Our little town is one of the stops on the tour of the Vietnam Wall. This is a three-quarter-size replica of the memorial that is in Washington, DC. Despite its reduced size, it is big. All 58,000 and more names are there in dark granite.
It travels around the country in a big semi-trailer and is put up and staffed by volunteers. Maybe you’ve seen it. In our town, at least, the wall is set up in a wide, open cemetery near the highway.
The names on the wall and what they represent quiet everyone who visits, even children. The long columns of names and the meaning of it all are hard to comprehend. It is so final.
Each name represents a real person. Not just letters, but a living being whose death affected and still affects so many other lives. This is an ongoing tragedy, even so long after the event. And now, we have another pointless war and will have yet another memorial.
I’m glad the wall is traveling around America. Everyone will have an opportunity to experience and, for a moment, at least, contemplate its meaning. It is our duty to all of the victims of war, and to each other, to take our thoughts, as we stand before this endless list of names, and imagine and dedicate ourselves to a much different and more humane future.
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