1. Government overreach: This was a monument built almost entirely through private donations — now the government pretends the monument belongs to it, and not to the people who donated to build it, not to the vets whose sacrifice it honors, and not to the families of vets and other citizens who want to use it to teach their kids about courage, honor, and sacrifice.

2. Government inefficiency: It doesn’t cost money to keep an open-air memorial open. It costs money to put up barricades. It costs money to man the barricades with security. So now we’re spending money to “save money”? No, the administration is spending money to punish the public.

3. Government malice: A government run by people of good will — who are true “public servants” — would have immediately reached out to the myriad of private veterans’ groups to keep the memorials open during the shutdown — the line of volunteers to man the memorial, provide tours, and keep the bathrooms clean would have stretched around the block. Between the VFW and American Legion, the memorial could be manned and maintained in perpetuity.