D.C. Veterans Join Norton and Gray to Oppose Legislation to Nationalize D.C. War Memorial
WASHINGTON, D.C. – District of Columbia veterans and residents today joined Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray to oppose H.R. 938, which would re-dedicate the D.C. War Memorial as a national World War I memorial, nationalizing the city's own memorial. The House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands will hold a hearing on this bill on Tuesday. At a news conference earlier today, Norton said that Republicans have gone from "denying the city votes in Congress to trying to take the city's memorial to its war veterans and war dead." In a continuing war on the District's home rule, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) will introduce a separate bill today to prohibit the city's women from accessing the reproductive services offered to women nationwide after 20 weeks, with limited exception.
At today's news conference, District veterans, Norton and Gray insisted on maintaining the integrity of the D.C. War Memorial, which was "paid for by the sacrifice of our troops and the treasure of their survivors and city residents," Norton will say in testimony to be offered at Tuesday's hearing. The memorial was authorized by Congress and paid for completely by local residents exclusively to commemorate the more than 26,000 D.C. residents who served in World War I, including the 499 who died, more than the number who died from three states, whose names are engraved on the memorial.
Pointing to the decision of the American people after World War I to establish memorials in each state, Norton's testimony will recount "Dollar Day" and efforts even of the city's schoolchildren, who pitched in five cents each during the fundraising campaign. Decades later, she will testify, the outpouring of veterans, top city officials and residents to rededicate the rehabilitated D.C. War Memorial in November was a tribute not only to the city's World War I veterans, but also to the city's collective charity and civic action. She will say that because D.C. World War I veterans served and died without a vote in Congress, the D.C. War Memorial also has come to symbolize all of the District's residents who fought and died without a vote, and the continuing struggle for equal congressional representation and statehood.
"District officials and residents have every reason and right to resist efforts to commandeer a memorial dedicated to their veterans and war dead," Norton will testify. "In this country we do not change our memorials or mar their history with revisionist additions that offend their original purpose and dedication, sacred to the survivors and descendents. … What would be inappropriate would be a taking of the memorial and the site dedicated with the names of the 499 men from the District of Columbia who lost their lives in the war. The District's World War I veterans deserve better. And so do their brothers who fought beside them in the Great War."
Commander Kerwin Miller (USN Retired), a Naval Academy graduate and the chair of Norton's Service Academy Nominations Board, spoke in opposition to the legislation at today's news conference on behalf of District veterans, and was joined by Matthew J. Cary, director of D.C. Office of Veterans Affairs and a Vietnam veteran, and other veterans from across the District to emphasize the continuing service of D.C. residents, who still do not have full voting rights in Congress or the final say over their own local funds.
Last year, Norton introduced a resolution to ensure that the D.C. War Memorial remains dedicated solely to D.C. residents who served in World War I, and to ensure a suitable, separate location be found for a memorial dedicated to all Americans who served in World War I.
Published: January 23, 2012