The recent sale of the 608 acres that remain of the former Dorothea Dix Hospital campus to the City of Raleigh endangers historic buildings and a patients' cemetery. Pleas to preserve part of the site to benefit those in NC with mental illness were ignored by the Governor and the Mayor of Raleigh. Dorothea Dix is a person to be emulated today. Dix visited the poor and found them chained and neglected in jails and prisons. She used her first-hand experiences to successfully lobby North Carolina's legislature to found its first asylum in 1859. A National Monument honoring her Legacy of advocating for persons with mental illness would not preclude the use of part of the campus for a City Park. Because time is of the essence, it may be that only by creation of a National Monument can historic preservation be included in the plans for the future of the former hospital's campus. The City of Raleigh's Parks and Recreation Dept. have vowed to protect the cemetery, but there is no funding assured for its maintenance. And as for the McBryde Building, which is on the Historic Register, the so-called "Dix Visionaries," a group of powerful local business leaders, have suggested in the past that all the existing buildings should be razed to make way for a "desination park." By signing this petition, I agree that President Obama should issue a proclamation under the Antiquities Act creating a monument in Raleigh to honor Dorothea Dix and her legacy and to provide for historic preservation on the former Dix Hospital site.