By Laine Hendricks, National Parks Conservation Association
In an effort to encourage the presidential candidates to pay attention to national park issues, the National Parks Conservation Association has launched its own candidate, Teddy Mather, a bear named for national parks champion President Teddy Roosevelt, and Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service.
Clearly, the campaign is tongue-in-cheek, but the issues are real, so over the next year, Teddy’s campaign managers (NPCA staff) plan to take the candidate to national parks and presidential campaign events. And we hope to blog about some of our experiences along the campaign trail.
To start, this is the story of Teddy Mather’s first campaign stop, which almost landed his handlers in jail, but also landed our candidate his first national media interview!
After receiving an invitation from the League of Conservation Voters to attend its Global Warming Forum, five members of Teddy’s campaign (me, three volunteers, and an intern) packed up the bear suit and drove four hours from NPCA’s office in Fresno to Los Angeles to try and catch the attention of the participating candidates: Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John Edwards, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
The event was saturated with security—and more than 500 people. Guards in the parking lot were shouting, “No cameras, no bags, no purses… don’t think about bringing ANYTHING inside.”
We put an intern in the Teddy suit, and decided to wear our 2016 National Park Centennial pins, and carry in only a few global warming fact sheets and a sheet of “teddy stickers”—knowing that if we had to, we could “recycle” them at a moment’s notice. The plan was for some staff to go inside the event to try and speak with the presidential candidates or their staff about park issues, and have Teddy outside, talking to the gathered crowd about the national parks.
But once we made it to the front, we could see about a dozen guards: a combination of Secret Service and building security guards. Simultaneously, their radios started buzzing, “Bear in front! Bear in front! We have a bear in front!”
We were immediately approached by a Secret Service agent and told to leave. “There’s no protesting allowed here,” he said.
“We’re not protesting anything,” I replied.
“No, you are protesting if you’re wearing propaganda like that,” the agent said, pointing to my “2016” button and an “Elect Teddy” sticker worn by one of our volunteers.
“We’re here in support of the conference and to share a message about global warming,” I said.
“If you’re here with a bear, then you’re protesting and if you don’t leave immediately, you will be ARRESTED,” the Secret Service agent said forcibly.
The agent followed us back to our car, where we unloaded the items of “propaganda,” carefully packed the bear into the trunk, and returned to event. All eyes were on me as we walked past the security guards to the Will Call ticket table to get our tickets. But as I was entering the event, I heard “WAIT!” hollered behind me. I turned around to see the same Secret Service agent who had threatened me with arrest just minutes earlier.
“I just want to let you know that we’re going to let you in, but we’re watching you. We know who you are. We know you’re with the bear. Any funny stuff and you’re going to be arrested. This is federal property and it won’t be pretty,” he said.
Once inside the Global Warming Forum, we split up to find seats. Each of us quickly had our own Secret Service agent stationed nearby. Ironically, during Sen. Clinton’s talk a man at the event, dressed in a t-shirt emblazoned with political messages (and to think the Secret Service had a problem with NPCA’s green 2016 buttons!), started screaming and creating a scene. It took Secret Service TWO MINUTES to react (we counted!) and silence the man; all the while, agents kept watch on NPCA’s staff.
Despite having received briefing papers from NPCA about global warming and other park issues a few months ago, and extensive media coverage of global warming’s effect on parks, none of the candidates ever muttered “national parks.” And needless to say, we didn’t get very close to the candidates at the post-event reception. So we left, and decided to stroll the Santa Monica pier to meet the voters.
A FOX News producer fortuitously overhead us talking about our campaign for the national parks. After learning that Teddy was a presidential candidate, producer and blogger Serafin Daniel Gomez was shocked that the bear hadn’t participated in the forum. Serafin immediately put his camera on Teddy and his campaign staff, and we talked about the needs of the national parks and the opportunity, created by the parks’ upcoming centennial in 2016, for the next administration to help restore these beloved places.
And that’s the story of how Teddy landed his first national media interview.
We recognize that national parks are not at the top of our presidential candidates’ lists, but we also know that whoever is elected to the White House next fall could have a profound effect on the future of our nation’s significant lands and landmarks. So Teddy will keep at it—visiting parks and presidential candidate events and making every effort to ensure national parks are a national priority.
