The World War II Memorial in Washington D.C., a major visitation site every day for many wheel-chair bound WWII vets, has been shut down by the Obama administration, ostensibly because of the government shutdown.
Yet, this memorial, like others, sits on wide-open, public land, and never has any park rangers present to maintain order. The National Mall and similar public monuments have never before been closed during any other government shutdown, and in fact, the Obama administration had to work very hard and spend a lot of expense to find a way to close it off to the public.
In the words of one park ranger, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
Nor is Obama limiting this illegal act to the National Mall. Across the country, he’s shuttering privately run businesses, inns and restaurants, he’s trying to close parts of the ocean in Florida, and he’s evicting elderly people from their homes in Nevada. He’s even ordered closed the pull-offs to view Mount Rushmore from the highway.
Of course, these acts are intentional. He’s trying to cause as much pain as possible. Those are in essence the words he’s used in his orders, “Cause as much pain as possible.” Which is, as the park ranger put it, disgusting behavior for a president. He’s doing it because he’s counting on the people blaming the Republicans in the House instead of him.
But, underlying these actions is a much more problematic philosophy — that the federal government has the right to keep the people off public land. They don’t.
We aren’t kindergartners who can’t be trusted to visit a memorial without the proper chaperones.
If the park service can’t police it, so be it. If we then visit, we take the risk upon ourselves of protecting ourselves. But it’s our land.
In the case of the World War II Memorial, not only is it public land, but it was paid for with private funds. Only $16 million came from the federal government. $197 million came from donations by private citizens.
That’s right. A government that can spend $146 million each year on upgrades of flights to first class for federal employees, could only offer a paltry $16 million to pay for the World War II Memorial.
And now that same government has the gall to think it belongs to them, not the people. They’ve come to think of themselves as a separate class from the rest of us, as an elite class that exists to rule us.
It is time for civil disobedience.
I urge all citizens of this country who happen to live near one of these areas to disobey. Remove barricades, cut wires linking those barricades, move cones, walk past posted guards and ignore them.
If we can’t afford park rangers, and thus have to close the parks, how are we affording to pay these same rangers to guard areas that never had rangers before.
It’s a sham, and it’s strong-arming the American public. It’s an effort to slam us down and show us who is in charge. How dare we elect officials who challenge the party line, who challenge the status quo? Obama is going to show us who rules who.
This philosophy must be corrected. It is up to the American people to visibly remind the federal government that they are our servants, not our rulers.
It is important that we never engage in violence or aggression. The Obama administration would love for that to happen. No, we must follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King and never give them grounds to criticize. We are above that.
But we also must not let them get away with it.
Zack's Desk 