There is an interesting fight brewing over the planned memorial to Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The owner of the land, Svonavec Inc., refuses to sell a critical part of the needed land and the relatives want President Bush to seize the property to allow them to start construction of the memorial so that it can be finished by 2011 — the tenth anniversary of the tragedy.
Patrick White, vice president of the group Families of Flight 93, has asked President Bush to empower the Secretary of the Interior to take the land. They are demanding 2200 acres for the memorial — much of which are owned by Svonavec. The company has refused to negotiate and the National Park Service has indicated that it is retaining an independent appraiser for 275 acres in dispute.
The government has set aside $58 million for the memorial. The company reportedly turned down a $250,000 offer from the Park Service as well as a $750,000 offer from Families of Flight 93. The company reportedly wants $10 million for the land and forced the Park Service to move the temporary memorial off his land, citing security reasons. The difference between $10 million and the price offered is a bit curious. Either the company is profiteering or the group is trying to force an effective corporate donation of the land. Notably, there have been three appraisals including a second appraisal that was never released by the service.
Mike Svonavec of Svonavec Inc. has complained that the National Park Service and Flight 93 groups are “trying to make my company and myself look like the bad guy in this.” They appear to have succeeded.
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Bob,
I agree with you on several points. cheney recently called 9/11 one of the high points of his time in office. I don’t think that was just an unfortunate choice of words. If you look at everything that led up to 9/11 the minimum conclusion is they let it go down and took full advantage of it afterward.
The idea of a memorial to the Constitution is an excellent idea.
Buddha,
I share your complete frustration with the govt. I don’t think a violent response is a good idea. It’s going to take a very creative approach, multipronged and well considered to counter these people. I admit to a non-violent orientation, but as a practical matter, I don’t think violence against the govt. will work. This govt. is READY for violence. They won’t hesitate to use incredible violence against their own citizens. I said this before, but I really think the upper class needs to get protesting in the streets (the govt. will be constrained in a violent reaction to the upper class) and the lower classes need to devise whole new methods of protest.
I’m with Bob and raff. Where’s the Constitutional Memorial?
More importantly, where is the restoration of the Constitution and the trials and punishments for the criminal Bush administration? We the People won’t wait forever. Don’t make us take matters into our own hands. Test us if you doubt it. Justice will be served along with heaping bowls of crow. I’d prefer by peaceful judicial process, but at this point, I’m considering opening a business that only has growth potential. I’m going to call it “The Angry Villager Torch & Rope Supply”. Free lighter with the purchase of three or more torches.
Sleep tight, D.C.
Bob,Esq.,
I like your idea of a memorial for the Constitution. After the damage done by the Bush Administration, maybe a Constitutional memorial is in order.
Not for nothing, but where’s the memorial for the Constitution?
If Jill wants cynical, I think she should google up ‘holiest day in nazi calendar’ and see what comes up.
Neun November (9-11) ist am besten tage for popaganda; bitte.
Waynebro,
Amen brother!
Oh and as for the ” descent of the dignity of the Office of the President of the United States back into the toilet bowl as it did with Bill Clinton” statement, allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your recovery from your 8 year coma.
Now, allow me to introduce you to our current President, one George “W” (as in Whatthef#$k) Bush, who took that descent from the toilet bowl all the way to the sewer.
In fact I think they even named one after him.
What are you kidding me?
We’re at war in 2 countries. The counties economy has practically collapsed. We have new terrorist reports for strikes in the US and global warming is upon us and you’re gripe with our incoming President, who’s not even President yet, is that he wore an old T-Shirt and had his baseball cap on backwards?
You must really hate America to want it to fail so badly, that you’d try to defeat our incoming President prior to taking office, over the way he chose to dress on his holiday.
You must really hate America.
hezno 1, December 29, 2008 at 9:45 pm
“The world was stunned to see Barack Obama looking like some kind of teen rapper wanna be walking out of a store with baggy jogging pants, a worn T-shirt, and a baseball cap turned backwards. Thus begins the descent of the dignity of the Office of the President of the United States back into the toilet bowl as it did with Bill Clinton.”
What are you kidding me?
We’re at war in 2 countries. The counties economy has practically collapsed. We have new terrorist reports for strikes in the US and global warming is upon us and you’re gripe with our incoming President, who’s not even President yet, is that he wore an old T-Shirt and had his baseball cap on backwards?
You must really hate America to want it to fail so badly, that you’d try to defeat our incoming President prior to taking office, over the way he chose to dress on his holiday.
So! We have the President-elect of the most powerful country in the world, the one nation that stands between the many billions of world inhabitants that treasure freedom and democracy and the thugs of the world that would take it from them, the man who walks with a briefcase that containst the nuclear codes that could incinerate the world, the man who is Commander in Chief of an army of several million with a power unmatched in the world, and this man, this President-elect, walks around with EITHER HIS HEAD ON BACKWARDS OR HE HAS HIS STUPID BASEBALL CAP TURNED BACKWARDS – YOU DECIDE.
The world was stunned to see Barack Obama looking like some kind of teen rapper wanna be walking out of a store with baggy jogging pants, a worn T-shirt, and a baseball cap turned backwards. Thus begins the descent of the dignity of the Office of the President of the United States back into the toilet bowl as it did with Bill Clinton.
So we have the President-elect of the most powerful country in the world, the one nation that stands between the many billions of world inhabitants that treasure freedom and democracy and the thugs of the world that would take it from them, the man who walks with a briefcase that containst the nuclear codes that could incinerate the world, the man who is Commander in Chief of an army of several million with a power unmatched in the world, and this man, this President-elect, walks around with EITHER HIS HEADO BACKWARDS OR HE HAS HIS STUPID BASEBALL CAP TURNED BACKWARDS – YOU DECIDE.
