We are, of course, amazed that our readers occasionally disagree with our brilliant and witty essays. In fact, sometimes quite a few readers think that The Outrage editors are wrong, misanthropic, idiotic, selfish, deluded, or all of the above.

Mother Outrage always told us that even the dull and the ignorant should have their say, so we've allowed space below for those dissenting opinions (and for shameless flattery).

If those "public servants" would use a dictionary to look up "maintain" and "public", as well as "servant", perhaps, just perhaps, their job description would take on the true and useful meaning that it should. BTW, look up "true" and "useful", too!

Exactly who is this idiot Graber?I would like to know his position in the park service.

I was in Whitehorse in The Yukon in 1995 and saw a fish ladder around a dam right at the edge of town. It worked fine, just as Bob Stivanson said the one in Scotland works. If our fish can't climb a ladder, it will be because they have been "hugged" so long they've forgotten how.

The forests are 'way too accessible by road, the places that are accessible only by walking and horses are great, but there are already lots of them. If I had any stupid idea that the land is being preserved for US citizens, it would be something to support. But, bet your last dollar that is not the case. I would rather choke than to think the Head Butts at the UN ever saw it. The law should read "Accessible to US Citizens only".

Charles,

You are usually right on the money (except for an occasional typo), but this time I will have to take exception.

I am sure that your basic argument is valid concerning the closing of Forest Service roads, but these roads do not permit people to visit the National parks but rather, permit them to wander through the National Forests. I am afraid that you have mixed apples and oranges, or more correctly, Interior and Agriculture.

The National Parks which I have visited ( I live down the road from Yosemite) are all accessed by traveling on roads that are maintained and controlled by the respective States. At the park boundary the control changes to the National Park service of the Department of the Interior. There is no "off road" driving allowed in Yosemite, and I am sure that this policy applies to the other Parks as well, and for my money this is a good policy. The situation in the National Forests is an entirely different matter.

Each year thousands of our citizens, and non-citizens as well, visit our forests to get away from the confines and hassel of the cities and enjoy the solitude of our forest heritage to fish, hunt, ride the 'wild rivers' or just enjoy the great natural outdoors. They do this with some degree of risk however, as the forests are the home of the big cats, the wolves and the black bears, all of which are carnivorous and would not hesitate to make a meal of an unwary backwoods traveler. For the benefit of the 'tree huggers' in the audience this just goes to show that the humans are in more danger from the animals than the reverse.

In conclusion, if our beneficent Interior Department continues to give control of our National Parks and Monuments to the United Nations to serve as "World Heritage Sites" we will have lost control of both the roads and the land while continuing to pay for the maintenance of both.

Robert Murphy <murph.r@sonnet.com>

I have visited Scotland and near a cousins house they have a hydroelectric dam which does a very good job and the salmon are able to go up a "fish ladder" type area which is like a bumch of elongated stairs and they jump up one at a time and it's possible to walk through that side of the dam and watch the fish in their journey upstream. And this has been in existence for at least 25 years that I know of!!! Beside that the water that goes over the dam during the daylight high power consumption hours is stored in a lake below and pumped back to the high side of the dam at night and used again the next day and this process goes on and on and on. It can be done!!!!!!!!

The following is the corrected text, I apologize for the mispelled previous one:

Are you collecting the quote of the day? I think most of them are worth preserving. I would especially like to see Mr. Graber's quote preserved just long enough to show his kids that he thinks their worthless parasites who should have stood a 45% chance of dying of some filthy disease before their fifth birthday. After that, let's forget what this worthless parasite said, or thinks, or wants.

That guy from the Park Service is a nut. Someone ought to give him a virus, and I can tell you where it should be put!

Regarding road reduction in National Parks and destruction of dams:

I often agree with you, but not regarding this anti-environmentalist backlash issue. Is it possible that the Park Service built too many roads in the past? Your tone suggests that you cannot comprehend such a thing. Can a dam have unintended, negative consequences? Your tone suggests that you will not entertain this possibility. I am for a much smaller government and strong property rights. But, I also value undeveloped wilderness and species preservation. Why are these so often seen as opposites of a spectrum? To me, they are completely compatible goals.

Yes the world really is screwed up Virginia.

It's nice that the DO points out what we already know. But what is the point? The DO doesn't change anything. It merely amuses us to think that our opinion is shared.

The DO is amusing but totally ineffectual.

Outraged persons unite, throw off the stupidity and incompetence of our leaders and start a new series of outrageous behavior.

It may take another two hundred years for the new leaders to become equally outrageous.