My mom and dad are both buried at Arlington. But I think this article AND the concept are off base.
This is not the Vietnam War Memorial, which covers, what, a hundred yards? Arlington has over 300,000 people buried there and covers more than 620 acres. It is huge.
I go to Arlington once or twice a year, it is one of the most beautiful, somber places that exist.
I know the regulations on what can and cannot be placed on gravesites, and I don’t give it a second thought when I see items there heaped on and around graves. People need to say goodbye to their loved ones in their own way, and if that means breaking the rules, nobody is going to say anything. I spend time looking at the items myself.
But Arlington is not the place to act as an archive of what people leave there. It is an archive of the sacrifice and honor of the men and women who rest there.
Furthermore, this article is from Salon, a LEFTIST POS rag if there ever was one, and they don’t give a rat’s ass about our troops other than what they can do to drag them down, deface them or destroy them.
I am not familiar with Salon.com and it's reputation. Having not returned to ANC for 46 years, my frame of reference leaves off at JFK's funeral and the massive effort taken to maintain his grave site in an orderly fashion. The apparent lack of respect for Section 60 graves and the mismanagement asserted in these articles is troubling to me.
As a poster on another thread said - it appears there are more unknown soldiers buried their than we thought.
Thank you, sir, for serving the country.
I am grateful also to your parents, both for serving the country and raising such a great American.