Learning From Past Arguments: Designing Memorials

people. September 11, and the Vietnam War affected everybody across the United States, not only a select few. Maya Lin, the creator of the Vietnam Veterans memorial and she also expresses concern about the government having their say. In her personal memoir

she exclaims that “…I assumed the simplicity of the design and its atypical form and color, would afford it a difficult time through the various governmental-approval agencies ;…”( Lin 403).

A possibility for public debate that the United States can learn is how the memorial should be interpreted. Memorials are able to do a variety of tasks. Memorials can provide comfort for the families of those who died, help the public remember about the tragedy which occurred, a way to pay tribute to victims of the tragedy. This was an issue that occurred during the building of the World Trade Center memorial. Some people thought that it didn’t convey the attack as much as it should. Other people shared their thoughts on how the World Trade Center memorial should be more about those who were killed. Civilian Linda McGee feels that the memorial should be more about those died and their families. Linda McGee explains “…there should also be a way for people to see the faces of the near 3,000 people who died.” (Kimmelman 416). There are many different ideas about what a memorial should stand for and people need to agree on this before the memorial is built.

The way in which the Vietnam and World Trade Center memorials went about wasn’t how it was planned. This is because the original planning process was weak. There are many considerations that will shape and change a memorial before the memorial is actually completed, and this fact wasn’t really taken into account. One such example occurred during the designing of the World Trade Center memorial. The policemen, firefighters, and other rescuers who saved lives on September 11th want their names to be set aside from those who were killed. The rescuers feel that they need to be remembered as such, and not mixed in with those who died. While it is good to get a voice out about your opinions, there are good times and bad times. Since the process of designing a memorial doesn’t include any public opinions, then all times are bad times.

This is something that the United States needs to learn to be successful about in the future if they want to prevent these arguments from happening.

While there were many problems and situations with the design and building of the Vietnam Veteran and World Trade Center memorials, there were some good concepts that spawned. Thanks to Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veteran memorial design, people are able to more closely relate with the victims of that tragedy. Maya Lin discovered that by putting the name of the victims on the memorial, people will more closely relate with those who died. Instead of representing the victims of the Vietnam Veterans as a single object, the victims are being represented as the actual individuals that they are. This new type of grieving will become a trend in memorials after the Vietnam Veteran memorial. The World Trade Center memorial is one of those memorials that will also be built with the names of the deceased who died on that day.

So while there were many problems that came out of the design and construction of the Vietnam Veteran and World Trade Center memorials, those problems don’t have to be repeated. By learning from past mistakes, the United States will be able to provide a

better, more efficient process for the design of memorials. Luckily, the memorial the Vietnam Veterans memorial that was designed by Maya Ling was a huge success. All memorials are beautiful and represent great things. Memorials are structures to help the

public understand and come to terms with a certain event that has occurred. By revising what can be learned from past debates, the future memorials will be a more joyous and respectful experience.