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Gettysburg battlefield casualty of government impasse
Pittsburg Tribune ^ | October 5, 2013 | Brad Bumsted

Posted on 10/05/2013 4:38:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

GETTYSBURG — Fred Leeman walked past the locked gate of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, shaking his head in disgust.

Closing the cemetery and battlefield because of the federal government shutdown “is a disgrace. It's our national shame right now,” said Leeman, 70, a retiree and Navy veteran from Xenia, Ohio. “It's a tragedy. It makes you want to cry.”

Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address 150 years ago next month in the cemetery where approximately 3,500 Union Army soldiers are buried. Leeman and others wonder whether the fiscal dispute in Washington will be resolved by Nov. 19, in time to commemorate the speech.

“I can't imagine that moment in time not being memorialized because of this nonsense,”..

Audrey Haverstock, 55, a retired nurse who lives near Sacramento, was particularly angered by the cemetery's closure on Friday.

It “belongs to the people, not the National Park Service,”... She and other tourists see a “political ploy” in the attempted shutdown of Gettysburg.

[snip]

"This is our land, not the government's,” said John Shires, 59, a Navy veteran from Bloomsburg. “This is sacred ground. This isn't a park like Yosemite or Yellowstone.”

The barrel-chested Shires, a former truck driver, squared his shoulders: “You think anybody is going to forcibly remove me?”

About 20 people branched out across the battlefield on Friday morning.

“I'm proud to see Americans stand up for America,” Shires said. The veterans who entered the closed World War II Memorial in Washington are an inspiration, he said.

“I guess we are breaking the law,” said Stacy Kohlhofer of Rochester, Minn. Her husband, Guy, finds it ironic that “the government closed a Civil War battlefield when the reason for the war was federal overrule of the states.”

“I'm not trying to be in their face,” said Ron Capallia, 65, an Air Force veteran. But “they are not going to stop me.”................

(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: obamacare; obamaoverreach; shutdown

1 posted on 10/05/2013 4:38:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

That is holy ground there, you can’t close it

I am appalled at this regime


2 posted on 10/05/2013 4:40:07 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Who has the bolt cutters?


3 posted on 10/05/2013 4:40:55 AM PDT by guardian_of_liberty (We must bind the Government with the Chains of the Constitution...GOD, FAMILY, COUNTRY)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I will never forgive those who voted for this miserable excuse for an executive


4 posted on 10/05/2013 4:41:43 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: yldstrk

“I will never forgive those who voted for this miserable excuse for an executive”

I dropped all friendships with known Obama voters. I feel as if they betrayed me.


5 posted on 10/05/2013 4:44:28 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The demoCRAP Party is the 2013 version of the Copperhead party of 1864.

BTO plays himself — Saran!


6 posted on 10/05/2013 4:45:14 AM PDT by texican01
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To: Gen.Blather

I am in the process.

My 80+ year old parents, my 50+ siblings, all of them. It is a lonely place to be. I usually host Thanksgiving, but maybe I will take my kids and go on a trip for Thanksgiving as opposed to having to endure them chomping on my offerings and insulting me at the same time.


7 posted on 10/05/2013 4:47:49 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Gen.Blather

I did the same thing. A few asked why I didn’t talk to them anymore. I said because I love my country, my children, and my grandchildren and you want to see a future without possibilities, beg God for forgivenss. Too late a lot of them have taken my advice as they see what is happening.


8 posted on 10/05/2013 4:55:21 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (What's the frequency, Kenneth?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
....anything that has to do with AMERICAN history is being attacked and taken away from the American citizenship. The little boy king wants the average blue collar working Joe to suffer BECAUSE OF HIS FAILURES. WATCH FOR THE insistence that OBAMAcare be dropped and the ACA ( Affordable Care Act)become the official name for the train wreck.
9 posted on 10/05/2013 4:57:26 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: texican01
The demoCRAP Party is the 2013 version of the Copperhead party of 1864.

Actually Obama and his progressive Democrat Party are the 2013 version of Lincoln and the 1860s radical Republicans.

10 posted on 10/05/2013 4:57:46 AM PDT by trek
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To: yldstrk

“and insulting me at the same time.”

I am so sorry. The liberals I deal with simply can’t let a conservative alone. There’s obviously something wrong with a conservative and their constant harping is either an attempt to cure the conservative disease or to assure themselves that they are correct and you’re wrong.

Of course, I consider them to be mentally ill or religious fanatics, as I see liberalism as a religion. Their god is government, the UN is the Hold Ghost, Green is the mother of God. Their perfect world would have no humans in it; hence “Family Planning,” “Minimal Carbon Footprints” and “Sustainable” whathaveyou.


11 posted on 10/05/2013 4:58:38 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Obama and Reid are the ones CLOSING DOWN THESE SITES, NOT the Republicans. It’s VINDICTIVE and EVIL.....that’s what Dems are all about.


12 posted on 10/05/2013 5:00:59 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion......the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

Odumbo and his ilk making it hurt where ever they can.

You can expect more of the same for a long time to come if the shutdown is not resolved.


13 posted on 10/05/2013 5:28:22 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I hate to see it but I kind of agree with closing the park during the shutdown. For the following reasons.....

1) all park offices and museums are closed.
2) no maintenance staff is available to pick up garbage etc.
3) regular ranger staff are likely furloughed
4) law enforcement rangers are on duty but now have additional patrol duties due to closures
5) Gettysburg has had alot of vandalism recently to monuments etc.

There is a certain element of person that goes to our parks to cause trouble and destruction. it is a growing problem even at Gettysburg where there have been several major vandalism incidents over the last few years. Even though 99.9% of visitors are problem free patriotic citizens, the furloughing of ranger staff does present a golden opportunity for those who wish to cause mischief.


14 posted on 10/05/2013 5:36:25 AM PDT by XRdsRev (New Jersey - Crossroads of the American Revolution)
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To: trek

“Actually Obama and his progressive Democrat Party are the 2013 version of Lincoln and the 1860s radical Republicans.”

Absolutely correct


15 posted on 10/05/2013 6:44:35 AM PDT by ReaganGeneration2
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

16 posted on 10/05/2013 6:59:13 AM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Is John's moustache long enough YET?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The national cemetery at Gettysburg was only for the Union dead (although apparently a handful of Confederates were buried there because they were mistaken for Union dead). Most of the Confederate dead were later exhumed and sent to various cemeteries in the South, but some were missed and are still buried on the battlefield.

When Lincoln spoke of the "honored dead" in his Gettysburg address, he was referring exclusively to the Union dead.

It's ironic that the park is closed because of Obama's determination that there be no delay in extending federal government control over our lives--to a degree unimaginable to Washington, Jefferson, Madison, or Lincoln.

17 posted on 10/05/2013 10:35:10 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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