Comments
Welcome back Gerald, you never did say what your so called Ph.D. was in. Look's like NASA recent photo's and weather research reports on global warming doesn't reflect the work done by a bunch of whackos (expert climatologist). Pretty conclusive evidence that global warming is mostly man induced. Now, you wouldn't be working for the coal industry would you? Most park naturalist will tell you that they do agree with most of the NASA reports on global warming. They have seen the environmental changes coming for long time, especially in the upper elevations of our National Parks.
So does the Secret Service (SS) become the arbiter of what's whacko speech? Is that relevant to the free speech issue?
As to the comment about the SS making a tactical error and giving Teddy Mather some press, that perhaps is true. I can't say I'm a fan at all of the "Teddy Mather" concept; (me wonders what Gifford Pinchot would have thought of this one!) So, that it got some press is almost regrettable. Most people who find themselves abused by the SS this way don't get any type of press at all; they don't have the power of NPCA behind them. And, those who have gotten press still haven't gotten very far.
I remember seeing one event, where dozens of people were arrested about 600 yards from the White House (that's as close as authorities - in this case, the Park Service) would allow for a commemoration of dead U.S. troops and Iraqis. When the line was crossed in an area so far from the White House, I talked with an immigrant from Syria, who was dismayed. He said it was the first time since he had left Syria where he felt like things had actually become worse than the country he had left. I urged him to get involved in the Chicago area, where he lived. I don't know if he did, and I know that experiences like the ones I have had and the one he witnessed are the exception to the rule (the most we have seen is the sensational "Don't taze me, bro!" episode, but this is a common thing that have happened to people not being obnoxious at a John Kerry event).
Rather than focusing on the absurdity of this happening to NPCA, who were invited and didn't see themselves as protesting, I hope we can show solidarity with all people, from whack jobs to those who are quite serious, who want to speak out (and who aren't openly stopping others from speaking out - as in the case of the KKK and the Nazis). Unfortunately, that often doesn't happen, as the defense often offered by more mainstream groups is that they were persecuted despite being mainstream. That's too bad.
In DC, these events - because they often happen in parks - usually fall on the National Park Service (though sometimes, it's the SS) to police. I don't think that irony should be lost on NPCA. If it complains about what the SS has done to it at a particular campaign event, it should push just as hard that the service it advocates for is often guilty of the same thing on public lands throughout this country (while ironically, in places like Harper's Ferry, giving material support to Klan members rallying, offering protection and even rides and escorts to their racist, hateful, and intimidating event).
Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
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If I may steal these immortal words from one of our country's supposedly noble "presidential material".......
Let me make one thing perfectly clear.
Whether or not Teddy the Bear was due his 15 minutes as made possible my Fox News is not the issue that I was trying to address. Enabling the issues to be elucidated upon due to costume and circumstance instead of having them judged on there relative merit is one of the trademarks of Fox journalism. I'm sure if they could, they'd put a naked girl on the cover of every story, as well as on their nightly newscast, ensuring the "big splash" to the crowd to which they pander. Rather, it is the circus surrounding the specific circumstances of this particular "bear" event, directedly targeting the political subterfuge pertaining to the 1st Amendment rights of ALL Americans, not just those deemed "presidential material" that irks me. So, you don't like protesters? Get the hell out of politics, or have the stones to admit that we most certainly do NOT live in a "democratic" society. This was by no means a civil distrubance, a riotous act, a nuclear attack, or any such attempt by the NPCA to "steal the spotlight" and deny the candidates the opportunity to do whatever it is they were attempting to do. So I guess what our ever-lovin' government is saying by these actions is that it is illegal to pass out literature and wear campaign buttons at a political rally, debate, side-show or whatever UNLESS you have the proper literature, buttons, bumber stickers, etc. that are APPROVED IN ADVANCE by the candidates participating in the freak show AND by your friendly SS guards.
Didn't we just live through this exact circumstance not 70 years ago on the European continent?
Democracy my @$$. PLEASE, lose the RED and the BLUE. VOTE THE WHITE, VOTE INDEPENDENT.
Independent thought + Independent mind = A BETTER AMERICA.
(That's my new campaign slogan.....whacha think?)