As the Sioux Falls Argus Leader’s Alfonzo Galvan reports, the National Park Service has denied for the second consecutive year a request by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to blast fireworks off the top of Mount Rushmore this coming Fourth of July:
The National Park Service denied South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s permit application for the 2022 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on Tuesday, according to a release from Noem’s office.
Tuesday’s notice is Noem’s latest rejection in her efforts to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks at Mount Rushmore. The NPS also rejected her application for the 2021 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration.
“Mount Rushmore is the best place in America to celebrate our nation’s birthday – I just wish President Biden could see that,” stated Noem in the release. “Last year, the President hypocritically held a fireworks celebration in Washington, D.C., while denying us our own event. This year, it looks like they are planning to do the same.
Learning of NPS’s decision, Colorado’s premiere freshman GOP metaphorical firestarter Rep. Lauren Boebert called (kindly remember, her preferred term) bullcrap:
This is just to spite South Dakota’s great Governor, Kristi Noem.
I was at the Mount Rushmore fireworks in 2020. It was an incredible event! Shame on Joe Biden… https://t.co/iJxbVoJYcD
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) March 17, 2022
Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert (R-Twitter).
If your principal source of information is Lauren Boebert’s Twitter feed, and we really hope that’s not the case at this point even for her supporters, you might come away thinking that a fireworks show from the top of Mount Rushmore is some kind of time-honored tradition that unpatriotic woke liberals are cracking down on only now because they hate America. But as the Argus Leader continues:
The fireworks celebration was held at Mount Rushmore in 2020 after being canceled for more than a decade. In 2021, the NPS rejected South Dakota’s application to permit fireworks. [Pols emphasis]
As it turns out, Native Americans tribes in the Black Hills have never approved of fireworks shows on what’s considered sacred land. Also, unlike the District of Columbia swamplands the Black Hills are suffering from drought just like most of the American West, exacerbating fire danger even further. Obviously, Joe Biden wasn’t responsible for the cancellation of the Mount Rushmore fireworks show for the ten-plus years before Donald Trump decided he had to have one and Gov. Noem via a more compliant NPS obliged him.
If this year’s fire season in the West is as bad as the last couple have been, here will be another Boebert bloviation to recall as not having aged well.
Why is it wrong to burn the Black Hills?
Give Kristi what she wants—a vast wasteland.
Isn't fire a sign of the apocalypse?
Reporting I’ve seen reveals that Governor Noem has difficulty dealing with even some of the conservative Republicans in the SD legislature. There’s also an issue of nepotism; I don’t quickly recall details; regarding getting her daughter a job.
God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time.
Daughter needed a real estate appraiser license. She was initially denied. The administrator, who had been in place since 1991, was forced to retire. AP described the sequence of events here.
Testimony to the legislature by former administrator Sherry Bren:
Republican "small government" at work.
Considering how little she cares about the wildfires in her own district, this is completely unsurprising.
What a snowflake! Real freedumb lovers don't need no steenkin' permit — WTF, buttercup???
I was born in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I was born in Deadwood, a town that got its name because when the gold rush settlers arrived, the hills were black from a forest fire. I took Boebert's comments as a personal insult. The Black Hills are beautiful. Boebert is not.
The Black Hills struck me as unexpected beauty the first time I saw them. Boobert, of course, cannot recognize beauty.
Was only one of eight total No votes for the Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act. What an embarrassment for Colorado.