Amber's Story

After Ms. White, the coach, taught us about Eminent Domain, she then asked us if we wanted to do our website on Eminent Domain I thought it was weird and sort of didn't want to do it on that particular topic, but I gained some interest later on. Since we needed more information we read Grandpa's Mountain by Carolyn Reeder. Grandpa's Mountain was to me a very sad but fictional/diary sounding book. But to tell you the truth I thought it was a very good book, especially for a fictional story based on a realistic story. While reading that we watched a WVPT movie called The Iris Still Blooms. After the movie I felt horrible, sad, upset, and mad at the Government and how it kicked people out of their homes.

We then went and interviewed the Perdues. When we were finished with that I thought that they were sort of against what had happened. I also thought that the Perdues were very dedicated to the topic and really understood it. And was against the Government in the fact that the State used Eminent Domain/Blanket Condemnation to get the people out of the land that they (the Government) wanted for the Shenandoah National Park.

After that we interviewed Carolyn Reeder. I thought that with the topic of Eminent Domain she was sort of stuck in the middle of the saying, "Is the good of many worth the misfortune of few?" But what I thought about Mrs. Reeder wasn't in the middle it was actually the best you really could think of a person. We then interviewed Darwin Lambert and his wife Eileen. I think that they were sort of on the side of the Government and not against it.  Mr. Lambert himself said, "I think the prices were fair." Even though he and his wife are (maybe) on the Governments side I still think that they are very nice, intelligent people. Mr. Lambert, I think, is very knowledgeable about the fact that the State took the land from the people and don't take to the Government's side because he 1) likes the park, 2) lives near it, and 3) his father was part of the idea for the park.

I think the Shenandoah National Park is good but also bad. I think it is bad because it was the former living place of over 460 people, also bad because some of the parking lots were built over vegetable gardens. And because of the fact that a park ranger closed the archives so now the tourists can't find out that the land they are walking on was once the homes of a lot of people. But it is good because it is very beautiful and nice to go to.

The CCC boys to me are very good because they just needed money; they didn't kick people out of their houses on purpose they did it just because they were told to. Because if they didn't do what they were told to do they couldn't get any money to help support their families, since this was during the Great Depression. But they are also bad because they did help to evict people, burn down their houses, and they also mocked the people.  They may have just wanted money but they should have waited because just about that same time Franklin Delano Roosevelt had thought up the New Deal, which actually helped get people back on their feet and to get jobs.

To conclude this paper I would like to say that lots of people have their own opinions, and above is mine. I would also like to say that if it weren't for 1) My Parents, Nick and Diana 2) Paula White, the coach and technology teacher at Red Hill Elementary School, and 3) Becky Fisher, the assistant coach and Assistant Director of Technology, from Albemarle County, I wouldn't have learned as much as I did.                    

Return to Our Stories