The issue of access on Cape Hatteras National Seashore is among the most contentious in the National Park System. The presence of species that are recognized as threatened by both the federal government as well as the state of North Carolina requires the National Park Service to manage the seashore in such a way that protects and benefits these species.
Unfortunately, that management approach has not been welcomed or supported by all. There have been reports of harassment of seashore personnel, vandalism on the seashore, economic hardship, and long-time beach-goers who are finding it more and more difficult to reach long-treasured spots on the cape.
Traveler's attempt on April Fool's Day to take a pause from the heated atmosphere that has swirled about the seashore fell flat with some readers, including those at the Park Service. Recognizing those concerns and objections, the story has been taken down.
While the intent was not to further aggravate the situation, it regrettably appears to have done just that in some corners.
Traveler has long served as an open forum for the exchange of information and opinions about this controversy, and will continue to do so.
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Comments
I read the controversial April Fool's story. OK, it can be criticized as less than perfect satire, since it has one of the characters recommending a course of action that wouldn't make sense coming from a person in that position. But the reaction to it, and Kurt's feeling the need to pull it from the website, constitute more alarming evidence that a gray goo has settled over and is smothering public discourse. People call attention to political correctness, but that's only part of the problem. Management-speak, corporate-speak, legalese and legalspeak, military and national-security jargon, bureaucratese, educratese, and of course politically correct avoidance of or blanding down of issues—all of these unfortunate phenomena are coating public discussion in a kind of Pepto-Bismol of the mind, and one effect of this is that any attempt at satire becomes extremely dangerous. (At my workplace, people stopped writing April Fool's memos about 15 years ago, and they were wise to do so.) I regret that Kurt felt the need to remove the article, but I also don't want to criticize him for doing it, because it's any writer's right to pull back his or her writing. I found nothing offensive about it.
Thank you, imtnbike, for the most sensible comment I have read on this affair.
Rick
Living in Buxton on Cape Hatteras Island it is hard for me to find much humor in the suffering inflicted on our community due to the beach access controversy. Over the lasts few years I have watched one family afteer another endure hardships as a loss of their job or the closing of businesses. Our church sponsored food pantrys have been doing the best they can to help the families out of work. Many families have had to make cut backs that included change their childrens plans to go on to higher education due to a lack of funds. The beach access issue has not only hurt the Buxton area economically but completely changed our traditonal way of life. Prior to the closing of our famed Cape Point and South Beach it was a traditional gather place for the locals to meet and greet one another. Not only has it destroyed our way of life but our respect for the National Park. Because of the ruthless way the park adminstration has handled the issue they are no longer viewed as our friends but our enemies. It grieves me to see what used to be our friends now viewed as gun totting enforcers ready to shoot animals or humans they view as predators to the piping plovers. The predator progam definitely needs to be revised. I like a good joke as much as the next person but I did not find much humor in your article.
Forget the effect on Satire it's much worse than that. It goes to the core of all the evil that's evident today. Truth is basically offensive to some so it has to be skirted or somehow punished when it appears. What a crock...
Kurt don’t sweat any of it. The NP Traveler is a great site that I really enjoy reading even though I didn't care for the joke.
Most likely you have made the day for the ORV proponents with the retracted April Fools article, nothing makes them feel better than righteous indignation and they figure you are
beholden to them now.
Get ready to experience what the reasonable people in this controversy have to put up with on a daily basis from the Cape Hatteras ORV access fanatics.
Gee, Kurt, couldn't you have done your April Fools story on Mules in the Grand Canyon,LOL? Guess one could just insert different locations :). Interesting reading the comments without benefit of the story.
Dewey,
Could you list the businesses which have closed along with the evidence the business went under as a direct or even indirect result of the closures and not just standard turnover/bad business model in a tourist community? Thanks.
I can't think of any. The only two businesses I know of - the ones used in the propaganda piece "Piping Mad" - that have closed, had nothing to do with species protections.
In the meantime Buxton has a new gas station, car wash, new shop by Angelos, new NAPA ... there are two new restaurants in Avon .... just off the top of my head.
Unfortunately the 'joke' deflects attention from what in my mind is the real issue. NPS Management is non-existent. At the park in question, Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area, the superintendent just recieved an accomplishment award for abandoning a half finished lighthouse restoration project (Bodie Island) and implementing an unpopular (unfunded and overly restrictive) ORV management plan based on poor science. The plan cannot be placed into action this year, (no time and no money) but the NPS will not allow access to our public beaches based on a prior consent decree from a federal judge. I fear budget issues will lead to the closure of the park. I wish the GAO would audit the NPS. Something is radically wrong.