Keep Out the Keepers

There has, in recent years, been an explosion in the number of "Riverkeepers," "Mountainkeepers" and sundry other self-appointed demagogues who have arrogated to themselves a supposed responsibility to protect the playgrounds of the rich and famous from the people who actually live in those places. This article is a perfect illustration of how they gather untoward influence. Several "keepers," none of whom have any official authority are quoted as if they exuded it and their opinions were sacrosanct, while the one party with authority, the MDE, is reduced to having to defend "putting science first." The "keepers," by contrast, suggest MDE seeks to "strike a balance between the polluter and protection," as if these were the only two choices and nothing other than environmental protection were important. To do so, of course, is to say no balancing at all is needed. While this is, of course, the view of all absolutists, it is hardly fair and surely not the basis of sound policy. Rather, it is the language of totalitarians. We need to keep the keepers out of our public policy debates.