How
coincidental it was, a few weeks later, to be reading Neil Peart’s account of
his latest USA road trip, not long after Rush had finished their Clockwork
Angels tour, through Zion Park and Bryce Canyon with a touch of Route 66 thrown
in. That certainly brought back some happy memories for me from previous trips
to the West. (Neil – hope the Aston Martin’s bumper has recovered from the deer
hoof.)
Over to the man himself. Having evidently avoided the
effects of the shutdown thanks to Utah undertaking to reopen its parks, he
speaks robustly for every foreign tourist who has experienced the US National
Parks or hopes to do so: -
“But what did these foreigners think of a country in
which a few mean-spirited creeps could hold the entire country hostage—all for
the principle of denying mercy to the suffering (because it might be
“their own fault”—hardly a Christian objection), while also denying its
citizens (and “resident aliens,” as this Canadian is classified) access to their
property? (A flashing sign inside Bryce Canyon National Park put it nicely: “Welcome to Bryce. Enjoy Your Park.”) These foreign
visitors, like the American seniors who also visit the national parks outside
the summer months, might have waited all their lives for this one opportunity.
And there are tens of thousands of Americans, especially in the West, whose
livelihoods are tied to the national parks.”
Expanding his theme, NP goes on to suggest that those
“few, miserable damaged egos” who caused the Parks shutdown and displayed such
disregard for its consequential effect on intending visitors ought to wear
T-shirts bearing a slogan otherwise only fit for renegade bikers and surly
rednecks, namely “Do I Look Like I Give A Fornication?” How neat to see this
“expression of pure evil” producing the eminently pronounceable acronym
“DILLIGAF”.
So as I think back to how my own recent USA trip was
almost ruined, and then reflect in turn on the way that we are governed here in
the UK by a political class and an administrative machine that all too often
appears to have little regard to the practical impact of its conduct on those
who have to pay for it, may I suggest that the acronym is upgraded to a noun?
“Dilligaf”: a politician or official who, having acted quite
unreasonably, reacts with deliberate indifference or hostility to the plight of
someone suffering materially as a result of that act.
In passing, that would sit neatly alongside
“snollygoster”, but that’s another story.
