The Canyon is Opening (UPDATE)

Grand Canyon overlooking Indian Garden at Bright Angel Trail 10/10/13

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer just announced she has reached a deal with the Federal Government, and Grand Canyon National Park will reopen tomorrow. As part of the agreement, the state of Arizona will pay $651,000 to cover the costs of keeping the canyon open for one week. Fingers are crossed that the Federal shutdown will actually end within the next 48 hours. In that case, the bill will be less. Utah is also opening its parks.

There are many questions, though. For example:
What time tomorrow will the gates be unlocked and visitors allowed to pass through? (They opened the gates early - maybe 7 am.)
Will all hotels, restaurants, paths, and waysides be open? (Everything is open)
Will the Colorado river be open to river runners? (yes)
Will past permits be honored, and how? (Not sure yet.)
Will all staff be back at work? (Seems so)

So far, I have heard no answers to these questions.

In the mean time, I am feeling very lucky to have had the experience of being inside the wall. I have met so many good people, had so many interesting conversations. I was busy preparing an article about it for the Guardian, but I am scrapping that now. The canyon is opening, so soon its closure will be old news.

Mather Point, last night of closure. 10/11/13

Still, I will always remember tonight's walk. I went to Mather Point—probably one of the most popular places on the South Rim. It is rarely without visitors. Even in February, when it was -13 degrees out,  there were people standing on that point of rock pointing and gapping at all they could see. But tonight there was no one, and the sun was setting and the evening was absolutely silent.  Intensely silent. So silent I could feel it press itself against my skin, cup my ears. And I thought to myself, I will never be back here. Not like this. This, right now, is a singular moment, and I am honored to have been a witness. Very, very honored.

- Naseem Rakha, October 11, 2013 

Day 11 Government Shutdown - 60,000 Pounds of Food Brought to the Grand Canyon

At noon today, Oct 11, 2013, the Eleventh day of the Government Shutdown, St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance out of Phoenix, AZ delivered 60,000 pounds of food to the residents of Grand Canyon National Park. Because of the Government Shutdown, almost 98 percent of the community is unemployed. 

What people have asked me to tell you is that they want to work. Many of the employees here at the Grand Canyon have been here for decades. This is their home. Many of these same employees live paycheck to paycheck, earning just above Arizona's minimum wage of $7.80 an hour. They have no transportation to leave the Grand Canyon, and no money for gas if they did. They just want to work. 

What people have asked me to tell you is that they will survive, but it is hard. Many people live in dorms, and have no access to a kitchen. Winter is on its way, and there is no money for heat. Many people have children. Grand Canyon is the only National Park that has a preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school. Three hundred twenty-eight students in all.

What people have asked me to tell you is that they are a community, and though they are helping one another, they are suffering. Some talked of depression. Drinking. Staying in bed all day. They don't know what to do. Where to go. How to get there.

"We want to go back to work," they said. "We just want to work."

First Snow - Grand Canyon, 2013

First Snow, Grand Canyon - 10/10/13 - 10th day of Government Shutdown 

Woke to snow. 
Three, maybe four inches.
I dress. Go out.
And a coyote walks across my path
And an elk brushes his rack against a tree
And a rabbit skitters under a bush.

I stop and look at its tracks.
Move on.
At the rim a raven lands on a ledge. Snaps its beak. Caws.
Then jumps from its perch and glides into the canyon,
Disappearing into blue-cold clouds. 
Just the sound of his call
remaining.

Naseem Rakha October 10, 2013

Naseem is visiting friends and teaching at the Grand Canyon during the Government Shutdown

In Grand Canyon National Park, Shutdown Day 9

Grand Canyon Shutdown Day 9 - no one at Mather Point

Inside Grand Canyon National Park the wind is blowing. It whips through trees, rattles leaves, blows grit across the paths. Empty paths. Empty silent paths, except for the moan of the wind and the caw of an occasional raven. The chatter of a squirrel.

No one at the bus stops

I sit on a rock at Mather Point when the squirrel approaches. He's wary at first, then bold. Very bold, climbing up my leg and checking out my pockets. But there is nothing in my pockets. "I'm sorry," I say. He sits back on my leg and stares at me, head tilted to the side. He looks puzzled. Not just about my empty pockets—why have pockets if not to stuff them with trail mix? This squirrel wants to know where all the pocketed-people are."Tell me," his little brown eyes ask. "Where did they go?"

Mather Point is usually bustling with people. They come from all over the world. Busloads of them. Each wanting their photo taken beside the great grand abyss.

I try explaining. "Congress," I say to the squirrel. A showdown that led to a shutdown. Fools. Damn fools. Positioning and posturing. Yesterday, I tell him, I watched one of those Jimmy Kimmel routines (see below.) He's a comedian. He asked people which they favor: Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act. The ACA, dubbed Obamacare by the right, came out way ahead. "Obamacare? That's just socialism," one person said. 

