I'm fed up hearing the Bogeyman will get us if the ground zero mosque isn't built.
I am surprised that during the controversy, not one word has been said as to how the problem might be solved by declaring ground zero a national monument.
Ground zero is not hallowed ground for just the city of New York or the state of New York. It is hallowed ground for the entire nation. Life for the entire nation was changed by the tragedy.
It was the spark that united all of us against terrorists who would destroy the United States. It was at ground zero where the president of the United States vowed that we would meet and defeat terrorists who would destroy our country.
This site ranks with Lexington-Concord where the colonists fired back at the British troops for the first time. The Minute Man National Historic Park says 967 acres have been preserved for this historic site.
The United States has approximately 100 protected areas known as national monuments. The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to proclaim "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" as national monuments.
The President of the United States can establish a national monument by executive order, and the United States Congress can by legislation.
President Theodore Roosevelt established the first national monument and established a total of 18 monuments. To date only Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush did not establish a monument.
Ground zero could be reserved by eminent domain and a "margin of respectability" could be used to protect the hallowed ground from any type of enterprise encroaching on the monument.
This, of course, would entail coordination between the city, state and federal governments, making the most of what has already been built, but it could be done. This country can do almost anything once it puts its mind to it.
The establishment of such a monument would preclude any type of establishment from being adjacent to hallowed ground.
In February 1940 Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land." It is as fitting now as it was in 1940:
"In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me."
Amen, brother!
