Thomas Maye
Block 1 Civics
June 2nd, 2013
American Memorials Reflection

1)
The memorials I read about were the 9/11 Museum in construction, the Vietnam Memorial and the pearl Harbor Memorial. The 9/11 Memorial is currently being built by a Museum committee and it will be placed underneath the memorial fountains on ground zero. The Vietnam Memorial was designed by Maya Ying Lin. Construction first started on March 16, 1982 and was completely finished on November 10, 1984. The Pearl Harbor memorial was finished being built in 1961.

2)
I think that the memorials mentioned were important to be built because they help a nation heal as a whole. Everybody has different ways of coping with loss and though some people may not like seeing a memorial all the time, others may cope by actually seeing the memorial or Museum in front of their eyes. In addition, seeing the memorial can help future generations learn about the disaster, or at least have a desire to find out more about it in books and online. When I went to Washington and saw the Vietnam memorial, for example, I was curious about it and looked up about it online so I could learn more about the Vietnam War. However, I think that while memorials should be public, they should not be placed in the middle of a busy public area. A memorial is all about helping people move forward from the disaster and if they are placed in the middle of a city square, it would hold people back by constantly being reminded of it.  

3)
I do think that there should be a World War One Memorial in Washington, DC eventually. Though I understand why opposition may feel that it is unnecessary, because it was so long ago and would use up government money, I feel as though not having one would be a disservice to the men and women who served during the war. It just seems disrespectful and hypocritical that other wars get million dollar memorial projects built for them, while the first world war gets nothing in our nation's capitol. In addition, a Museum could help us understand the war better. Not only would artifacts and documents be eyeopening and informative to the public, but the construction of said Museum would bring in a lot of media attention which would encourage people to learn about it and for archeologists to find out more facts and artifacts about the war, which could lead to us finding out more about it than we previously did. Other disasters do not need memorials, because they did not change our history as a whole. But saying that a World War does not affect our history would just be ridiculous to say.

4)
Though I do think that the Boston Bombings deserve a memorial, I do not know if building one is necessary. I do not mean to be disrespectful in saying this, but memorializing the bombings would not really help us go forward in any way. In ten years, it will all be a hazy memory that our children will have never heard of and though it affected many people personally, I do not think that it affected our country's history as a whole very much. The Bombings were a tragedy, but they didn't bring us any new ways to fight terrorism or save lives. The bravery of first responders is something to be proud of, but there are such people in every sort of disaster imaginable in addition to cowards like the terrorists. I feel like a jerk saying this, but we did not learn much from the disaster so memorializing it would just bring us down. And I feel like we should instead use our money to fund new ways to fight terrorists like this, than giving them what they want and allowing them to remain infamous in our local and national history. That way, we hopefully won't need to make more memorials for things like this, and we can avoid the grief of losing loved ones to horrible people like the terrorists who did this.