The following editorial appeared in the Pasadena, California Star-News on February 13, 2004.
There's a political cartoon making the rounds — probably not one actually published in a newspaper — that's split into two panels.
The first is an urban scene on a dark street corner in which a Gestapo-uniformed officer stops a citizen and demands, "Show me your papers."
The second depicts an idyllic mountain meadow in which another uniformed man stops a hiker and demands, "Show me your forest pass."
A caption at the bottom of the cartoon asks, "What if any basic differences can you find between A and B?"
"Lots," some would say.
In the first place, as (self-serving) patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, stooping to Nazi comparisons in a political dispute is purely amateur hour. And rarely anything like accurate.
Secondly, it is true that there are any number of other supposedly public places that require an additional payment from citizens.
Taxpayer or no, you have to buy a ticket to get up into Lady Liberty's torch.
There's no passing through the gates of Yosemite without paying the piper.
State parks require cash or an annual pass for even the most loyal Californians to camp in them.
All the same, there comes a point at which enough is enough. For us that point has long been the "experimental" demonstration program of the U.S. Forest Service in Southern California under which anyone who parks a vehicle anywhere within the Angeles National Forest in our cities' backyard is nominally required to buy a so-called "Adventure Pass."
We wouldn't think of encouraging civil disobedience here. But let's just say that we're not very upset with those few longtime hikers and outdoors activists who have chosen to protest the order to pay to recreate in the mountains that have always been free for the taking.
Pasadenan Robert Bartsch was last week convicted of the supposed crime of hiking up Mount Baldy without forking over his $5. Sure, he was just fined $10 — but hw was also ordered to stay out of the Angeles for three months.
When Bartsch later said that's a government order that he will defy, we couldn't help but ponder which is the more American stance — that of the judge and the government agency or that of the citizen operating in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party.
The funny thing is that the small band of frequent hikers who are leading this protest is made up of just the kinds of people the Forest Service wants: neatniks, trail fixers, backwoods experts. Hardly the kinds of fools who graffiti our granits outcroppings, litter our streams and canyons, race down our windy roads.
And for those of us who object to the Adventure Pass, it's not really a matter of the money as such. As in a museum that puts out a box for free-will cash offerings even after admission had been paid, we are among those likely inclined to deposit a little extra if we know it's going to forest upkeep in cash-strapped times for the Forest Service.
But we don't like the poorest among us being forced to pay or, worse, intimidated against heading out on what used to be one of the few free weekend outings for a family.
We're all for adventure in the San Gabriel Mountains. We're all for public campaigns to raise extra money to keep them pristine. We'll just continue to take a pass on the misguided implementation of the Adventure Pass.