Compare and Contrast

The "barricade" at the WWI memorial is just a single six-foot length of fence, barricading nothing at all, and a sign:

Now let's look at the WWII memorial.

Wow, it's almost like Fort Knox, if Fort Knox is where we guarded our precious stores of grass and concrete.

What's the difference?

Simple, really: There are Honor Flights of vets scheduled to see the latter but not the former.

Thus this isn't about "maintenance" or "saving money" or CPR, as the Park Service claimed yesterday. (That they had staff trained in CPR administration, who were not actually at the site, but I guess theoretically if someone stopped breathing they could take a cab and get there in 20 minutes or something.)

This is about the fact that a lot of people are coming to see the WWII Memorial, and the Administration wishes to hurt them.

Very few people are coming to see the WWI Memorial (sadly), and thus suddenly these worries about "CPR" and "maintenance" (of concrete) and "funding" no longer apply.

By the way, let's look at the funding for the WWII Memorial.

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.

Hey Barack Obama -- you didn't fucking build that. Someone else did, and someone else is paying for its upkeep.

Via @mccormackjohn and @lochnar

posted by Ace at 12:43 PM

| Access Comments