"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
With the unofficial launch of the summer season this past weekend, the state has only five park rangers assigned to the 400,000 acres of parkland outside Greater Boston, but 50 assigned to patrol the State House -- a distribution level protected by the Legislature.
Perhaps there is a greater threat of picnic baskets being filched on Beacon Hill?
Some environmental advocates object to the deployment of trained park rangers -- complete with khaki shirts, green pants, and Smokey Bear-style broad-brimmed hats -- to guard the State House, a job the rangers have been doing since 1995, when the Legislature evicted the State Police.
That seems an unusual arrangement – particularly after 9/11. Why did the solons kick out the Staties?
The park rangers took over responsibility for State House security 12 years ago, after lawmakers decided they had had enough of the State Police handling security on Beacon Hill. Lawmakers complained that troopers had been rude to staff and members and had cracked down on legislators' cherished parking privileges.
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