Too Late Opened, Too Sacred to Be Closed
The news that a group of WWII veterans and their caring companions had defied a federal closure order and visited the National World War II memorial on the Mall in Washington warmed my and millions of other Americans’ hearts. While it is still uncertain exactly how the barriers were removed, if this Obama administration isn’t completely tin-eared, it is obvious that those barriers should remain removed.
It took far too long for our WWII memorial to be authorized and constructed; it didn’t open until April 2004, just a year short of six decades after the closing of the worldwide effort, heroism, and sacrifice it was erected to honor. Amazingly, there were those who believed that process to be too hasty even while the men and women the site was to honor were dying in increasing numbers with every year that passed. Fortunately, the memorial was able to open in time for millions of those it honored to experience their nation’s tribute personally.
One of those who did that was my father-in-law, who at the age of 25 and as a father of two was drafted to serve in the 65th Infantry Division, one of those several unique units whose two-year existence on the world stage was for the sole purpose of storming Fortress Europe. Although he spoke little of his service, he and I shared the bond of both being combat infantrymen, though in vastly different wars. When the memorial opened in 2004, I called him in New Mexico and offered to take him to see it on a guys-only trip. Somewhat to my surprise, he enthusiastically accepted.
A friend in Virginia, also a Vietnam veteran, agreed to provide local transportation and serve as our Washington guide. That trip turned out to be one of the most memorable and moving events of my life, worth every penny of the cost. As we pushed the wheelchair-bound old warrior around his beautiful memorial, he was beaming with pride and engaging in happy conversation with many others just like him. Unlike my own memorial, that long black, solemn Wall, this striking marble monument was a place of joy and celebration, not one of grief and regret. I feel blessed that I was able to share that experience with my father-in-law and his fellow celebrants.
From that experience I hold a reverence for that memorial and the waning old warriors it honors, which tells me it is totally dishonorable for the Obama administration to deliberately and spitefully use this sacred site of tribute as nothing more than just another pawn in the political chess game it is now playing with the Republicans in Congress. As commander-in-chief, Barack Obama again demonstrates to the nation and to the world that he is tin-eared, tone-deaf, and totally unqualified when it comes to leading and honoring those who now serve this country as well as those who once did. Only an inexperienced and incompetent fool could fail to recognize that of all the federal edifices in Washington, there are many that could and should be closed before this one: a tribute built decades too late and now too sacred to be closed.
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Veterans Issues
Both accurate and excellent, Poetrooper.
It’s disgraceful, disgusting, and disrespectful to turn that memorial into an armed camp, and to threaten with arrest those of Obama’s Grnadfather’s generation. This aught to be a wake up call
Reposting this here-https://twitter.com/charliespiering/status/385409124109778944/photo/1 from previous thread.
I’ve heard comments (rumors, mind you) that some arrogant pricks have played the, “It’s government property” card.
It goes to show that this government is not, has long since ceased to be, will not be of/by/for the people until we TAKE it back. No demands, no threats, no whining.
TAKE IT. We do NOT exist to serve them. They exist to SERVE US. Too many of us have forgotten that.
Anybody know when the barricades were erected and how much they cost? None of the other memorials around DC seem to rate barricades.
NPS owns a bunch of those metal temporary fencing sections that they use for all sorts of different events around the Mall. Those are what we are seeing in the pics – not difficult to move at all.
Right Wisconsin has a good post on all this http://www.rightwisconsin.com/perspectives/226138711.html reports (but no pictures so far) of a vet with a sign saying “Normandy was closed when we got there too”.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Meanwhile the administration is really sparing no expense in closing off the WWI memorial http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/world-war-i-memorial-closed-except-1st-amendment-activities_759067.html
Clowns!
Meanwhile, if they have enough staff to close the Memorials (and there are pics of groups of worker bees driving fork lifts of fencing etc) why exactly are the fountains turned off?
TURN THE FOUNTAINS BACK ON, NPS!
And how about those interviews with the official NPS spokespeople telling the truth – that they were ordered to close the Memorials by the OMB??
#4. I am in total agreement with you. The Occutards were allowed to squat on public property for months with no action taken. I think a little occupation by the real tax paying public in quite in order.
…”inexperienced and incompetent fool”… Poetrooper, you’re being way too charitable to this MOTHERFUCKING MARXIST CLOWN!!!
As always, directly to the point, Poetrooper.
Ace tells off Obama regarding WWII memorial-“you didn’t build that”!
http://minx.cc/?post=343852
Substantive part-“The National World War II Memorial was funded almost entirely by private contributions, as specified in Public Law 103-32. The campaign received more than $197 million in cash and pledges. Support came from hundreds of thousands of individual Americans, hundreds of corporations and foundations, veterans groups, dozens of civic, fraternal and professional organizations, states and one territory, and students in 1,200 schools across the country.
Donated and pledged funds were used to cover the total project costs of approximately $182 million. These costs include site selection and design, construction and sculpture, a National Park Service maintenance fee required by the Commemorative Works Act, groundbreaking and dedication ceremonies, fund raising, and the 11-year administrative costs of the project from its inception in 1993 through completion in 2004.
Remaining funds are held on deposit with the U.S. Treasury in a National WWII Memorial Trust Fund. The funds will be used by the American Battle Monuments Commission solely to benefit the World War II Memorial.”
68W58
That pic of the WWI Memorial is almost hysterical! If it weren’t so damned infuriating that they even bothered to put anything there at all…..
