Analyst's note: "D-day" is scheduled again as veterans from across the United States are even now descending on DC. In fact, we have vets, bikers, and 18-wheelers decending on DC in a matter of hours now to take a stand against tyranny. Americans will ulitimately make it known that this gov't works for us, not the otherway around.
[....] "The total cost of closing national parks amounts to around $750 million in lost revenue, underscoring how their shutdown has nothing to do with saving money and everything to do with the Obama administration playing spiteful political games."
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October 11, 2013
Image: Iwo Jima Monument.
Veterans from across the country are prepared to go to jail as they plan to storm barricaded memorials and monuments this weekend in a forceful rebuke to the government shutdown, setting up a potential confrontation with National Park Service employees who have been ordered to “make life as difficult for people” as possible.
One of the defining moments of the backlash against the shutdown was when veterans stormed past barricades at the World War II Memorial in DC last Monday. The federal government subsequently ordered that the barricades be reinforced and wired shut.
Similar scenes are set to be repeated over the next few days as vets from numerous states descend on memorials built in their honor and prepare to remove anything or anyone that gets in their way.
The federal government has indicated that some barricades will be opened to allow the veterans access, but other sites will remain closed.
- Honor Flight veterans from New York plan to break through barricades that have been placed around the Iwo Jima Monument near Arlington National Cemetery. They have asked for help from attendees of the Million Vet March, a protest taking place in DC on the same weekend which will demand the monuments be kept open.
- Las Vegas veterans plan to visit the DC Memorial on Saturday. 90-year-old World War II veteran Ed Turken says he is prepared to “go to jail” to see the monument if feds try to block access. “If I’m going that far, and it’s just a couple hundred feet from looking at it, why shouldn’t I be able to go in? It is the country’s monument,” Turken told the Las Vegas Review Journal, adding, “We won the war. Now the guys we put into office for crying out loud aren’t doing their jobs. Their job is to help us, govern us, and they’re closing everything that we worked for.”
- 89-year-old World War II veteran John Domino will leave from Palm Beach International Airport to visit DC for what he believes is his last chance to see the memorial. Asked what he will do if feds try to block access, Domino told CBS 12, “I don’t know. If I can climb over the fence, I would climb over it. I would like to see it,” adding, “The whole thing doesn’t make sense. We have such a beautiful country here, and its not run properly.”
- Veterans with the Kansas Honor Flight left on Wednesday for a “battle with the barricades” in Washington DC. “For them to block it off and keep these veterans who freed this country is just totally ridiculous,” said Honor Flight Executive Board Member Tom Demayo.
- East Tennessee veterans will also visit the nation’s Capitol to see the DC memorial. “They’re the reason we’re free and they’re the reason that these memorials are there to honor them,” Sen. Rusty Crowe told Johnson City Press.
- Veterans from East Texas will visit the main DC memorial as well as the Vietnam, Korean, and Lincoln Memorials. “Trip organizers say they are hopeful the veterans will be able to keep their full itinerary despite the shutdown,” reports KLTV.
- Veterans from Northeastern Wisconsin will visit Washington on October 17 to see the memorials. “We don’t want any surprises,” organizer Diane MacDonald told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Many have charged that the administration has set about vindictively using the government shutdown as an excuse to punish the American people. An equal amount or even more resources than would normally be needed to keep national parks, canals, hiking trails and memorials open has been put into closing and policing them.
Although the White House claims the national parks were closed because there was no money to fund their operation, Park Rangers have been deployed to patrol them “around the clock” and are now arresting people for trespassing, while treating the tourists who remained in the parks up until the shutdown was announced more like like terrorists.
The total cost of closing national parks amounts to around $750 million in lost revenue, underscoring how their shutdown has nothing to do with saving money and everything to do with the Obama administration playing spiteful political games.
