What’s interesting is when it comes to estate valuation for tax purposes, the real estate is valued often not as it is currently being used but as it might be used. Thus, farmers who haven’t chosen the farm valuation option with its restrictions might have the land valued at subdivision values. Yet when it comes to valuing land for eminent domain purposes, the government low-balls it. For the government it’s win-win and for the public it’s lose-lose everytime.
The owner should set up some kind of memorial at the site and allow access to it, at a price at least enough to maintain the marker and roads to it and whatever else the market would bear. If the families believe the memorial is insufficient, they have a choice to set up another memorial somewhere nearby on public lands or purchase the property at the price that includes its new value as a historic crash site.
While I honor the bravery and sacrifice of the Flight 93 men and women, I can’t condone the heavy hand of government forcing the landowners to dedicate their land to a memorial or a “cemetery”. What has made this country what it is is the ability to move beyond tragedy to victory, beyond tradition to progress. Americans have little patience with those who believe they have the right to freeze their progress to mourn the past year after year after year, and to expect others to accede to their wishes. I don’t want this nation to become a museum for the past as Europe is becoming. We build, tear down, remember, then move on.
Citizen, report to reeducation immediately.
My only curiosity here...everytime that they crash a plane over the next fifty years in America...which you know it will eventually happen again...will we toss out $50 million for each memorial? There is a point where we lose sight of reality, and in this case...we’ve lost that reality.