Celebrating the nation’s birthday in the nation’s capital used to be a happy occasion. Now, it is a sad demonstration of George Washington’s warning that a government untethered from its role as servant will become a fearsome master.
The National Mall — designed as a symbol of — openness becomes the national holding pen, marked by the symbol of repressive governments: entry only through police checkpoints.
Streets anywhere near the Mall are closed to vehicular traffic for no reason other than to force visitors onto public transportation, an inconvenience made even more onerous by closure of the Smithsonian Metro stop on the Mall. (Otherwise, Americans could enter public property without the approval of police.)
Little wonder that about the only people who still gather on the Mall for Independence Day are unsuspecting tourists.
But the Park Service has become wise to us savvy locals who avoid the nightmare on the Mall.
This year, it expanded the harassment all the way into Virginia — setting up police checkpoints at Daingerfield Island and Gravelly Point, closing Columbia Island marina and prohibiting parking along the George Washington Parkway. Thursday afternoon, an employee at Columbia Island fretted about how many people were going to be disappointed the following day. “We have families who have been coming here for years,” he said. “This year, they’re going to get here and be turned away by police.”
And for what? The excuse, which is wearing very thin, is that these are safety precautions.
But that is demonstrably false, as Park Police spokesman Sal Lauro implicitly conceded when he said the tradition of parking cars along the GW Parkway was being prohibited because there have been “near-accidents with pedestrians in previous years.”
Near-accidents, of course, are non-accidents. The real reason for closing streets, bridges and parking lots is that restricting cars produces less traffic, which means less work for police.
Enclosing the National Mall also serves only to convenience the Park Service.The barricade is snow fencing, for pity’s sake; anyone bent on doing harm could simply step or drive over it. But the Park Service realized a few years ago that when people have to wait in line while gumshoes rifle through their coolers and picnic baskets, they bring fewer items with them to the Mall, which means less trash to pick up afterward.
If Americans are not free to enjoy the simple pleasure of a Fourth of July picnic without pointless police interference, then how free are they?
On the first Fourth of July after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it perhaps was not unreasonable for the Park Service to implement excessive precautions. No one knew when terrorists might strike again, and Independence Day seemed an apt occasion. But in the years since, surveillance cameras have been installed all over the National Mall. Moreover, festivities now are monitored by an unprecedented number of police. There is no longer any point in searching everyone entering for — gasp! — possession of beer or sparklers because once gathered on the Mall, they will be under constant police scrutiny.
Unfortunately, the individuals who could do something about the problem aren’t affected by it. Members of Congress have access to the Capitol; executive branch employees can watch the fireworks from the White House lawn. The Interior Department had a party on its rooftop for employees and their families. What do they care if the proletariat — whose tax dollars paid for the fireworks, let’s remember — can watch them only on TV?
National Park Service Director Mary Bomar is not a homegrown American; she is a native of England, reared in a culture where countrymen are subjects, not citizens, and Park Service policy reflects that. Under her leadership, the agency obviously defines progress as making sure that each Fourth of July observance is more restrictive than the last.
If the Park Service seriously believes its prohibitions are necessary, then it has made a fetish of safety. Every public gathering entails some degree of risk: Go to a Nats game, and you can be beaned by a stray ball. Anyone afraid to gather on the National Mall without the false security of snow fencing is free to stay at home.
The Fourth of July should be a celebration of freedom, not an annual exploitation of fear.
This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave — and the Park Service should allow us to be both.
