Our Delta, displaying the national heritage of destruction of the natural environment
The state is going mad again. It is happening more frequently these days as it is necessary for the rulers to grasp at evermore absurd propaganda campaigns to mask their purposes. You can't even blame Jerry Brown. It is just the system, grinding on and on.
One of the dipbleep campaigns is to name the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta a "national heritage area," as plans move forward to excavate huge tunnels underneath it to take most of its fresh water supply from the Sacramento River above the Delta to the big north-south canals below the Delta.
Whoop de do! National heritage and all that entails. Puts us right up there with the Mississippi Delta Heritage Area, which claims:
Much of what is profoundly American -- what people love about America -- has come from the Delta, which is often called 'the cradle of American culture.'
Yes, oh yes, how fondly we recall all the the Mississippi Delta has brung us. Now touting itself as a tourist destination, once it was another kind of destination, expressed in the common American expression, "sold down the river."
Home of the blues. Yes, indeedy. And, of course, the blues is worth so much more than all the suffering that went into its creation, down there in the "cradle." Art hurts, after all.
The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area -- home of the fabled Parchman Farm., where slavery went on and on so long after the visit by Grant and Sherman to Vicksburg.
And we want to join that august company? Shall we create a scene where all the happy Delta farmers are having long lunches at Al the Wop's or Giustis because they won't have any more water to farm but the government will give them a stipend to look "historical"? The government will issue them a list of authorized "gimme" caps, from Caterpillar to RoundUp. The Chinese of Locke will be ordered to dress picturesquely c. 1910, and all the men of Isleton will be required to wear black hats and fake sidearms and the women mother hubbards and bofnnets in public.
Making the Delta a historical theme park through which run sluggish sloughs is nothing but an exercise in denial. It should be called the Delta National Denial of the California Heritage of Agribusiness and Real Estate Destruction Area.
Or "Delta Kitsch" for short.
Badlands Journal editorial board
2-6-13
Sacramento Bee
National Heritage Area status sought for Delta
By Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/06/5168835/national-heritage-area-status.html
California's U.S. senators introduced a bill in Congress on Monday to name the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as a National Heritage Area.
The bill by Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer will recognize the Delta as a "nationally important landscape" with unique "natural, cultural, and historic resources."
A similar bill was proposed in 2011. The designation is also supported in the Delta Reform Act of 2009, a state law.
Some critics misunderstood these efforts as an attempt by the government to take over Delta land or impose new rules. That is not the case.
The National Park Service oversees the program, but the designation does not create a national park or impose any rules. It provides only technical assistance and financial aid to help local governments promote the region.
Heritage area status helps promote walking and biking opportunities, historical fairs, preservation efforts, and educational tours.
The Delta would become California's first National Heritage Area. Other heritage areas include the Mississippi Delta, Niagara Falls and the Hudson River Valley.
For information on the program, go to www.nps.gov/heritageareas.