When Teddy Roosevelt was an asthmatic boy, his family sent him out into the country and he perked right up. This maybe saved his life. Later, when his beloved wife died tragically young, he escaped into the wilderness again to put his head back together and mend his broken heart.
When Teddy became President, one of his more controversial actions was to create the National Parks as a way to conserve the wilderness. At the time, the big business interests were against it. (“What, set aside a bunch of trees and not allow us to chop them down for profit? That’s unAmerican!”) Some of the more radical religious people of the time were against it, too. (“God gave us this Earth to use, and you won’t let us use it?”)
In some ways, it’s a big sign of how far the Republican party has shifted since ol’ TR was in office. TR, a Republican, thought conservation was one of the most important things he could do, and he fought what appears to be a coalition of the Religious Right and Big Business to do it. However, I can’t help but think that as he was putting this together, Teddy was thinking of all the brokenhearted lovers and asthmatic children who needed and deserved some part of the wildnerness to be set aside for them to get healed and get right. They are Americans, too.
Keeping that in mind, I don’t think the parks should be at all closed to responsible enjoyment. Teddy would come back and whisper some strong words and hit me with that big stick of his if I said anything different. :)