As I recall, when it was first proposed, some voiced that opinion. But what happened, when it was finished, and open to the public, it became very much hallowed ground.
Relatives and friends of the warriors listed came, took photos and "rubbings" of the names; and cried!
I was there, I saw it.
Veterans, like myself came, were touched by the event and not just the wall itself. I still remember that feeling, right now, at a mellow 75. My son (Ace) and I lived in the D.C. area. Every Memorial weekend we would go down in the evening. It would be sadly magical and we always carried a roll of $5.00 bills to put in the "tip jars" of the Vietnam vets who had little displays of memorabilia around the mall. This year, I'm going, for the first time; and with my grandson, to the Vietnam memorial wall in Shepherd, MI, my retirement "home town."
We were remembering a guy we knew as "Wimpy" a real character whose signature trick was to be able to suck in his breath and his pants would fall.
We were laughing about the memories of his exploits and a middle-aged woman came up to us and sternly told us that it was disrespectful for us to laugh while at our memorial.
I said "Ma'am, those were friends of our ours - and we think they'd be happy to know that they still could get us to laugh".
She stormed away, still angry and we continued our run.