Obama has adopted a variation of Douhet in the latest attack. Douhet’s theory focused on effecting industry, transport infrastructure, communications, government and “the will of the people”. The intent was that civilian moral would be shattered with the loss of infrastructure, and that this loss of moral would drive the populace to demand that the government capitulate to the enemy.
Obama is directly attacking the infrastructure that will most affect the will of the people and providing the narrative that we can all have our toys back in five minutes if the Republicans would just send a clean bill to Congress. He hopes that this narrative will drive the populace to demand that the House capitulates. We’ll see if he has overplayed his hand.
Wannabe diktator B. Hussein 0bama is showcasing his narcissism very nicely. He has to have everything he and his ilk want, and they’re denying all they can to everyone they can in the meantime!
Most. Narcissistic. President. Ever.
The ‘barriers’ are nothing more than bicycle racks that can be moved quickly and easily.
The Chicago Honor Flight got there this morning and is enjoying its tour now. They’ll be back tonight. They met with no resistance, by the way.
The absolute last places they need to close are the Wall, the Lincoln Memorial, and the WWII Memorial – all of which symbolize qualities this adminsitration and Congress badly need to learn.
Make a big deal about closing the parks, not feeding poor families, and not paying the military. Play politics by blaming the republicans for a scorched earth policy, the problem is that assumes we are all stupid and unaware that there were several exemptions to Obamacare implementation. Get some lefty news media people to report your perspective without question, sit back and enjoy the games…of course some folks are getting tired of games and seeking actual action. I doubt that enough people are getting upset enough to cast out their incumbents, so nothing will actually change in DC but I can dream about an electorate that will actually be motivated, engaged, and intellectually efficient enough to cast out every single incumbent and start fresh, and continue to do so until there just under 600 people in the house and senate who will actually do the jobs we pay them to do…
I am reminded of a Mencken quote:
I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.
I may not be all that amused but I do agree it’s quite idiotic most days.
We leave on our seventh Honor Flight very soon and while I certainly hope this joke of a government shutdown has ended by then, we are going, government shut down or not.
Having had the honor of escorting over 500 WWII veterans to Washington D.C. on the Big Sky Honor Flight, I can truly say that for me, each trip is just like the first one. New people, new stories, new tears and new friendships. There is little I wouldn’t do for the WWII veterans who go on this trip and those barriers are not nearly big enough, heavy enough or dangerous enough for me not to move them for these men and women. If this government debacle is still going on I’ll send you pictures of what we find there.
TERM LIMITS!!!! Plus mandatory service in some branch of the service before being allowed to hold the office of PUTUS, VP or Sec.of Def.. IMHO
I just got word that WWII veterans ( Honor Flights) are being allowed to visit the WWII Memorial as it is being considered by the Park Police as a “protest” by veterans. The general public is still not allowed to visit the memorial.
There’s a great deal to be said for the value of stoicism-Poetrooper points out that there wasn’t a WWII memorial for a long time, but then statues and monuments weren’t the point-the nation was memorial enough and the idea was that the nation ought to work to be worthy of the sacrifices of the fallen. Now we erect memorials (I enjoy them as much as the next guy) and they get caught up-intentionally-in petty partisan political struggles, in essence the become no more than pawns to our political class in their kerfuffles (or at least to one side). Frankly, I’m not sure we weren’t better off before.
@15 That is hideously like the choice a woman faces when she’s raped. Fight me, and I’ll hurt you. Don’t fight me, and I’ll hurt you anyway. If we hold out against Obamacare, we get hurt. If we let Obamacare go through, we get hurt anyway. Same choice.
Still unclear how it can be “closed”…. we visited it three days before it opened – buried Mom with Dad in Arlington and went directly from Arlington to the Memorial. Tons of folks, wide open… my brother even met Bob Dole, a big mover and shaker in its establishment. Somehow we and our government has become confused as to who is the employer and who is the employee. Recommend reading some Harry Truman again , especially when he basically says “this job belongs to the people – I am only a temporary caretaker of it, and my job is to return it to the people undamaged with as much of its original lustre as possible.”
I’ve been following this story with a bit of trepidation.
I won’t expose my paranoid illusions here, but I gotta wonder what might happen if The Wall were in play (so to speak)?
It’s too bad that we somehow couldn’t get together another “Gathering of Eagles” to show up in DC and “invade” all the monuments, parks, etc. Force a showdown with the administration about WHY they are closing public lands. Furlough the staff. Close the bathrooms. Stop trash pick up. BUT, those lands belong to “We The People” and NOT to the federal government, per se. After all, “We The People” are the federal government, not some punk ass bureaucrat or lame-ass resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It’s OUR land.
Not sure about the Korean War Memorial, but both the Viet Nam Memorial and the WWII Memorial were privately funded and are maintained with private funds. It’s a contract arrangement by private foundations with the feds.
So, even if using the argument that they do not belong to our employees fails, those arrogant pricks have already been paid for their maintenance by private individuals and foundations.
So what justification do they have for turning off the lights and the fountains, much less barricading access to anyone?
Odd you mention that, Tim. Another friend on FB brought it up today as well. And I’m for it.
=== break ===
Obama isn’t just using this for political folly, I gonna bet he likes trying to get get-evens for the grandfather that was a POW or what the fuck ever happened with him way back in WWII.
streetsweeper-I think the story is that his Kenyan granddad was held by the Brits during the Mau-Mau uprising.
Here’s the video about the Honor Flight from Chicago today.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/illinois&id=9271158
Thanks for straightening me out, 68W58. Hooah!