The world was stunned to see Barack Obama looking like some kind of teen rapper wanna be walking out of a store with baggy jogging pants, a worn T-shirt, and a baseball cap turned backwards. Thus begins the descent of the dignity of the Office of the President of the United States back into the toilet bowl as it did with Bill Clinton.
Surprise! Surprise! Former New York Times reporter & many time MSNBC guest on guess who’s shows Chris Hedges has admitted what almost anyone familiar with his reality-challenged rantings already knew: he is a socialist!
I am wondering about this as well. I wish there was a way to find accurate information about the situation. I could see bush doing this for two cynical reasons; to raise his poll numbers and to hype terrorism. He does not now and never did care about any of our people who died, not the civilians and not the soldiers he ordered to their deaths.
They haven’t even finished the monument on the site of the Twin Towers yet so I can’t see why they’re suddenly so worried about this spot.
Mespo,
You may be right that we don’t need a monument to the people who tragically died in that hijack attempt. If we have a monument for these victims, how about a monument for all of our 4,500 plus soldiers who have died in Iraq, not to mention the countless thousands who have been seriously wounded?
As U.S. Succeeds In Iraq, Network TV Pulls the Plug
By Rich Noyes | December 29, 2008 – 14:49
After reporters such as NBC’s Tom Brokaw derided President Bush’s troop surge as “a folly” and suggested the war itself was a “lost cause,” ABC, CBS and NBC have now all pulled their full time reporters from Iraq. According to correspondent Brian Stelter, the stellar lack of violence means the networks have lost interest in the Iraq story: “Representatives for the networks emphasized that they would continue to cover the war and said the staff adjustments reflected the evolution of the conflict in Iraq from a story primarily about violence to one about reconstruction and politics.”
Examples of earlier reporting:
■ “Like a folly.” Last Tuesday on NBC’s Today, anchor emeritus Tom Brokaw argued that the way Saddam Hussein was executed revealed Iraq as “a deeply divided country along tribal lines,” and that sending more troops would “seem to most people…like a folly.” Brokaw added: “I think a lot of people who are raising their hands to join the armed services are wondering, ‘I’m giving my life for that?’”
■ “Wrong Way Corrigan.” The next morning on Today, political analyst Chris Matthews declared the President’s plan dead on arrival: “I expect it will be treated the way Richard Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia was reacted to. The American people aren’t gonna like it.” Matthews insisted that the voters wanted to end, not mend, Bush’s Iraq policies and “for the President to go Wrong Way Corrigan on this thing and to increase the number of troops, take us deeper into Iraq, would be to reject the opinion of the American people.”
■ “Absolutely no difference.” This week, as more details of the President’s plan were revealed, the anti-surge drum-beat got louder. On CBS’s Early Show, co-host Harry Smith asked Baghdad reporter Lara Logan if extra troops would make a difference. “The best thing we have is to look at what has happened already. When the U.S. brought in 12,000 more troops into Baghdad last summer, it made absolutely no difference,” Logan replied. “In fact, security here in Baghdad got even worse.”
■ “Lost Cause?” On Tuesday’s Today, NBC’s White House reporter David Gregory suggested even White House insiders have lost faith. “As the President prepares to start a new phase of the war in Iraq, the White House is fending off charges that key figures in the administration have concluded the war is lost.” NBC’s graphic headline read “Lost Cause? Can U.S. Win the War In Iraq?” Gregory also cited unnamed “critics” to suggest Bush’s motives were psychological: “U.S. commanders who opposed adding troops to Iraq have been replaced, prompting critics to charge the President’s resolve has become stubbornness.”
■ Roll call of critics. On Wednesday’s Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer confronted White House aide Dan Bartlett: “I just want to run through a partial roll call of the number of people who have either opposed what the President is going to do, or expressed serious reservations.” As she read off names such as Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel, their names and faces scrolled over her right shoulder. “I could go on and on,” Sawyer told Bartlett. “What don’t they get? What don’t they understand?” Bartlett objected, saying some of the generals she listed as critics “helped devise this plan.”
■ “Breaking Point.” On yesterday’s Today, co-host Meredith Vieira doubted that the U.S. military could meet the challenge: “The cornerstone of his plan is sending around 20,000 additional U.S. troops into the war zone. But is the military stretched to the breaking point already?” Reporter Jim Miklaszewski suggested it was: “The pace of two wars has left two-thirds of the Army’s combat brigades rated ‘Not Ready to Fight.’”
they don’t need that much land and to ask bush to just take it sounds more like the ideals of the hijackers and not americans. just scale the thing back.
I don’t think a monument justifies eminent domain. This is not a national battlefield nor a route for an interstate highway. There are other fitting ways to commemorate the victims of this tragedy without depriving the owner of its land or forcing a “donation” of the land at the government’s and victim’s families’ price. Were I advising the company, I would suggest doing exactly what they are doing now. Sentiment is fine, but it shouldn’t cost someone rights to which they are entitled.
I agree Rafflaw, a fair price should be paid for the property.
I don’t have a problem with eminent domain if the property is taken for a legitimate state purpose and a fair market price is paid. That being said, I am not sure why the government needs 2200 acres for a monument to the sad event. Too much money for these hard economic times for too much property. The owners do have the right to ask whatever price they want, but the appraisals will control as to the “fair” price.
Why should President Bush seize the property?? Why should the government be allowed to seize anyone’s land? What if it was a farmers field that it happened at? Should the farmer be forced to sell off land that is his family’s life?
$250,000 for 2200 acres is $113.64 an acre. That is robbery. So is $750,000 for the property at $340.91 an acre. Just where can one get property that cheap??? The owner of the property has every right to ask whatever price he or she wants to. It’s THEIR property.