Flight 93 Memorial: Two Memorial Project Commission Members Quit Over The Project’s Bad Behavior

Flopping Aces ^ | 05-22-09 | Alec Rawls

[Starman417]

Two Pennsylvanian’s quit the Flight 93 Memorial Commission last week, protesting Park Service plans to condemn five crash-site properties that it never negotiated for in good faith. Consider the case of the Lambert family, who have been on their land for three generations:

"It's absolutely a surprise. I'm shocked by it. I'm disappointed by it," said Tim Lambert, who owns nearly 164 acres that his grandfather bought in the 1930s. The park service plans to condemn two parcels totaling about five acres — land, he said, he had always intended to donate for the memorial.

"To the best of my knowledge and my lawyer, absolutely no negotiations have taken place with the park service where we've sat down and discussed this," Lambert said.

Lambert said he had mainly dealt with the Families of Flight 93 and said he's provided the group all the information it's asked for, including an appraisal.

They are condemning land that he was trying to GIVE to them, just because he had the gall to expect the Park Service to actually do its part.

Project members have embraced the “absolute moral authority” conceit

How dare anyone not rush to give these grieving 9/11 family members whatever they want? Didn’t they hear Maureen Dowd’s proclamation that “the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq [or on 9/11] is absolute”?

When crash-site owner Mike Svonavec put up a donation box to try to cover some of the cost of hiring security guards for the hugely popular Temporary Memorial, Patrick White, cousin of Flight 93 hero Louis Nacke, told the press:

That land has been paid for with 40 lives ... the donation box is an insult to that cost.

When Svonavec insisted that the Park Service follow its own legally required procedures for assessing property values (procedures that, as it happens, take into account current property values, not just pre-crash property values), White accused Svonavec of trying to profit from the blood of his cousin:

[WayneS]

RE: Patrick White’s behavior.

It just goes to show that a$$holes who suffer personal tragedy don’t necessarily STOP being a$$holes.

[Hodar]

The actual number of acres in DisneyLand (California park) that the public actually can ‘see’ is just 85 acres.

I think condemning anything near 150+ acres is just govermental abuse.

[awake-n-angry]

“They are condemning land that he was trying to GIVE to them, just because he had the gall to expect the Park Service to actually do its part.”
_____________

I don’t think I’m getting something. The Park Service was taking the land and the landowner was giving the land, what else is there to do?? Seems like there is something else going on here.

[BikerJoe]

I think condemning anything near 150+ acres is just govermental abuse.

The mind-boggling thing about this memorial is that the TOTAL SIZE is 2200 acres!!!!!

Fer cryin' out loud, I mean, I want to honor the heroes of Flight 93, but 2200 friggin' acres?????

[BlueStateBlues]

This is lowdown. The land should be obtained fairly and respectably. A grown up needs to step in and stop this.

[freekitty]

Who actually knows what the government will do with 2200 acres?

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I have no particular dog in this fight.

Security costs are current expenses. This is the kind of thing people forget about. People get all excited about having a new library built in the town, and in general, I support such projects. So they become activists for a bond issue to save up for the library. Fine. Then the issue of the annual $275K operating budget comes up and they can’t find it.

I’m *slightly* irritated by what seems like an excessive buy price for the memorial land. But I have no idea as to the before and after values.

But I’m more irritated by the attitudes of the relatives of the crash victims, who believe they are owed as much as they’re willing to ask for.

[mkjessup]

Well, maybe they’re planning on some more attacks with Comrade 0bama in charge, and they think they’re going to need more acreage.

[ridesthemiles]

The actual number of acres in DisneyLand (California park) that the public actually can ‘see’ is just 85 acres.

I think condemning anything near 150+ acres is just govermental abuse.””

Disneyland in Anaheim was built on acreage PURCHASED from the Herbert family. Chet Herbert- the creator of Herbert Cams for racing and other uses was one of the children of that family. He told me once that his parents had operated an orange grove there for years before Walt Disney came along and wanted to buy the land.

Chet is gone now, and he was a very nice man. His sister Doris started a publication called Drag News.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

That’s not going to happen in Pennsylvania. We don’t elect grown-ups here.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

That land has been paid for with 40 lives ... the donation box is an insult to that cost.

So your cousin's death entitles you to not only this man's land, but all the associated expenses that come with maintaining it as a memorial site? Sorry, Victim's Cousin White, but you're a complete idiot. And an a$$hole.

[vpintheak]

I think it’s the priciple of the thing. He was planning on giving at respectfully in honor of the victems. The Park service instead of talking to him about it at all, just decided they were going to condemn the land and take it. No negotiations, nothing, just take it. That would seriously burn my hide too. It does right now and I have no stake in it.