Nothing succeeds like success, but not, apparently, in the Corbett administration, where the color code of choice for the current threat level is the pink slip.

Once, “heads will roll” was a response to incompetence and failure. But in Harrisburg today, take your job seriously, as John Norbeck did as head of our state parks, and you get fired.

Under Norbeck’s stewardship, Pennsylvania’s state park system was honored with the National Gold Medal for Excellence by the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration, its highest award.

Norbeck was all about the mission of the job he was hired to do: responsibly managing the parks to ensure a quality experience for the visitor who seeks them out for their natural beauty and recreational opportunities.

If its not broken, why break it? When Norbeck was fired for running the best state park system in the nation he was told only that the “administration has decided to go in a different direction.”

Whatever that means, it doesn’t sound promising. Does a “different direction” include the dismantling of our state park system, the closing down, auctioning off or “privatization” of parks? Will there be a public discussion of where this ‘different direction’ is heading?

Ed Lawrence

Orangeville