Posted on 12/14/2012 6:52:45 AM PST by Kaslin
Why does EVERYTHING cost at least a $billion in dc.
I could build a nice respectful memorial to Ike for $10,000,000.
Because we don’t have just simple memorials anymore. We have existential pieces whose design is deemed more important than what is being memorialized.
——I could build a nice respectful memorial to Ike for $10,000,000.——
Yes but........
You fail to consider the study study to consider the plan study of the plot study incorporating the study results of the lunch meetings to review the quality enhancement study of the environmental impact study rendered impractical by the preliminary archaeological site excavations.
Why not a large cast statue on a pedestal in his Ike Jacket? (I still have mine.) Sort of like MacArthur’s statue at West Point but larger. Less space much less $$. (Saves money but doesn’t employ many.)
“The best of recent memorials — Maya Lin’s perfect Vietnam War memorial — transcends the bitter divisions over that terrible sacrifice of lives, and unites us all in common sorrow, reverence, and gratitude for these honored dead. Yet even that work of art and memory had to be cluttered at the edges with some needless statuary and a little flagpole or two.”
This tells me all I need to know about Greenberg’s taste and politics. Not one veteran of any way—never mind Vietnam, not one active military serviceran served on the selection panel for the Vietnam Memorial. The black tombstone now half-buried in the mall, listing those it was meant to memorialize in chronological death-order, minus military service identity and honors was the Left’s meaning-packed exclamation point after a war it, not those it memorializes, lost. Thank God and less sophisticated voices than Greenberg’s that the statues were added to remind us of the heroism and patriotism of those whose deaths ultimately led to the fall of another wall.
Nice try, but you left out a lot of potential studies, committees to study the studies,and agencies that MUST be
brought in to get their input and their piece of the pie.
Then there’s also the committee to study the possible effects of whether to include any mention of Kay Summersby and how it might “impact” the War on Women......oh, wait, I think that one was already tried...it came in with a delightfully under-budget price tag of $100,000.00.
“The best of recent memorials — Maya Lin’s perfect Vietnam War memorial — transcends the bitter divisions over that terrible sacrifice of lives, and unites us all in common sorrow, reverence, and gratitude for these honored dead. Yet even that work of art and memory had to be cluttered at the edges with some needless statuary and a little flagpole or two.”
This tells me all I need to know about Greenberg’s taste and politics. Not one veteran of any war—never mind Vietnam, not one active military serviceran served on the selection panel for the Vietnam Memorial. The black tombstone now half-buried in the mall, listing those it was meant to memorialize in chronological death-order, minus military service identity and honors was the Left’s meaning-packed exclamation point after a war it, not those it memorializes, lost. Thank God and less sophisticated voices than Greenberg’s that the statues were added to remind us of the heroism and patriotism of those whose deaths ultimately led to the fall of another wall.
Ike learned, as a successful general in WW2, that the biggest problem to a moving army was food and supplies and THAT required roadways.
When he became President, he successfully initiated and accomplished quite a bit of inter and intra-state road system that, to this day, are still maintained , rejuvenated or expanded upon.
America prospered MIGHTILY in the 50's and 60's becauser of the transportation system that supplied American industry, manufacturing and every element of infra-structure.
Yup ... some big-assed Pete bursting out of the distance ... a hunnert feet high an' a hunnert feet long should be about right.
Excellent post, since Frank Gehry is and has been for years a particularly painful pain in my ass since I first saw his
“designs” many years ago. His stuff has been even a worse blight on the American and world architectural landscape than
the ruins of Detroit or any other place that’s cited as good examples of our downward spiral.At least ruins CAN be torn down eventually to make way for self-sustaining, economically viable structures providing shelter for humans and bases for commerce. If anyone would like to see what “modern architecture” is capable of at its best look at Fay Jones’ Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs Arkansas. Jones was a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the first time I saw pictures of this Chapel I was totally knocked out by it.
And they have a great website:
www.thorncrown.com
I think you’re missing the point about Maya Lin’s Memorial Wall, which was perfect ( I believe this too, and I was in the military during Vietnam) in every way, regardless of whether you were pro-War or Anti-War.This can be argued, of course,and I don’t know much about the “politics” behind the screening process, but it was a design competition for architects. Whatever “input” you’re craving from Vietnam Vets or their organizations was most likely already pre-empted by the competing designs from other competitors: indeed, the Wall was just profiled on 60 Minutes and they showed one absolutely ridiculous design of a gigantic Army helmet with a long chain extending from it, and ending in a dog-tag. Perhaps you’d be surprised to learn after all these years to find out just how perfect and appropriate Lin’s design is in the eyes of veterans and their families, who have come to honor it and their fallen . I went there about 15 years ago, and searched every name I could remember from Basic Training in 1966 at Ft. Polk, and could find not a single name from my Company. I left in tears.
