Heather writes:
<< How do you think the US should commemorate this event? >>
Good question, Heather. But you can be sure it's something people will never
agree upon.
Remember when a young Yale student named Maya Lin won the design competition
for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? From the first time I saw her plans for
the memorial, I was just knocked out by how perfect her concept was. It
seemed a fitting and honorable way to commemorate the Americans who lost
their lives in Vietnam, no matter what one's feelings about the war might
have been. Then various groups started complaining that the memorial wasn't
*heroic* enough, so the standard-issue GI Joe statue (or is it 'statues' by
now?) went up at the site.
I originally felt that the twin beacons of light rising from the WTC area
would be an appropriate memorial to the victims and the heroes of 9/11, but I
don't know now. It's chilling enough to see the broken New York skyline as it
is today without the memory of this horrible attack lighting up the skies
over lower Manhattan for decades to come. As it is, anyone who witnessed the
destruction of the towers in real life or on TV will never forget it anyway.
Something as sublime and succinct as the original Vietnam Veterans Memorial
is what I would hope for. Exactly what that might be, I have no idea.
--Bob
