Government STEALING private land for United 93 memorial

This blog commented about the issue a little over four months ago: how some of the families of passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 were petitioning the federal government (and then-President George W. Bush in particular) to seize private property by eminent domain so as to have a memorial to those who died in the 9/11 attack.

Well, those families are getting what they wanted: the federal government is about to CONDEMN land from seven owners so as to build a 2,200 acre "memorial site", and it's planning to rush the proceedings through so that the thing can be ready in time for the tenth anniversary of the hijackings.

I'll probably draw some flack for asking this aloud, but: what the HELL did those innocent people who died on United 93 actually DIE for, if the American government is now STEALING private property?

This is an act of brutal socialism: using force of government to take from those who own a thing, so as to benefit what will number a relatively few.

And I'll go ahead and say this too: this is exactly the kind of thing that the very same Islamic extremists who launched the 9/11 attacks have been doing for centuries to the shrines of other religions: declaring them to be "Islamic holy sites" and denying access to them by those of other faiths. If you own land, all the United States government now has to do is declare it a "historic place" and it can now take it from you.

I said a few months ago: the appropriate use of the land is to let the owners do with it as they see fit. That if "they" seriously "hate us for our freedoms" then let's insult them and show our resolve by displaying 2,200 acres of capitalism at work.

(And as I also said before, isn't 2,200 acres way too much for a memorial anyway?)

There is a right way to honor the lives of those who died on United 93. This is not the way to do that. In fact, what the government is doing in their name is shameful and disgusting. And I hope and pray to God that the rightful owners of the land fight this all the way.

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United 93 families want Bush to steal land for memorial

Many of the families of passengers who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 want George W. Bush to approve a seizure by the federal government of the field where the ill-fated flight crashed on the morning of the 9/11 attacks. The families want to turn the field into a memorial.

In other words, these people want to implement socialism to commemorate freedom.

I have never liked "eminent domain" uses like this, which is what the United 93 families are trying to call the seizure. But this isn't for something needed like a highway or whatever. In this case it boils down to taking privately-held property (owned by Svonavec Inc.) by force of government, for benefit of a very few people.

Look, I think that what the passengers on United 93 did was courage personified. And their example is certainly something that all people can look to as an act of selfless abandon. But it is wrong to attempt to "memorialize" those who fought back on United 93 by violating the virtues of the country that they wound up doing everything in their power to protect.

You want to know what would be a much more appropriate memorial to United 93? Let the owners of Svonavec do with the field as they see fit. If "they" indeed "hate us for our freedoms" then what better way to give "the terris" a giant middle finger than to show 'em 2,200 acres of pure undefeated capitalism?

(Incidentally, 2,200 acres is how big the United 93 families want the memorial to be. Isn't the Vietnam War Memorial at Arlington something like one or two acres?)

Wouldn't surprise me if Bush approved the seizure in his final days as President. The man has shown so little regard for conservative values anyway: why should he feel obligated to demonstrate 'em now?

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Just watched UNITED 93

Tonight was the night that United 93 premiered on HBO. If you have HBO-W it'll be coming on again in another hour or so. We watched it in full glorious high-definition.

This one is going to be haunting me for the next few days, I just know it.

United 93 was the plane that was hijacked on 9-11, that the passengers fought back before it could hit its intended target (presumably this was going to be the Capitol building). Instead it spiralled into the ground in a field in rural Pennsylvania.

This was the first movie about 9-11 that I've ever seen. I'll almost certainly be picking up the DVD for this soon. United 93 is one of the finest historical movies that I've seen, and it captures the intensity of that horrible day... I don't want to say beautifully, but it does resonate strong if you were watching it happen, wherever you were that day. The reactions from the characters are made all the more authentic when you realize, during the credits, that most of the real-life air traffic control and military staff on duty that day played themselves in this film.

This was just... wow.

I don't know if I've seen any other films by Paul Greengrass before, but I'm definitely going to find out about what else he's done. I'll strongly recommend United 93, but be mindful that this is one of the more intense movies to come out lately.

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