Government Steals Land

PITTSBURGH – The government will begin taking land from seven property owners so that the Flight 93 memorial can be built in time for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the National Park Service said. Story here.

On September 11th 2001, an airliner flying from Newark, NJ to San Francisco, Ca., was hijacked mid-flight by terrorists. They planned to plunge the plane into the Capitol building or the White House in Washington D.C.

Fortunately, the brave passengers aboard the airliner were able to overpower the hijackers and prevent them carrying out their plan - but in the process of retaking the hijacked airliner, it plunged to the ground in the middle of Pennsylvania. There were no survivors.

Almost a decade later, the National Park service intends to build a memorial to these brave men and women - but have run into a slight problem. Much of the land on which they want to build the $58 million, 2,200-acre permanent memorial and national park actually belongs to other people.

So what have the government done? Condemned it.

'Condemn,' in this context, means to appropriate for government use. Basically, the government has told the seven landowners who have deeds to the crash site that their property is being taken for the memorial whether they like it or not.

Tim Lambert, who owns five acres the government are planning to use for the park, very diplomatically states that he's 'disappointed' by the government's decision. His grandfather had bought that land in the 1800s - and he'd always intended to donate the five acres in question before the government preempted him by commandeering it.

Park service spokesman Phil Sheridan tried to justify the decision:

"We always prefer to get that land from a willing seller, but sometimes you just can't come to an agreement on certain things."

That reasoning rings hollow. As Tim Lambert revealed: "No negotiations have taken place with the park service. We never sat down to discuss this."

In fact, the landowners had been given the explicit understanding that the government would never use 'eminent domain' to simply 'seize' their land. Unfortunately, that's a promise the park service weren't willing to keep.

While I understand the passion of those who want to build a memorial to the victims of United Flight 93, I think it's horrible that the land for the memorial is being acquired in this way.

In some cases, it's not entirely the fault of the government. Certain landowners - like Mike Svonavec, who owns the crash site itself - have been spectacularly uncooperative with the governments attempts to negotiate. (Svonavec offended many by placing a collection box on the crash-site, calling for donations for the memorial, while actually using the money to pay for security on his property.)

However, like in the case of Tim Lambert, the others weren't even offered the chance to negotiate about it. They simply received notice that their land was being seized.

As fitting as it is for the victims of United Flight 93 to be remembered in a memorial, I doubt any of them would have wanted that memorial to come at the price of stealing other people's land!