VICTORY FOR BETHESDA VETERANS: NIGHT LIGHTING RESTORED AT VETERANS PARK MEMORIAL

Mission accomplished:  After raising the question last week as to why the lighting at the Veterans Park memorial has been off at night for as long as 2 years, I am pleased to report that it has been restored as of last night.

June 24, 2012

July 2, 2012

Not only are the "dancing waters," as David Letterman would call them, illuminated again, but for one night, our urban park has once again come to life.

Instead of shadowy figures slumping in the dark, the crowds were larger, there was much more energy in the area, and less of the after-hours-we're-closed ambiance the park has projected for too long.

Most importantly, the primary purpose of the park - a memorial to Bethesda's soldiers killed in action from World War I to the "Gulf Wars" - has once again taken center stage.  Monday night, I saw many people standing at the memorial and reading its inscription.

I just have to wonder, what took so long?

Why were the night lights off in the first place?

And much like the scandal of the new Bethesda Post Office, where were the members of the county council?  Why does it take a post by a citizen blogger to get things done, when we're paying these folks $100,000 a year?

It appears their lack of familiarity with downtown Bethesda also extends to its veterans' memorial.

I'd be willing to bet that at least half of our carpetbagger council has never even been to Veterans Park.  Heck, I doubt half of them even know it's there!

But then again, this is a council that includes members like George Leventhal, who infamously declared in 2010 that Bethesda had no 5 star restaurants, and that he had to go to Fairfax County to dine out.  And the same council that handed Wheaton's Veterans Park over to a for-profit developer - with no requirement that it be replaced by a new memorial!  An outrageous insult to veterans for which they were never held accountable by local media.

Our elected officials talk a good game about veterans, much like they talk about farmers, jobs, traffic gridlock, and the poor and "vulnerable."  But as I always say, don't listen to what they say; examine what they actually do.  And on each of these topics, you'll conclude their efforts haven't amounted to anything.

They have a veteran-related TV show, but they don't have a problem leaving a veterans memorial dark indefinitely.

The lights are back on, and I invite the county council to stop by and discover Veterans Park, and pay their respects.