During an early-September vacation, my family was lucky to be able to spend a few days on Cape Cod, the peninsula off the southeast corner of Massachusetts that offers the Atlantic Ocean on one side, Cape Cod Bay on the other, and dozens of freshwater ponds dotting the interior.

Although it’s a favorite summer spot for many New Englanders, along the main thoroughfare that bisects the Cape, Route 6A, you’ll find license plates from much further west, including our Ohio plates.

We biked along the Cape Cod Rail Trail, a 25-mile former railroad right-of-way that snakes its way through the Cape’s midsection. It is maintained by Nickerson State Park, a pine and oak forest that includes 418 reasonably-priced camp sites, eight ponds for swimming, kayaking, fishing, and beach-lounging, an eight-mile paved bike path, and nearly 2,000 acres of protected land. Nickerson is among the 150 state parks managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

We parked lawn chairs on Nauset Light Beach and watched the surf roll in and out, with the seals popping their heads up above the waves every now and then. While we relaxed and chatted, we also worried about the seals—and the human surfers near the shore—because there have shark sightings near many ocean-side beaches. Nauset is one of a half a dozen beaches that are part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, which covers 40 miles of shoreline under the care and ownership of the National Park Service—in other words, since it’s a federal agency, all Americans. The service keeps the beaches clean and safe, hires lifeguards for the summer months, and posts warnings about sharks and dangerous riptides as you enter each beach (the Severe Bleeding First Aid kit was enough of a warning for us to steer clear).

We stayed in Brewster, a one-time sea captain’s town that hugs Cape Cod Bay, and discovered that, in 2021, at a meeting attended by 1,471 residents, the town voted nearly unanimously to purchase 111 acres of a sea camps property, including an 800-foot strip of bayfront beach and a swimming pool set aside for the use of the year-round local residents. Luckily, after Labor Day, rules requiring resident stickers on cars go slack, and we enjoyed a great stroll on the pristine beach. The community is continuing to discuss the possible uses of the property, which include nature preserves and affordable housing.

Our wonderful time on Cape Cod was made possible by national, state, and local governments, and thus residents and voters across the country. Citizens at every level, working through government, had the foresight and leadership to protect land and waterways and make them available to all people—the public providing for the public. From the highway we took to get there, to the water and foods we consumed (admittedly, a significant portion of it was ice cream), to the historic, recreational, and natural sites we visited, government was, as ITPI’s executive director, Donald Cohen, says, “ubiquitous—and invisible.”

Back home in Cleveland, we ride bikes on the 21-mile Ohio and Erie Canal towpath that runs through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a nearly 33,000-acre parkland that was established as a National Park Service property (first as the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area) after it was pushed by Ohio leaders, especially John Seiberling and Ralph Regula, both Republicans, and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ray Bliss, from nearby Akron, and finally approved, 50 years ago, by Republican President Gerald Ford. In the sprawling Cleveland Metroparks, we paddle boats on its waterfront sites and pedal bikes on trails created by the National Youth Administration, picnic at shelters and visit nature centers built by the Works Progress Administration, and enjoy open space once cared for by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The bounty of all this nature, for everyone’s appreciation and recreation, our clean air and exercise, our good health and good humor, can only be made possible through government—no one else, no other entity, could or would do it.. But we also know government can only do it when it is truly responsive to the will of the people. Government can make our lives better exactly to the extent we make government better.

So we return to Ohio encouraged by the evidence of government at work—hat tip to the 1,471 citizens who want to make their lovely community even lovelier—and inspired by the knowledge that, while summer is just about over, election season is well underway.

Jeff Hagan
Communications Director