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Gray, Norton Blast WWI Memorial Plan
| Source: |
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Washington Examiner (DC) |
| Date: |
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Monday, January 23, 2012 |
| Author: |
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Alan Binder |
District leaders on Monday again hammered a bipartisan proposal that would convert D.C.’s World War I Memorial into a national memorial, a maneuver they decried as another example of congressional meddling in District affairs.
“We are going to fight congressional bullying of every variety whenever it rears its ugly head,” D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “It appears that for Republicans in the House, denying representation is simply not enough. They have moved on to appropriating – or trying to appropriate – a memorial to our war dead.”
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray also slammed the proposal, which a House subcommittee will consider at a hearing on Tuesday, as “a true insult.”
“Preserving this memorial and fighting to preserve this memorial as a D.C. memorial is yet another example of how we need to stand up for ourselves,” Gray said. “The D.C. memorial doesn’t need to be anything else. It is the D.C. memorial, and it should remain the D.C. memorial.”
Under the House bill, which Texas Republican Rep. Ted Poe is spearheading, the District of Columbia War Memorial would be renamed the District of Columbia and National World War I Memorial.
But Norton and her allies say that’s a slap to the D.C. residents who funded the memorial, the 499 Washington residents killed in World War I combat and other veterans.
“The provision of this bill that changes the status of the D.C. War Memorial dishonors the proud military service, selfless sacrifice, legacy and memory of all of our D.C. veterans,” said Kerwin Miller, a former director of the District’s Office of Veterans Affairs. “I am truly shocked and personally offended that any member of Congress would even consider taking this important tribute to our District of Columbia veterans away from our D.C. residents.”
The proposals aren’t just confined to the House Republican caucus. A similar bill is making its way through the Senate, though with a Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, sponsoring the measure.
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2012/01/gra y-norton-blast-wwi-memorial-plan/2126706
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