No one parked at Grand Canyon Village

Yeah, well so is the farm bill. I told this squirrel. And corporate tax loop holes. And mortgage deductions. And the public library, not to mention each and every fire department. Big fricking deal. We live in a society, and whether the bible-thumping teapot-toting air heads like it or not, we are our brothers keepers. And so yes, Obamacare was passed into law, and yes it is helping insure people who were uninsured, and yes that helps the country. Yes. Yes and yes.

But no. I told he squirrel. Don't expect to see the crowds back for a while. Egos rule. In the mean time, the country holds its breath.

The squirrel seems to get my drift. No trail mix. Not now, probably not for quite a while. He gives me a wistful look, then takes off, down my leg and across the rocks to sit on the rim of the canyon, and just stare out at the empty space that lies between the rock walls.

Empty space. That's what the Tea Party offers this country. Nothing but empty space, empty words, empty promises. Empty paths leading through empty, windswept parks.

No one on the path in front of Bright Angel Lodge.

-Naseem Rakha 10-9-2013

At the Grand Canyon during closure, visiting with friends and gathering stories

Grand Canyon Closure Day 8

I arrived at the South Gate of Grand Canyon just as a protest began. Business owners and employees from the town of Tusayan, park concession staff, and tourists gathered at the gate to hear why park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga is not able to re-open the park.

Heading Back to the Canyon - Closed or Not

On the eve of my return to the southwest, I want to share this film with you. It is in honor of several things. First - the Grand Canyon - that magic place that takes up a huge part of my heart and life. Second - Kaitlin Kenney - the beautiful young woman who lost her life in the canyon in January this year. I have learned a great deal about life and beauty and hope and faith through her life, and I thank her and her family for that. And finally, this is for all those thousands of people who had planned to see the Grand Canyon, but can not because of the government shutdown. I am right there with you. The trip I planned is not likely to be the trip I will have, but I am open to what comes.

For the Grand Canyon. For Kaitlin. For you.

The Soul's Journey, a Film By Naseem Rakha

Spitting Mad

dream

I was standing on the bank of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon when I saw a huge raft approaching. Bigger than any raft I had ever seen. It was bright white and the water was red. On it, stiff as pillers, were about one hundred men. All of them dressed in suits and all of them mouthing something. The sound of the water drowned out their words until they got closer and I could hear that they were actually chanting, 

"WE DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM. WE DO NOT LIKE THEM UNCLE SAM!"  Over and over they said this. Like something out of Monty Python. 

Then I noticed they were approaching Crystal Rapid. Crystal is a killer rapid. Monster water, with a monster hole that has swallowed its fair share of rafts and rafters. But there was no way that raft, so big and full, would be able to get into the rapid, let alone through it. But then, cartoon like, the raft narrowed and entered the rapid and glided straight toward the hole. 

I shouted and pointed, but the men were oblivious and soon the entire raft and its suited cargo was gone—the only thing remaining—red, white and blue lapel pins flying out from the hole and landing on shore like fish scales.

I began to run down river. One by one, I pulled the pallid men from the water. They were cold. Shivering. And they were pissed. 

"This is why we should get rid of the parks!" one said. "Sell them!" said another. "Close them." "Drain them!" And at that, Moses-like, the river emptied. Roaring water flushed away. Fish flapped on dirt covered rocks. 

"No!" I screamed. And then, not having anything better to do, I spat at the men. And then I did it again and again, and soon there were a whole bunch of people standing next to me and we were all raging and spitting. And before long the river filled with our saliva—clean and clear with purpose and direction—washing the men away.

reality

• 401 parks were closed today because of the Government Showdown over the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare)
• National Parks typically receive 750,000 visitors per day in October.
• 22,000 National Park Service employees have been furloughed.
• Over 7,000 private concession staff have been furloughed. 
• All current visitors to the parks have 48 hours to find alternative lodging.
• No river, climbing, backpacking, lodging, or camping permits will be honored. 
• Overall it is estimated the shutdown will cost local businesses near the country's 401 parks over 30 million dollars a day in lost revenue.

conclusion

This is what happens when voters elect government haters into office. Things bog down then, shut down. The airwaves fill with passion and pundits and prodigious speeches filled with kitsch and clamor.  But progress, real progress, policies which educate and feed and build and create, they are scrapped for ego and ideology. And in the mean time, parks close, and people don't get paid, and stores lose customers, and an economy - getting some breath of life this last year—gets strangled once again. 

This is what happens when we sell our vote to the highest bidder. Or believe the lie that a nation can be great without government services. This is what happens when idiots reign. 

It's time to get mad. It's time to get spitting mad. It's time to crash the Tea Party and its Koch addiction, and send them all down river. 

And now, for the book we all need to read: 

-Naseem Rakha, October 1, 2013