Park Service Honors Freedom’s Heroes By Stomping On Property Rights

The passengers of United Flight 93 were heroes. Scared, unsure of what the future held, and in the face of everything that passengers previously understood about hijackings, they knew that it was their duty to try to overcome the odds and take down the hijackers on that flight. They didn’t turn to a sky marshal, or rely on nonexistent “authorities”, they courageously got up and fought. While they were ultimately unsuccessful at bringing Flight 93 to a safe conclusion, and paid a heavy price for their efforts, they’ve saved countless lives through their actions. They saved those who were the intended target of Flight 93 that day. But more importantly, more than anything the TSA and airport checkpoints could have done, the simple knowledge that passengers won’t sit idly by and acquiesce to hijacker’s demands are IMHO the reason that we haven’t seen an attempted hijacking since 9/11.

I would love to see the courage and bravery of those passengers memorialized. But not like this. Not at the cost of freedom:

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.

In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the park service said it had teamed up with a group representing the victims’ families to work with landowners since before 2005 to acquire the land.

“But with few exceptions, these negotiations have been unsuccessful,” said the statement.

Landowners dispute that negotiations have taken place and say they are disappointed at the turn of events.

“We always prefer to get that land from a willing seller. And sometimes you can just not come to an agreement on certain things,” park service spokesman Phil Sheridan said.

And when government cannot come to an agreement, they resort to their final tool: the barrel of a gun. What they want, they’ll simply take, if it comes down to it. Sure, they offer “just compensation”, but if they’re the ones deciding what is “just” without you able to refuse, they can give you whatever pittance they choose. All this to meet an arbitrary 10-year deadline. They claim it’s necessary to move this quickly because they can’t stand the idea of not completing this in time for 9/11/2011. Anyone want to take odds on them actually completing in time, even if they do get the land quickly?

The passengers of Flight 93 stood up to defend themselves and the intended victims of the intended crash site. They also stood up to defend the freedom we cherish in America from those who would attack it. They deserve to be honored, but we need not sacrifice the freedom that they were trying to protect in doing so.

Hat Tip: Positive Liberty (via email from reader Tom R)