A little Bridge Day History and Com

[guest]

Sorry...not true. There has never been "Official Legal" sanction of Bridge Day. This can never be as far as I know, because of the simple fact that mostly Federal dollars went to build Highway 19.
A highway such as this can never be closed or disrupted for any reason except emergency.
( This would be like closing off 2 lanes of any Interstate highway just for fun and games)

Again, only the locals have managed to keep it open
by knowing people in high places, like former Gov Rockefeller and others. They keep the Feds off our backs for 6 hours a year.

[base311]

Tree,

Thanks for your words; nice to know someone at least reads my drivel from time to time.

I must admit that my written rants may mask my personal position on things at times. I have a tendancy to take things to the extreme when I'm ranting for the group (us jumpers). I have to agree that had I been in any of the shoes of the BDC members I would have struggled with the decision they faced, too. But I do know that my decision wouldn't have been clouded by the fact that I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.... faced with the notion that I had a responsibility to uphold the guidelines set forth by the higher-ups in my organization, and that by issuing a permit to allow jumpers to jump into a national park I would be going against those directives and that I would be breaking the law, basically, if I issued that permit. So at least THAT wouldn't have been part of my decision-tree (no pun intended).

Tree, at the very least we can all be confident that the decision that the BDC came to likely guaranteed that nobody would be a victim of terrorism at what would have been Bridge Day 2001, so I can't really argue with their foresight and concern for my (our) safety.

And I don't really believe that Bridge Day 2001 was cancelled solely BECAUSE of the NPS. Even as much influence (read: negative influence) as I might wish to think (or have anyone believe) the NPS has on us and our jumping, they still don't have THAT much clout (thank God). But the TRUTH of the matter is the NPS DID HAVE ONE VOTE on the BDC, and as I understand it the decision to cancel Bridge Day passed on ONE vote (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). Considering the NPS' historically hostile political stance on BASE jumping, coupled with the NPS being faced with the proposition of issuing a Permit to Avery for BD 2001 - which would have been in stark contrast to and completely against the 2001 NPS Management Guidelines which place an outright PROHIBITION ON ISSUANCE OF A PERMIT TO BASE JUMP IN NATIONAL PARKS, I cannot help but wonder if the folks down at the NPS offices saw this terrorist thing as an opportunity to 'get out of' this one. In other words, I'm not convinced that the NPS' 'no vote' was based solely on its concern for public welfare; rather, it was an easy 'out' for the NPS to take. Much of my bitching and complaining is because the cancellation of BD screwed up more than just jumping: I had been anxiously awaiting BD2001 because it was going to 'force the NPS legal hand', so-to-speak. I had been waiting to see just exactly how the NPS was going to handle the permit issuance and keep it within the legal framework (a hopeless possibility in my mind). Anyway, all of that writing up there was mostly me being pissed off because the NPS wasn't forced to issue a permit this year; I'm patient and I will wait until next year. Between now and then I'm curious to see what changes will be made to the management guidelines to allow the NPS to legally issue a permit to avery next year.

And, finally, I must say that the NPS had every opportunity to lobby the other members of the Bridge Day Commission to sway the vote in favor of having BD2001 - every committee member had that opportunity - and the NPS didn't take it, so they're still culpable in my mind. I can understand the concerns that the BDC had - I'd have been concerned, too. But the people of West Virginia NEEDED Bridge Day - and I don't just mean economically. They needed it because it has become part of what makes them who they really are... they're not some timid bunch of weanies who are gonna be scared away by some militant islamic nutcake - they're West Virginians and Bridge Day is one of their jewels and they like to walk out onto THEIR Bridge once a year just as much as we like to jump off of it.... and BD got stripped from them. The president said, "...get back to normal." and BD IS normalcy. The people didn't get to walk onto their bridge this year. The people of the state/county/city/community missed out on millions of dollars because of a lack of some funds?? If I were a voting member of that community I'd be running for office. I just can't see how it got cancelled because of a (relatively small in the scheme of things) shortfall in funds to cover additional security.... if that is the real reason (even partly) then it is a weak one at best and a stupid one at least. They could have put collection baskets at each end and scored more than enough money to cover the added security... that whole money thing is a joke. If BD truly has been run on a shoestring budget in the past then I think we will see that change for next year.

And in response to your statements about park service employees and their individual stances on BASE jumping.... even I am not so naive to think that there's any sort of brain-washing going on. Each person will have his own opinion on the matter and that is fine, but this isn't personal - this is politics - and as far as I'm concerned I will continue to give the NPS as much hell as I can dish out until there is a system by which legal jumping may be conducted in national parks. It is such a bunch of crap that we can't jump off of public cliffs (NPS controlled cliffs) in this country and ANYONE who is a thinking person and who also does a little research and educates himself about what has been happening between the BASE jumpers and the NPS will see that the NPS' position is rediculous and tenuous.

If it's the last thing I ever do.....

Sincerely,
K. Gardner Sapp
BASE311

P.S. We're not going away and we're getting stronger by the day. later.