Bloglander

My girlfriend and I decide to take a quick walk through Fort George Wright
Cemetery. We park the car and walk around it in 5 minutes. On the way back,
a mere block from my car, a park ranger stands in front of an SUV, writing
a ticket. "Run!" my girlfriend shouts, hoping we can get out of there
before he gets to our car. Unfortunately, we don't. "Can't you just give us
a warning?" my girlfriend asks the park ranger. "Yeah," I say, "we
literally parked here for 5 minutes. We were leaving right now!" The park
ranger shakes his head and says: "Sorry, procedure says that I must give
you this notification. You can either pay $30 in the next three days, or
$10 now." My god man! You sullied our moment. And isn't this essentially
blackmail? Of course we'll pay your stupid $10 now. I grit my teeth and
give the man the $10 for parking our car for 5 minutes! We're poor, like
many people in Spokane. And now they've made parks a luxury. We live in
this state, shouldn't we be entitled to enjoying it? How is this going to
make people care for the environment, if they can't afford to take part in
it? Bills in the city, and fees (or fines, apparently) in the country. But
that's not the point. The point is this: how are you, Mr. Park Ranger,
going to force people to pay $10 for parking a car to get some fresh air
when you know damn well that we were there for five minutes! Shame on you
Mr. Ranger, shame, shame, shame! I don't think we'll be going back to
Riverside State Park anytime soon. Such as ever again. And I hope you can't
sleep at night, thinking about all your poor, innocent victims. Shame!