Oct. 31, 2007 -- SEN. JIM WEBB SEEKS "DIRECTION" FROM "LOCAL OFFICIALS" CONCERNING FORT MONROE.

 

On Cathy Lewis's noontime talk show "HearSay" today on 89.5 FM from Norfolk, Dr. H. O. Malone, president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, called in to ask Virginia Sen. Jim Webb a question. A technical glitch stopped H. O. before he could really start, but host Cathy Lewis, probably acting on the usual bit of information supplied by the call screener, said, "Henry has a question about where you stand, Senator, on the issue of Fort Monroe preservation. I wonder if you have a stance on that issue."

 

Sen. Webb answered: "Well, we've been working with local officials on that, and I believe strongly that the historical elements of Fort Monroe should be preserved, and as I said I'm working with local officials to get their, you know, their direction on that."

 

At CFMNP, with due respect for the senator, and with a readiness to be told how it is that we may be wrong, and with our longstanding desire -- now more than a year old, and regularly conveyed -- to sit down and talk to the senator about Fort Monroe, we believe this means two things:

* Despite his country's historical judgment, Sen. Webb readily dispenses with the half-century-old designation of all of Fort Monroe, not just the moated fortress, as a National Historic Landmark.

* He does not hold himself accountable concerning Fort Monroe to its actual owners, the citizens of Virginia, who themselves are merely technical owners acting on behalf of the real owners, the citizens of all the United States. Instead, the senator holds himself accountable concerning this patriotic national treasure -- likened by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to Monticello and Mount Vernon -- merely to the Hampton City Council.

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