Kevin M. Levin: The National Park Service's Loss is Our Loss

[Dennis Donovan]

Kevin M. Levin - The National Park Service's Loss is Our Loss

Kevin M. Levin
Feb 15, 2025

/snip/

I want to share just one person’s heartbreak at receiving the news of his firing yesterday. I don’t know Brian, but my heart goes out to him and his family. He posted this on his personal Facebook page.




Brian’s loss is our loss. It is the nation’s loss and it is going to have reverberations for years to come.

Will the next generation come to see the NPS as a place to live out their dreams and do the essential work that will preserve these sites for posterity. I have my doubts.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that Gettysburg National Military Park lost three employees and that at another Civil War site, the entire interpretive staff was gutted. (I will share additional details about this as they become available.)

Events are already being cancelled. We are already seeing the impact of the firings here in Massachusetts, where we are getting ready to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord. Minuteman National Historic Park, which oversees this history, has already cancelled one event in March due to lack of staffing.

/snip

[Wingus Dingus]

1. Everything good is being thrown away.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. My dream job, unpersued, was to be an NPS ranger at either Springwood or Sagamore Hill.

I got as far as asking for an application. Guess my dream job is not to be.

[Wingus Dingus]

4. That's unfortunate. Right now is nothing but losses to grieve.

On edit--are there any state parks or state/local museums you could volunteer at?

[Irish_Dem]

5. And everything bad is being installed.

[Wingus Dingus]

6. Yep, the destruction will be compounded over time.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Yes it will roll and unfold in more and more damaging ways.

[DENVERPOPS]

14. Our National Parks................

Teddy Roosevelt is turning over in his grave................

[Submariner]

3. It's like he wants to force the "SNAP"

where his display of hate draws millions of protesters into the streets nationwide, so he can then justify ordering the weekend FoxNews Tele-prompter Reader Secretary of Defense to gun down the anti-Trumpers and declare Martial law.

[Wingus Dingus]

8. Taunting the victims. That's pretty much it.

[erronis]

12. That is my impression also. They (trumusk) are itching to kill civilians by the thousands.

[Evolve Dammit]

23. Sounds right

S

[patphil]

9. I doubt if either Trump or Musk ever vacationed in a National Park.

They probably want to financially exploit the land, so the idea of having hundreds of millions of people visiting these parks is something they want to put an end to.

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/visitor-use-statistics-dashboard.htm

[Ilsa]

24. My guess is Mount Rushmore could be the only

national park he's ever visited. And he wants his jowly orange face there.

I'm convinced he wants to exploit all of them, nature be damned.

[JMCKUSICK]

10. Kick

[JMCKUSICK]

11. This is so heartbreaking

And in that heartbreak, this man is the definition of passionate, eloquent and traumatized.
This needs to be read by every American so we can all ask, Is this really what we voted for?

[Wild blueberry]

13. Beautiful, heartbreaking post

Makes me cry. Brian, we are with you. You're the best part of our country. Thank you.

[peggysue2]

15. A post to make you weep

For all of us. Every treasure this country offers is being stripped, raped, devastated.

By power hungry greed heads.

Stop. The. Madness.

[quaint]

16. No words.

[alarimer]

17. They are going to sell off the parks, aren't they?

Or privatize them.

Or turn them into open pit mines.

I hate these fuckers so much.

[2naSalit]

18. Magatness...

Is why we can't have nice things.

[Botany]

19. This is heartbreaking Mr. Gibbs is everything that is good about America.

You can just see him telling a group of youngsters about the tadpoles in a vernal pool
or giving a talk about the Native Peoples that used to live there and built the mounds.

Across the Mississippi from Mr. Gibbs park in Wisconsin.

[kimbutgar]

20. I have a friend who's son is also a park ranger and I wonder if he lost his job.

She passed on and I lost touch with her husband,

[Solly Mack]

21. Everything good about America is being destroyed by all things bad about America.

[lanlady]

22. As W.B. Yeats wrote--

"The good lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

We need to fire up the conviction of our elected Democratic leaders (Schumer, Jeffries, and others) who treat what's going on in our country like a case of flu, disagreeable but nothing life-threatening. They should give way to new leaders who'll start to take the ongoing coup d'etat seriously and lead the charge against it, nationwide. We need fighters, not hair-splitting lawyers.

[ReRe]

25. This is the sad truth that is ricocheting across our land

as we sit here in front of our computers reading. Kevin Leven says this happened to roughly 1,000 Park Rangers.
Brian Gibbs x 1000. And this is happening to thousands of others in other fields of endeavor. Instead of creating
jobs, this "President" is eliminating jobs all across America. It is sickening to the core of my being that this is
happening in this country. I hope Brian finds gainful employment soon to sustain himself and his dear family.

So sad for all of our People.

[Wuddles440]

26. Beyond heartbreaking...

and soul crushing! A tsunami of unrestrained evil has been unleashed upon us by the MAGA monsters and their cult.

[progressoid]

27. "And if you happened to have voted for Donald Trump and are looking for someone to blame,

"And if you happened to have voted for Donald Trump and are looking for someone to blame, I urge you take a long look into the mirror."

[mentalsolstice]

28. This is an attack on the basic middle and lower class American.

The NPS offers affordable vacations for hardworking people. However, TPTB, don’t want us to have the luxury of time off and affordable travel. We’re the only 1st world country that doesn’t allow specific periods of vacation and time off for certain life events. And that’s how the upper class wants it to be….their slaves.