While some think recreation has returned to normal at state parks, it hasn’t. Though golf courses, swimming pools and trails are open and jumping, the swimming and picnic areas in the NC State Recreation Areas on Kerr Lake are closed.

What about the poor or jobless who don’t have retreats or RV’s? They need recreational opportunities as much or more than anyone. Aren’t the downtrodden who Roy Cooper says that he represents and protests in the streets with? So why are the poor so denied? Is there a hidden agenda? Well, don’t bother to ask Director of State Parks Director Dwayne Patterson. He’s not accountable to anyone nor does he respond to anyone; we never heard a word back from him when we sent him several samples of “sandpaper” toilet tissue from several of the state park’s bathrooms. He’s never responded to anything. He was going to visit Kerr Lake a couple of years ago. Right.

There’s no need to contact NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources Sec. Suzi Hamilton or chief deputy Reid Wilson. They could care less and respond even less.

So the poor are gated out even though many of the beach areas are loaded with boats and people moving about who come in from the water. Picnic areas and their tables are already socially distanced but the people who could really use them are denied access to their day use areas. We saw some playground areas on Kerr Lake simply fenced off, while the public areas for picnicking and swimming were open. Now that’s smart: public safety and public service working in tandem.

One thing we did see at several of the parks is that some people drove in, parked and walked to fishing spots. Some came to camping areas, finding empty tables and grabbing a picnic or some water time.

As usual, NC State Parks asks no questions, raises no hand, just takes orders like the SS, then disappears into the sunset.

The Third Reich fell and so shall this one fall, and we hope that with it a real house cleaning.