Liar, Liar, Smokey Bear Hats

…on fire?

U.S. to Condemn Land for Flight 93 Memorial
The government will begin taking land from seven property owners so that the Flight 93 memorial can be built in time for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the National Park Service said.
In a a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the park service said it had teamed up with a group representing the victims’ families to work with landowners since before 2005 to acquire the land.
“But with few exceptions, these negotiations have been unsuccessful,” said the statement, which was to be released later Thursday.
…”It’s absolutely a surprise. I’m shocked by it. I’m disappointed by it,” said Tim Lambert, who owns nearly 164 acres that his grandfather bought in the 1930s. The park service plans to condemn two parcels totaling about five acres — land, he said, he had always intended to donate for the memorial.
“To the best of my knowledge and my lawyer, absolutely no negotiations have taken place with the park service where we’ve sat down and discussed this,” Lambert said.

(The design itself has enough problems as it is…)
This whole memorial thing is completely and utterly out of hand. If you can’t frickin’ get something built within eight YEARS of such a horrific event that touched ALL Americans, f*ckin’ fuggedaboudit. Leave both sites empty with simple plaques or put them back the way they were before. Save the touchy-feely, deeply profound, over wrought, over thought, endlessly argumentive sh*t for, oh, I don’t know ~ how ’bout Obama’s presidential library?
Almost a decade of wrangling and divergent interests do nobody any honor.

5 Responses to “Liar, Liar, Smokey Bear Hats”

1. ricki says:

   May 7, 2009 at 8:34 am

   It’s a “monument to American Freedom” that the government had to steal the land to build.
   Lovely. Someone who’s close by Mr. Spock, would you please check to see if he has a beard?

2. JeffS says:

   May 7, 2009 at 9:24 am

   This is one memorial that I will certainly never visit. Way to go, National Park Service!

3. Skyler says:

   May 7, 2009 at 12:03 pm

   I think John Murtha and Arlen Specter were still trying to figure out what their cuts would be. Now that Specter has no seniority, Murtha is free to take the full share.

4. Dave J. says:

   May 7, 2009 at 9:32 pm

   The heroes of Flight 93 didn’t die for eminent domain. This is repulsive.

5. Gary from Jersey says:

   May 8, 2009 at 4:01 pm

   Ditto Dave J. I suspect, given the anti-American mood in this country, that that memorial will be forgotten the day after it’s built.