In a town near here in Indiana there is a cemetery. Not so unusual, except that it is on a small strip of land between a busy street and the parking lot of a large grocery store. Apparently, they have tried to preserve the cemetery while the town grew up around it. I have not seen anyone visiting those graves, nor even any flowers or flags last weekend for Memorial Day.
That cemetery started me thinking about our culture and our need to memorialize loss and tragedy. When I was a child, visiting graves and tending to those plots of ground were very important and practically a requirement in order to honor the dead. It is my observation that my generation is not so involved with the ongoing care of graves at cemeteries (Arlington Cemetery being a huge exception of course).
While there may not be as much attention given to burial places, there does seem to be a trend now to memorialize the spot of ground where a person died … not where they are buried, but where they died. You cannot drive down many highways in the United States without seeing wooden crosses – some now even erecting concrete monuments – identifying where a person died in a motor vehicle crash. Of course if you attempt to read any of these structures while driving in your car you risk becoming another statistic.
This need to mark the place of death grows exponentially in relation to the size of the tragedy. There is nothing wrong with remembering these tragedies or the people who died in these tragic events such as the bombing in Oklahoma City, Pearl Harbor, and 9-11. It is interesting though to look at the differences in these types of memorials.
In Oklahoma, the site of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building has become a National Memorial and Museum, complete with admission fees, a gift shop and a Memorial Marathon. The plans for the World Trade Center Memorial and museum are extensive and in some cases controversial.
The Pentagon Memorial to those who died in the 9-11 attacks is more subdued. The damage to the Pentagon building was removed and that section rebuilt as it was before. There is a park on that side of the building that is open 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Free admission, no guided tours and no gift shop.
In 2006, there was a shooting at an Amish School in Pennsylvania. That school building was demolished and a new one built about 200 yards away. No monument, no annual ceremonies.
Virginia Tech could not afford to raze the 70,000 square foot Norris Hall building and began a phased re-occupation just months after the shootings in April 2007. VT does have a memorial on campus and annual ceremonies.
Regarding the attacks of September 11, 2001, there is another site where 40 passengers and crew lost their lives when passengers battled the hijackers of flight 93. While their plane did crash and all aboard died, the passengers prevented the hijackers from reaching their target likely somewhere in Washington DC. The site of that crash was in an empty field in Pennsylvania. The plans for this memorial include a 2200 acre park – 1400 acres surrounding the crash site, and another 800 acres creating a buffer zone around the park. There are plans for a visitor’s center, a 93 feet high Tower of Voices with 40 wind chimes, a field of honor, an entry portal, 40 memorial groves, sacred ground, ponds, and an overlook point commerating where the FBI conducted their investigation from. The problem here is that this is private land, and one owner in particular is not interested in selling. The next problem is that the Federal Government is now suggesting they will declare eminent domain and force the owner to sell his land. It seems the government is turning up the pressure because they are afraid this memorial will not be done in time for the tenth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2011.
There is nothing wrong with remembering and honoring those who die. I wonder though about the size and scope of some of these memorials. I also wonder if the best way to remember and honor those who have gone before us is in how we live our lives everyday. I am just wondering … I am not criticizing (well, maybe the government and that whole eminent domain thing … that’s a problem on many levels), I am just wondering.
OneMom
I can see what you mention every day in the Arklahoma area where I live. There are all kinds of monuments going up along the roads where people were killed. If I am not mistaken, there has been a limit put on the number of days the monuments can be up. I think it has something to do with traffic.
As for the taking care of the actual grave, I have first hand experience with that. I was never one to visit the cemetery much, but when my first wife passed away, her parents practically idolized the grave and her memory. As you said, I am not criticizing, just making an observation. To be honest, if they had their way, I would have been mired in that life and would not have a life of my own now. I found that I had to get away from it all and live my life. I may very well not have ever remarried, had I not done that.
I wonder if the increased interest in memorials is our grasping at something,anything in the wake of an increasingly-uncertain future. In past decades, while not everyone were Christians, most Americans grew up in the worldview. Now that is less and less the case, the life after death is even more unknown, and with tragedies on the scale of 9-11, the day of our death seems all the more immanent.
Very interesting Kerry. I really enjoyed reading this blog posting. I think you should write a book.
It’s odd that I just saw a few road side crossed today and it got my mind wondering. Then I pop over here and read this. I think I was on your wave length today.
Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma