Marines Threaten Community Garden
June 8th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Posted in food news
Virginia Avenue Community Garden
The U.S. Marines are supposed to be on our side, protecting the American way of life. But community gardeners on Capitol Hill are trying to prevent an invasion by the Marines, who are eyeballing their garden as a potential new site for expanding their barracks.
We first heard of these plans from our friend Sam Fromartz, author of the Chews Wise blog, who lives on Capitol Hill and grows produce at the the Virginia Avenue Community Garden. With any luck, Sam and his community garden cohort will be able to head off the Marine offensive after a story detailing the brewing dust-up appeared in The Washington Post.
The threat to the garden has piqued the interest of D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6). And now the gardeners are writing first lady Michelle Obama, White House gardener-in-chief, for an assist.
First Lady versus Marines? That would be interesting. You go, Sam. We need to protect our green spaces. The Marines should make other arrangements.
Not to be too contrite, but this sounds like an example of eminant domain; a process by which the government has taken so many small farms and family plots in the past. Shouldn’t we fight the law as a whole or do we just worry when it strikes closest to out hearts?