Letter: Don't disturb Polks' graves

To the Editor:

Columbia Polk Association wants to remove President Polk and Sarah from their graves of 124 years and plant them in the 11th President's daddy's backyard. Let the Polk family stay in their graves of honor and respect on the Tennessee State Capitol Hill instead of being used as "tools for tourism."
Columbia, a proper solution that could make BOTH sides happy, take the half a million dollars (you plan to raise) and build the MOST SPECTACULAR MEMORIAL ever seen! You could use all of the money for making this memorial a tremendous salute of.respect and honor as well as a huge tourist attraction. You would NOT have the cost of any extra expenses associated with digging human remains or transporting bodies some 50 miles away.
Run a nationwide contest for designs, charge a $5 entry fee and use the fees to cover the prizes. Choose the best idea at no cost to the association or the $500,000.00 (you plan to collect). The entire amount would go to the construction of the monument.
The Washington monument gets thousands more visitors than Mt. Vernon, where President Washington is buried. The Lincoln Memorial gets tens of thousands more visitors than the Springfield, Illinois site where Lincoln is buried.
Put your efforts toward this project. Let the Polks rest in peace on Tennessee's Capitol Hill under the protection of the government in the shadow of the capitol.
May they rest in peace without ever being hauled out for public display and tourism.

Teresa Elam
Polk bloodline relative
Hermitage, TN