Monday, October 8, 2007

Memorial Wall


The Vietnam memorial wall is a very special and unique place. Originally i was gonna do this post about the creation of the wall. So i went online to the memorial site, after searching around, i came across a list of fallen solders who's birthdays would have been today. Looking up and down the list i noticed several odd things.

1. They have posted the religion of each fallen solider

Maybe this is to get bonds between random people and solders. However in a society with a seperation of church and state, this is not ok for a pubicilly funded site.

2. They have posted race as well, now this may not see odd, however instead of African American, they have posted, Negro. Which i feel is an inappropriate term.

I really dont know why this is not changed, any suggestions?

1 comment:

S. Bolos said...

Some very good questions, Josh.

I agree: a soldier's religion is a very personal issue, obviously. But I don't agree that it's a violation of Church and State. I think it's there not so much to broadcast religion to others, but to simply give you a sense of the the whole person.

The race is easier to understand: it is a marker in the flow of history. In past years, for example, "Negro" was probably the most widespread/accepted term. I don't think the site intended anything else.