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What We ProposedThe National Coalition proposed a win-win solution that would have both produced a WWII Memorial much sooner than the current 2003 or 2004 completion date and preserved the Mall. Our ProposalThe National Coalition to Save Our Mall supports a win-win solution that protects and preserves the National Mall and appropriately memorializes World War II and those whose sacrifices have perpetuated freedom and democracy. Whereas ...1. The World War II memorial will commemorate the most important event of the 20th Century. Because of its size and location, the proposed memorial will be as significant as the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial. 2. The memorial plan has caused a national controversy because the proposal includes a 7.4-acre edifice in the middle of the National Mall with 56 pillars and a 6-foot sunken pit. It would destroy the 2-mile open sweep of the Mall on a site between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial (called "the Rainbow Pool") placing a barrier between these two symbols of our democracy. It would block the historic "March on Washington," "Million Mom March", "Hands Across America" path. 3. The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, the Atlanta Constitution, The Nation, columnists George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Jonathan Yardley and numerous regional newspapers have all criticized the proposed site and design since 1997. 4. A federal lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court because federal agencies failed to:
Now therefore, we propose the following Win-Win Solution Rebuild and restore the historic Rainbow Pool as the Memorial contemplative area and perhaps add new benches, following guidelines in the National Park Service's Cultural Landscape Report for the Lincoln Memorial Grounds. This first stage could be completed by Memorial Day 2002. Build a World War II Memorial at another prominent site. One possible location is in Constitution Gardens (17th St. and Constitution Ave.) 100 ft. to the north, a site unanimously approved in 1995 by American Battle Monuments Commission and National Capital Planning Commission. Build a World War II Museum on one of the 100+ sites identified in the National Capital Planning Commission's Memorials and Museums Master Plan. For more information on NCPC's Memorials Master Plan, visit www.ncpc.gov |
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