Velvet Ropes, Barricades And The Democrat’s Government Shutdown

Photo Credit:  Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

At the World War II Memorial there is a Freedom Wall.  The Monument is known as the Field of Gold Stars.  The inscription there reads: 

Here We Mark The Price Of Freedom

At the entrance to the memorial is the Announcement Stone.  The inscription on that stone reads:

Here In The Presence Of Washington And Lincoln,

One The Eighteenth Century Father And The Other The

Nineteenth Century Preserver Of Our Nation,

We Honor Those Twentieth Century Americans

Who Took Up The Struggle During The Second World War

And Made Sacrifices To Perpetuate The Gift Our Forefathers

Entrusted To Us:

A Nation Conceived In Liberty And Justice

The memorial weaves the watershed event of the 20th century into the National Mall's historical narrative as it humbly pays tribute to America’s greatest generation. 

More than 125 Honor Flight veterans from Mississippi and Iowa arrived for a previously scheduled visit to the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning, the first day of the government shutdown, to find it barricaded by the National Park Service. Several members of Congress escorted them inside after cutting police tape and moving barriers that blocked the memorial.

The trip had been planned for months for a group of 91 veterans as well as family members and escorts.

The Daily Caller and Ace of Spades reported that The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer specifically denied a permit to allow these veterans to visit the memorial.

Former Senator Bob Dole said of the memorial:

“When World War II ended, the generation of Americans that defeated the forces of tyranny neither asked for nor expected a memorial. They came home. They went to work. And they built a nation that remains the world's most powerful example of democracy and freedom in action.” 

“Many heroes from that great conflict did not return home. They didn't live to see the fruits of their sacrifice.  More than 12 million of the 16 million who served in uniform will not live to see the memorial completed. We build this memorial in their memory. We build it so future generations of Americans never forget what the World War II generation was called to do. We build it so they never forget the cost of freedom.” 

“There will come a day when many of our youth will be called veterans. Although our prayers ask for peace, the lessons of history teach us that freedom is not free. It must be earned and it must be protected from those who would conquer and oppress.” 

“The World War II Memorial will reinforce the message of our National Mall—the message of freedom—for generations to come.”

We owe our World War II veterans—in fact, all our veterans—a debt we can never fully repay.

The kabuki theater over national park closings is a disgusting, vindictive and trivial antic by this president and his minions in the Democratic Party.  It is meant to give the American people the sense that the function of federal workers is to open velvet ropes and point to where Washington once slept.

For the troops, many of whom are wheelchair-bound and now in their 80’s and 90’s, who fought at Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Bataan Corregidor, The Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Buna, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Murmansk Run, Anzio, St. Lo, Alsace, The Battle of the Bulge and Remagen Bridge, storming the Memorial against National Park Police was an easy victory.

Erecting barricades to keep these honorable men and women from the memorial that was built in their honor became something vile.   All these elderly vets wanted to do was lay flowers and pay their respects to their fallen brothers— a generation that changed the world.

And the president remained silent.