Disney's America

I would have definitely visited this park and would probably have had annual passes haha. I live about 2 1/2 hours from DC and it is already one of my favorite cities to visit. A Disney park would have just added to my already existent love for the area.

Plus I'm a huge history buff so taking all of the wonderful aspects and quality of a Disney park and incorporating American history into it is like my holy grail.

I remember that!! We did a driving vacation through VA a year after we did WDW (what a letdown, right?? ) and I remember driving through Manassass and seeing signs with Disney crossed out and being extremely confused as to why someone wouldn't want a Disney park in their backyard. Of course, after having experiences the traffic...um...conundrum of metro DC and Northern Virginia as a resident, I do understand their reluctance. Though there did seem to be blatant disregard for the fact that getting a Disney park also brings the benefits of massive infrastructure development.

The residents of NOVA also squashed the movement to bring the Washington Nationals to the Dulles corridor and instead, sections of southeast DC are reaping the benefits of the dollars that were poured into Anacostia waterfront revitalization. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that something is being done with southeast DC, but I think that the residents of Northern VA may have made some questionable collective decisions where progress is concerned

Oh, the park that might have been. I would've liked to see and visit the park but I do think the weather and transportation would have been the biggest concerns.

I sort of recall this - and the immense firestorm around it. I am a little torn about it, actually. I like theme parks and this would have been a fun one, an immersive experience, so to speak. I love Colonial Williamsburg, but it is certainly not a theme park. I love WDW Hall of Presidents, but it certainly gives a limited picture of the men who have lead this nation. I also love Epcot's World Showcase, at the same time knowing that each 'exhibit' for each country is just the surface, the palatable parts, the delicious parts.

Such a place would be fun, quasi-educational, but limited, incomplete. Some folks believe that such a park would be educational; perhaps to an extent, but we say the same about TV and movies; my students constantly and erroneously believe they know all about people, events and things because they "saw something on TV", or saw "a movie about it". I would fear that something of this sort would become the whole extent of knowledge about US Civil War, or the US in general. What a shame that would be. And there is where I get torn. . .

What I really don't like - and sort of offends me - is the idea that what make this country a remarkable place can be reduced to a 'theme' park. A one stop shop that sells . . . What, exactly? And who decides what parts are represented and to what degree? I was also uncomfortable with such a thing so close to some truly hallowed ground at Manassas / Bull Run. I couldn't imagine such a thing at Gettysburg or Pearl Harbor, at Omaha Beach, or Bastogne. . . or at Ground Zero in NYC, at Shanksville, PA, or any number of sites that resonate with the history and spirit of America. Could any of you? (For those forum members from other countries, especially the UK, would you want theme parks on or near the sites you hold dear? Hastings? Bannockburn? Waterloo? Agincourt? Gallipoli? Dunkirk? The Somme? Can you imagine a Monarchy Field near Windsor?)

I know that Disney's America could and would draw crowds. It would be profitable if done right, done well. But would it truly be a thing of American Beauty or would it be another thing that visitors and tourists flock to as and interact with as mere entertainment? Sort of like the firestorm around the young girl who took a smiling 'selfie' at Auschwitz a couple weeks ago? Would it be just another resort complex with themed hotels? I just don't know if I really can get behind that.

I would so much rather see investments in developing our National Park system so that Battlefields and other historical sites are preserved and visitors centers are fully funded at Manassas, Antietam, San Juan Batista, Alcatraz, Yorktown, Boston, Salem, Lexington & Concord, Mt. Rushmore, Stone Mtn., and on and on and on. I want those places and their complex stories and histories honored and preserved.

Theme parks are great - I love them, but they are not real. I go to them to escape; I travel to see Washington DC, Arlington, etc when I want to connect. Sorry to be so serious. . .