"I would like to see all our employees get goose bumps at least once a day while doing their work. We would then know that they understand why we are here."
Chris V. Case

Vision for the 21st Century
"The 21st century should be embraced as a time when we dare to envision the ultimate, to voice it and work to make the ultimate dream a reality, as a time when we find the courage to be totally inclusionary—at all levels and for all concepts—and never, never exclusionary; and as a time when we seek and capitalize on every opportunity to hold hands with the world through partnerships with the foal of educating, preserving, enjoying, and balancing—for all natural and cultural resources for this and future generations."
Pat Hooks

"Whose Archeology is it?
Whose voice speaks for the past?
Myths and errors can be albatrosses around the neck of the truth.
Sometimes it's just speculation—we will never know.
So many voices; so many cares. How to choose?
Stones cold in a museum—how do we put life into them?
Extinction of culture/history is also forever.

Synthesis
Contribute to the future; make a difference.
Not one but many. Symbiosis; many can make a difference.
Leaders do not lead mass migrations; they are carried along by them. (Tolstoy)
Shape the path. Do not demand. Dictators always fall."
Helen Scully

"Our sense of place is rooted in the land, but also closely tied to community. In the NPS, I find myself everywhere at home."
Ralph Moore

Vision is Discovery
"Vision is the Future
dancing and sparkling
on rippling waters
Beckoning toward the horizon.

Vision is Now
cascading and tumbling
in turbulent streams
Currents flowing undaunted.

Vision is the Past
calm sea of tranquility
stormy sea of chaos
Lessons and reflections in deep, dark waters.

Vision is Ageless
Vision is Everywhere
Vision is Us."
Darlene Wahl

"Image—what can be—vision.
A child is born in the Bronx. His definition of the word "park" is a rectangle of rutted asphalt enclosed by chain link fence with a hoop at either end. He has a series of experiences that leave in him an understanding and appreciation for the values of our national park system. The NP system becomes relevant to him. He expresses this sense of relevance through his vote. He passes it along to his children. Our great system of national parks survives. We survive.

I reflect back, a golden October day in the Midwest. A forest, a pond, migrating waterfowl, a covey of quail burst in front of me, their twittery, twisting flight electrifies me. I feel joy and marvel at this beauty, the exploding covey of quail that leaves the impression and memory of a kaleidoscope of golden hues—as vivid now as it was 45 years ago, my discovery of joy , or wonderment at the natural world still inspires me.

As a child I remember trailing my mother across the high mountain meadows of places named Dead Man's Peak, Red Feather Lakes, Pingree Hill in Colorado. We were in search of new rocks, strange butterflies, unusual wildflowers—anything new and exotic. And of course—to a kid—it was all new and exotic. Now that I'm a grandmother, I wonder—what if my grandchildren don't have the same opportunities as I did to know the earth and her non-human inhabitants. To smell the wet marshes, or feel the desert dust cake between their toes?

Conservation of natural resources observes no boundaries. United States citizens and Mexican citizens have a better understanding of the natural world and resources we share and that we have a common understanding of the responsibilities both countries have in the preservation and management of all resources that transcends differences in culture and histories and results in better understanding and peace.

Inspiration comes from the possibility that I will contribute in small or significant ways to make this world a better place for all living things on this planet. I hope to provide information and knowledge that inspires mankind to protect the natural world that surrounds us."
Anonymous

"Some future day, to work for the NPS, you will have to undergo six weeks of training with our wisest elders in reverence for life, not for nature or culture or for nature and culture but for life."
Anonymous

"Maya Angelou…
A woman, a poet, six feet tall.
Me all man, proud to show it.
I never cry, not one bit.
She spoke of spring
I thought of fall.
Maya Angelou…
Told me stories
About a rainbow in the sky
Another tale of one afraid to leap
I hid my face, it is not a lie
Maya Angelou…
You gave me courage
And made me weep."
Tom McGrath

"The central message I take away is a renewed conviction that we are all in this together. That is not weakened by the knowledge that we are all unique and see all things in our own unique way. We are the life of the planet looking at itself in the mirror, asking ourselves, 'What should we do next?' 'What have we inherited?' 'What will we bequeath?' We in the NPS have a special role—like choir masters. We don't make the music, but we help the music find voice and be heard. It is the great hymn of life. We are all in the chorus."
Kim Sikoryak

"In the Koran it says God is closer than the veins in your neck. I think that can be said of the wild. Lynn Margulis says there are more cells of other beings in and on your body than there are cells of your own. I was 15 years old once, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, within sight but not sound of my 15-year-old companion, halfway around Lobo Lake from our base camp and its two adults. I came on a pile of grizzly bear droppings. It was at least 18 inches in diameter and 4 or 5 inches high. Without thinking I said to myself, 'If I went through that bear, it wouldn't leave that much scat.'Everyone should have the chance to feel themselves as part of the food chain—and not the top. We must hold the place and space of the wild for future generations, for all future generations of all beings."
Anonymous

On Discovering the National Park Service

"A couple of maps fell from a shelf
Fort Pulaski, Morristown, and Salem.

A couple of maps fell from a shelf
In my father's library
One day as I was browsing for a book.

A couple of maps fell from a shelf
with black and white photos
the paper stiff with age.

A couple of maps fell from a shelf.
My father, a boy from New York City wrote for them
to a distant address in Washington, D.C.
Fort Pulaski, Morristown, and Salem.

A couple of maps fell from a shelf.
They fell into my life."
Rolf Diamant

A Vision for the 21st Century
"As Mark Davies speculates, kids will be taught a land ethic in nursery school. The National Park Service will become a strong moral force in one nation's continuous engagement with its social contract. If we learn to cooperate with—and quit fearing—our former founding allies, the conservation groups, we will see created a linkage of protected natural areas that radiates out from city centers and uses NPS and other wilderness areas as the core protected areas that assure that true, often restored wildness, will remain a vital part of and source for our civilization and way of life. Nature and culture will remain as concepts but will be perceived as a continuum, not as conflicting."
Ed Zahniser