Possible Fort Monroe questions to ask candidate Bob McDonnell 

Yesterday on Cathy Lewis's "HearSay," candidate Deeds said it’s “a great idea” to create a new kind of SELF-SUSTAINING, REVENUE-GENERATING, PAYS-ITS-OWN-WAY national park at Fort Monroe. He declared, "I look forward to making it happen." Comment? 

Though other states’ leaders are getting new national parks created, some people say we can’t have a national park because the Park Service is broke. But nobody is asking for a national park; instead, they’re asking for a new kind of SELF-SUSTAINING, REVENUE-GENERATING, PAYS-ITS-OWN-WAY national park. Alec Gould, a Virginian who served as superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park, says that’s Virginia’s ONLY viable option for Fort Monroe—and he declares that “NPS poverty” is a non-issue. Comment? 

Robert Nieweg of the National Trust for Historic Preservation ranks Fort Monroe with Monticello and Mount Vernon. Yet concerning Fort Monroe, you recently spoke of preserving— as you put it—only “PARTS” of what you called “that PARCEL” and only “SOME” of its historic sites. To what extent, if any, should anybody ever talk that way about any national treasure? 

Who ultimately owns Fort Monroe—not in terms of mere property deeds, but at the highest level of civic justice? Is it Hampton? Is it Hampton’s city-hall-insider developers? Is it Virginia? Or is it really the American people? 

By contributing mightily to establishing the Civil War’s very meaning, Fort Monroe could be not only a national park, but a World Heritage Site. Yet if it weren’t historically important at all, it would still be publicly owned bayfront green space in an increasingly congested region. To what extent is the Trust for Public Land correct to call for extensive green space at Fort Monroe? 

Some two and a half thousand Hamptonians—and counting—are using city charter provisions to raise and improve Hampton’s vision for post-Army Fort Monroe. They want a Grand Public Place for all Americans. They don’t want to be burdened with Hampton-only taxes to get it started. And though they will accept limited development if necessary to pay for this Grand Public Place, they don’t want development just for the sake of developers. Comment? 

Questions above suggested by Steve Corneliussen. Words from Theodore Roosevelt: "The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the numbers within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction.  Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn Americans."

 

(Home)