IT’S OFFICIAL now. Last week the feds announced they were dissolving the Blueways program that caused so much ruckus in these parts last summer.
Not that the Blueways designation will be missed. It’s hard to miss something that was pretty much nothing in the first place. And what a harmless nothing it was. Somebody high up explained that designating some random streams here and there would let the folks along their banks engage-in partnerships with the feds, whatever that means. What, could local folks not engage-in-partnerships with the feds before?
Fans of the project said designating a river as a Blueway might bring in federal help and expertise for conservation efforts. But, again, what’s preventing that now? What else are all those tax-paid employees doing at the Interior Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,the Corps of Engineers and any number of other federal departments involved in such matters?
Our considered opinion, still, is that the whole Blueways thing was just another feelgood idea conjured up by a couple of enthusiastic apparatchiks at Interior. It was created back in 2012, didn’t have any new regs associated with it, brought little if any money with it, was completely voluntary, and was finally put out of its misery last week.
Some of us would be tempted to shrug off this whole, messy, unnecessary excuse for a problem except . . . except for the reason the Blueways program was finally scrapped: paranoia. Taken to its usual extreme.
A few conspiracy theorists from the outer edges of American politics-including a group right here in Arkansas called, if you can believe it, Secure Arkansas-began arguing, loudly, that the Blueways program was a federal power grab. Never mind that conservation groups along the White River in Missouri and Arkansas had applied for the designation of their own free will, and that this state’s own Game and Fish Commission had endorsed the idea. Along with several conservation outfits.
No, we were all supposed to believe this was the Obama administration’s first step toward taking away your deer camp down by the river. (You know how those liberals hate guns.) And maybe even keep you from fishing, too. The UN’s black helicopters could appear at any minute. They’d be under orders to enforce the Blueways program and all its rules and regulations. Even if it didn’t have any, as it turned out.
The conspiracy theorists made so much noise that even some normally level-headed officials like local county judges and even supporters of the Blueways program decided enough was enough. Yes, even those who had welcomed the Blueways project from the beginning gave up on it, saying all the hullabaloo might make landowners nervous-and keep them from cooperating with conservation programs in the future.
Score: Tin-foil hats, 1, Reason, 0.
So what, you might ask. The Blueways project wasn’t all that important, right?
Maybe. But what happens if the tin-foil crowd decides that another, this time worthwhile federal project should be the next to go? Will they scare enough county judges and normally level-headed politicians to do some real damage next time? Remember: This outfit called Secure Arkansas is also opposed to immigration reform, fluoride in the water, and who knows what else.
If the rest of us are allowing Secure Arkansas and insecure company to drive the political debate, Lord help us all. ’Cause we’ll sure need some help.
THE DRUMMED-up controversy around the Blueways program shows what can happen when the federal government loses the trust of enough Americans. After all, this is the same group of bureaucrats, placeholders, time servers, political appointees and elected officials who gave us real scandals like Benghazi, the IRS’ war on conservative organizations, all those “shovel-ready” projects that weren’t, “if you like your health plan you can keep it,” Operation Fast and Furious, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and ever unraveling Obamacare. They all have one thing in common: They generate distrust. Lots of it. And it was only a matter of time before the conspiracy nuts exploited that trust deficit.
Trust takes year and years to build and develop. But only one administration to destroy it.
This bunch currently in charge in Washington, District of Columbia, isn’t going to build and develop trust anytime soon. It’s a problem. But the rest of us can solve it come November.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 01/08/2014