The WW2 memorial does not have fences or require admission or have a ranger on duty to police it. It’s a big fountain in the middle of a park (the Capitol Mall). But some douche at the Park Service or the Administration ordered that a fence be put around it 24hrs before the Govt. shutdown just to inconvenience the tourists like these WW2 vets. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/visiting-veterans-storm-closed-wwii-memorial/2013/10/01/0fc2a376-2ab4-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html
And if you go to the National Park service website, they pulled it down blaming the “Government Shutdown”. Never mind that the files and service space are already there and paid for. Somebody ordered a programmer to code a redirect to DOI website (which is up by the way.) http://www.nps.gov/
While the leadership of the congress and tea party republicans get the blame, the Executive branch is responsible for the policies of the Dept. of Interior which runs the National Parks Service. And orders like this come down from the Secretary of the Interior (ie. the White House Cabinet). They’re turning a disagreement on the budget into a publicity stunt.
I call B.S. All this was done intentionally to make the situation look even worse. Like farting in our face, while we’re reaching down to tie our shoe.