Ah yes, Ike. The man that single handedly destroyed the US military beyond all recognition by going with tactical nuke pie in the sky BS instead of keeping all the veterans where they belonged, in the military.
The man was an epic failure.
Wow—two communists and a Brit.
I have visited The Wall three times, and have left in tears every time.
It is quiet there, respectful,and seeing yourself reflected in the black granite as you scan the names of those who are no more, and all they and their hopes and dreams represented, you become profoundly saddened and profoundly grateful for their sacrifice.
The descent to the center and then the ascent gives a a subconcious feeling of descending into the hell of war, and ascending out of the monument renews hope in peace among men. The cut into the soil accurately represents the absolute division in our society that was present during the conflict, unlike other wars in our history.
I have always considered the design to be hugely respectful of those that actually fought and died in that war.
If anything, it gives a stark reminder of the true costs of any conflict which we as a nation choose to become engulfed in.
It tells you quietly, to consider the cost. Because the cost is very high.
And it tells you that as an American, you need to be a better person to earn their sacrifice and make it count.
It remains one of the most powerful monuments in how it chooses to evoke emotions to reflect on those who died as people and yet graphically show the enormity of the cost of war—of just one war.
It is masterful, and shows wisdom of the designer far beyond her years when it was designed.
Paul Greenberg was writing anti-Clinton columns long before most of us knew who Bill Clinton was, much less what he was really like. I believe he is the one who invented the “Slick Willie” nickname for him. He was a newspaper man in Arkansas when CLinton was governor.
Beautifully, beautifully put.
And I guess the poster I originally responded to doesn’t know who Jan Scruggs was, and the effort it took for him to get a
Memorial Wall going.
Interestingly, I’ve recently gotten back in touch with my bunkmate from Basic , who I haven’t seen since about ‘68/
He asked me if I had the Basic Training “yearbook”, which surprised me, because I didn’t even know a yearbook existed.
So he emailed it all to me, page by page.
All those young and innocent faces (mine included) really brought back a whole new dimension of memories.
So now I have a COMPLETE list of the guys I was in Basic with,rather than the hundred or so names I could call up from memory.
If I ever make it back to D.C. and visit the Wall, I might take that list with me.
Or I might not.
I’m sure you know what I mean.
This wasn’t my introduction to Greenberg.
I can’t find the original article by Tom Wolfe, but this may give you an idea of the original controversy.
“3. The memorial was originally quite controversial.
Many people commended Lin’s winning design, with a former ambassador to South Vietnam calling it a “distinguished and fitting mark of respect” and the New York Times saying it conveyed “the only point about the war on which people may agree: that those who died should be remembered.” But others lambasted it as an insult. Author Tom Wolfe called it “a tribute to [anti-war activist] Jane Fonda,” Vietnam veteran Jim Webb, a future U.S. Senator, referred to it as “a nihilistic slab of stone,” and political commentator Pat Buchanan accused one of the design judges of being a communist. Some critics even resorted to racially insulting Lin, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Eventually, a compromise was reached—against Lin’s wishes—under which a U.S. flag and a statue of three servicemen were dedicated near the wall in 1984. Nine years later, yet another sculpture was added of three women caring for an injured soldier. Not only did the controversy quickly quiet down, but the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has since become both widely praised and wildly popular. “It is still far and away the greatest memorial of modern times—the most beautiful, the most heart-wrenching, the most subtle, and the most powerful,” a Vanity Fair commentator wrote earlier this year.
From: http://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-vietnam-veterans-memorial.
Perfect? Are there other all-black veterans memorials in D. C.? Anywhere else? How many of them look like gravesites? Does any other war memorial you know list every (or nearly every) casualty of the war it proposes to memorialize. At best, the VWM is a eulogy, not a memorial. “Look at all those dead soldiers,” it screams, not “Thank these men for their service to America.”
I realize the memorial grounds have since become hallowed—not as the result of some edgy notion of aesthetics but because of the visits of relatives, friends, and other patriots. Where else CAN they go?
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