Hawk Hammer

The supposed plan for East Potomac Park is an absolute tragedy for so many that call our nation’s capital home. For 130 years, East Potomac has served every kind of American. Golfers, cyclists, runners, birdwatchers, walkers, picnickers, anyone who just wants to see the cherry blossoms. This plan is a betrayal of the public, of the National Park Service, and of the very act that established this land to be “forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people.” Ask yourself who a public muni golf course is actually meant to serve. East Potomac was built in direct response to the elitism of golf, a course anyone could walk onto and play, at a time when golf in America belonged almost entirely to the wealthy. Now the government wants to turn it back into exactly that. The very thing this course was built to stand against. This golf escapade is compounded by the fact that golf is about to become the only purpose of this entire peninsula. Over 130 years, East Potomac expanded, not narrowed, who and what it served. The road came. The playground came. The mini golf course came. The cherry blossoms were planted and became part of the city’s identity. All of it added, piece by piece, to widen who this park belonged to. Now it’s all being wiped out in one fell swoop, for a single use, by a single man. Donald Trump already owns 16 golf courses. He doesn’t need a 17th. Especially not one carved out of 130 years of public land to chase his own personal trophy. The heart of this issue really is not about golf. It is about who owns our public lands in America. The National Park Service’s mandate is "...to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Not for the enjoyment of one man’s ego. For future generations. Public land doesn’t become private property just because the person in office wants it to be. That’s the whole point of calling it public.