Welcome to our second installment of the"Friday's Food for Thought" post where we take a light-hearted (and we hope funny) approach to what's happening in government-related news. This installment's theme is about the new NBC show "Parks and Recreation."
Parks and Recreation Show Funny, But Real? I think not.
We are the first to admit that Amy Poehler does a great job playing a bumbling and often confused bureaucrat helping run a department of parks recreation in the city of Pawnee, Ind. She takes a Michael Scott (from the NBC hit, "The Office," played by actor Steve Carrell) approach and always has a good heart, but seems to be awkward and have very poor judgement.
However, as an organization that works with state and local government across the United States, we believe this portrayal is far from the truth. In fact, there are many local government agencies doing many progressive and forward thinking things that are far from bumbling.
For example, Idaho Game and Fish is especially committed to keeping its citizens and out-of-town visitors updated on new fishing and hunting related information. And another DNR doing swimmingly well..Wisconsin DNR. They send out updates on over 25 different fishing topics!
And then we have Texas Parks and Wildlife. TPWD updates the public on state parks, destinations, fishing and more... None of these examples reflects the obtuse or clueless antics of the Parks and Recreation show. But, we can still find the humor right?
Speaking of fishing, it just so happens that this weekend is opening fishing for Minnesota. Thousands of people will pack up their fishing gear and head out for the lake first thing tomorrow morning. MN DNR sold over 256,000 licenses as of Wednesday.
Now that I've reminded everyone that fishing opener is tomorrow and I've checked that 'to-do' off my list, it time to check out a promo clip from Parks and Recreation. Enjoy and have a great weekend. Bobbers down!
