Dear Senator Fitzgerald: As you know, Senate Bill 2039 for approval to expand O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, will also approve the destruction of two historic cemeteries known as St. John' Church Cemetery and the Methodist cemetery known as Rest Haven. I applaud your efforts to help save these places of eternal rest from the horrendous task of relocation that will disrupt that rest. I am a resident of California. My family came here in 1850 with the Gold Rush. They came here from Illinois. California also seems to believe that eternal rest is not truly eternal for, in the past several years, many cemeteries have been destroyed or adversely impacted by projects of modern devise. Much of the nation, as a whole, seems to be experiencing the same dilemma, as is apparent by emails and postings to the internet. In 1961, the California Appellate Court ruled against the Superior Court, the California Dept. of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration in their efforts to approve the eminent domain taking of a portion of Eden Memorial Park Cemetery for the construction of the Santa Monica freeway in Los Angeles County. The Court ruled that a highway served no better public purpose than a cemetery. I would opine the same should apply to the expansion of the airport. On September 11th, 2001, the families of over 2,800 people lost loved ones in the worst attack the nation has ever known. Those families, Senator Fitzgerald, will never have a grave to visit to help them through their loss. In years to come, those families cannot take the next generation of their family to visit grandparents those children will never know. September 11th stole more than just their lives. It stole the tangible evidence of their very existence. That, Senator Fitzgerald, is what cemeteries are all about. Cemeteries are not just for the dead. They are for the living; so that we may always have a place to visit, to "talk" with our deceased loved ones, to share our happiness and our sorrows, and to continue the memories of those who have been lost to us. Senate Bill 2039, will not only cause the destruction of St. John's and Rest Haven, but will cause untold emotional anguish for the many living descendants of those persons now buried there. I would encourage you to continue your discourse regarding the adversity this expansion plan will thrust upon the dead and the living. This nation cannot continue to thrust aside the last homes of our nation's pioneering citizenry as if their value is less in death than it was in life. Respectfully, Sue Silver, President El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission a California 501(3)(c) Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation 2551 Deer Trail Lane Cameron Park, CA 95682 (530) 676-2889 Email: ssilver1951@jps.net Member, California Historic Cemetery Alliance Sexton, El Dorado Cemetery (est. 1849), El Dorado Co., California