Conspiracy Theories and Alien Landings...

This was an interesting Christmas for Badwater fans. Many of us spent the holiday working on letters and correspondence to save the Badwater race from possible extinction.

The story on Badwater is that there is a circulating petition, a Facebook page, and numerous conversations, blogposts, tweets and other posts in an effort to write letters and e-mails to interested parties. I sent 7 such letters and e-mails myself and signed the petition, for what that's worth.

I have seen some wild conspiracy theories starting in some of the conversations on social media. I would like to see these stop, they don't help the situation.

People, don't delude yourselves, it's not a left-wing conspiracy, or a right-wing conspiracy, or radiation levels, or a secret government coverup of alien hostage-taking, or whatever people want to imagine.

Public safety is a legitimate concern. My own personal take on this is that when it comes to public safety, I'm not so convinced of that argument, because it seems like whatever happens in the government has to do with money and power first, and public safety takes a back seat to that.

I'm not entirely convinced this is much more than a power-wielding move either within the park itself, the NPS agency, or the Department of the Interior, that is not transparent to the public. And it has nothing to do with either party occupying the majority.

But that is my own personal opinion. Regardless, we must play nice and endure the process. The more numerous, credible and literate our arguments are, the better.

I already received a canned response to my e-mail to the Park Superintendent. It is the same response that they posted on their website. Until Congress reconvenes in January I doubt there will be any more information.

I encourage people to write letters and send e-mails, letters are probably more effective at this point, because all you'll get is a return email of the same canned response. Write the following people including California's Senators and their district Representative in Congress. But write to your own representatives too!

If you can convince a few of your friends (as many as five, but ten would be even better!) in your own local area to write your own representatives, they will take notice. It doesn't take more than a few letters to get them interested. Just make sure your letters are to the point, not offensive, not angry, and include your personal reasons why this issue is important to you.

Here are the addresses to begin with:

Kathleen Billings, Park Superintendent
Death Valley National Park
PO Box 579
Death Valley, CA 92328

Senator Dianne Feinstein
331 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Representative Col. Paul Cook (Ret.)
8th Congressional District
1222 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Sally Jewell
Secretary of the Interior
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240

Mr. Jon Jarvis, Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Ms. Christine Lehnertz, Regional Director
National Park Service - Pacific West Division
333 Bush Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94104-2828


The Facebook Page is "Save Sporting Events in Death Valley National Parks". Here is a link to the petition.

Thank you for any efforts you make on behalf of the Badwater community.