

The Trump administration is considering a land swap that could exchange a small piece of Yosemite National Park, or an interest in it, to a private developer seeking a new access road, the Interior Department and the company’s lawyer confirmed.

The National Park Service has been in discussions with Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital about a land swap so that the developer can build an access road that’s “under a mile” to connect to Yosemite’s entrance, Lanny Davis, an attorney for Kingsbarn, said in a statement.

Kingsbarn owns an 83-acre parcel historically known as Hazel Green Ranch near Yosemite’s western boundary. As part of the deal, Kingsbarn would purchase land of equal value elsewhere in California and hand it over to the park service, according to documents obtained by NOTUS, which first reported the move.

Those who know a little history will recall learning that in 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, setting aside the valley and the Mariposa Grove “for public use, resort, and recreation.” This was the first time in American history that a government said a place is too magnificent, too sacred, too defining to be owned by anyone. It belongs to everyone. It was a radical act of democratic imagination, the belief that beauty should not be privatized.

Later, John Muir’s relentless advocacy helped expand Yosemite into a full national park. Muir didn’t argue for profit or development. There has long been a truth that most people grasp about Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Glacier National Park, etc. If you protect the land, the land will protect something in us.

Using that sound logic, it becomes clear that land swapping is not just bad policy but a betrayal of the American promise that some things are held in trust for future generations. I get it that Donald Trump has never understood what most of us know. There is a huge difference between value and price. So, no way to swapping part of our national soul for some business deal that will undoubtedly enrich the Trump family.