According to the Associated Press, the government has decided to allow volunteers paying $3600 the opportunity to pick trash and remove invasive species off the island of Midway.

Isn't this a task people should be payed to do?

Normally, only Native Hawaiians are allowed near the preserve to fish for "cultural purposes".

So if Whitey isn't good enough to set foot there under normal circumstances, then why is he good enough to clean it up; maybe that should be a task reserved for "Native Hawaiians" already on the federal dole in terms of welfare handouts?

Of the preserve, the Secretary of the Interior said, "That is such a treasure that America is not yet aware of." And so long as the rest of us are not good enough to visit there unless we are willing to purchase at extravagant cost the privilege of being indentured servants at this place, why should we really care?

Eventually, in time, this mindset will be extended to other federal holdings and get to the point Americans will not be allowed to enter parks and preserves unless they are willing to do work the government is unwilling to pay employees for.

By Frederick Meekins