I read on The Knight Shift just a moment ago that the government is seizing private land for use in building a memorial for the folks who dies aboard Flight 93.
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WHAT the hell is going on here?! According to the Yahoo! article, the government has supposedly been in negotiations with the landowners since late 2004 to buy the land (though the property owners contend that there were NO negotiations at all), but since the "negotiations" were unsuccessful, the government is just going to up and take the land anyway.
What do the g-men need the land for? How about a $58 million permanent memorial and national park to honor the folks who gave their lives on Flight 93. What's more, the memorial/park will cover a ginormous twenty-two hundred acres. The gov't would like to have the memorial completed by the 10th anniversary of the hijacking, as if the people who died in that plane crash really care when or even if a memorial is built.
That point aside, I find myself wondering: What in god's name do you do with a memorial of that size? What's the point?
We here in the US have a right, inalienable, to own property. The government has no right to take our property away from us. Yet, here we are with the government poised to step into territory strictly forbidden by the document that governs it. What else is new, right?
From the article, Phil Sheridan, park service spokesperson, had the following to say: "We had a group of people who took some very heroic actions. It's just fitting and right that we get this done in time for the 10th anniversary."
First, do the dead folks care? No. They're dead. Their actions are remembered. Do we need a memorial to help us remember? No. What they did was brave and will live on through history as such.
Scary thing is, the family members of the heroes on Flight 93 were pushing for the government to bring eminent domain to bear. Hell, they've even formed a group, Flight 93 Families, with a president and a vice president even. Patrick White, VP of F93F, supports the government's actions here and was even planning on asking for eminent domain to be wielded. Apparently both he and the families of the dead have forgotten what it means to be a citizen of the US, so swept up are they in their greed.
Civil rights be damned, give us a meaningless memorial.
I eagerly await the nasty emails that will come from that comment.
Thing is, the folks aboard Flight 93 died protecting the people of this country, because they believed in what this country stands for. Perhaps this is a lesson the government (and Flight 93 Families) should take to heart.
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