The Vietnam Wall, Washington D.C.
Experiencing the Vietnam Wall is a literal descent into the hell
and human cost of war for as I descended from ground level into the depths of
the war memorial dwarfed by the magnitude of the 58,256 names scripted on its black
granite wall ~ I was profoundly filled with sadness but as I eventually
ascended into the daylight it suddenly became a peace memorial and a heartfelt
reaffirmation that war is no longer an option in a world that is being forced
to unite or perish: Allen L Roland
The Vietnam
Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C.
It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in
the Vietnam
War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia,
and those service members who were unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during
the War.
The black granite memorial was completed in 1982 and
receives around 3 million visitors each year. The Memorial Wall was
designed by the American architect Maya Lin.
In the
early 1990’s, while in Washington, DC for a speaking engagement, I visited the
site but nothing could emotionally prepare me for
a visit to the memorial or the shock that this war and its incredible human
sacrifice was politically motivated and based on lies.
Just like during the war, the names of the dead slowly appeared on my left as I
descended the gentle slope to the main wall and then suddenly the scope of the
carnage overcame me as scores of names became hundreds and then thousands and
finally over 50,000 and the brutal truth of this unnecessary tragedy
overwhelmed me as I slowly and somberly climbed back into the sunlight.
Maya
Lin’s own comments about her creation are worth noting;
“I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War
because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans.
The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was.”
“A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time.
I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as
a journey in time.”
“I try to give people a different way of looking at their
surroundings. That's art to me.”
“The definition of a modern approach to war is the
acknowledgement of individual lives lost. “
“ When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never
once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of
view, you don't pry into other people's business. “
“You have to let the viewers come away with their own
conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.”
Read more Lin quotes at ~
Maya
Lin was interviewed in San Francisco on October
24, 2008 and discussed the meaning behind her once controversial design for the
Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial and her desire to go beyond Vietnam and
make a universal statement about the moral futility of war itself. Two
minute video ~
Lin more
than succeeded in her effort to create something that would both transcend Vietnam
and yet touch and reconcile our injured soul
by returning to nature.
Want to visit the Virtual Wall ~ First click on a state. When it
opens, scroll down to the city and the names will appear. Then click on their
names. It should show you a picture of the person, or at least their bio and
medals. This really is an amazing web site. Someone spent a lot of time
and effort to create it. http://www.virtualwall.org/iStates.htm
Let us hope that deep black scar in the earth that
represents the wound the Vietnam war left on
the American soul is not a prelude to Lin’s
thoughts regarding a possible monument to
World War III ~
“I started studying what the nature of a monument is and
what a monument should be. And for the World War III memorial I designed a
futile, almost terrifying passage that ends nowhere.”
Amen!
Allen L Roland
Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist
and psychotherapist Allen L Roland
is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements
and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing
psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and
social commentary on his weblog
and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national
radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
