It was called a “black gash of shame” and a “shrine to defeat” rather than a traditional, heroic tribute long before it was formally dedicated in November 1982.
Today the Vietnam Veterans Memorial draws some 5 million visitors each year.
The Leland, Mississippi, “Military Wall of Honor — conceived by a man who joined the National Guard at a time when its ranks were being bloated by those wanting to ovoid war in Vietnam — is unlikely to attain anything like the distinction that has been accorded the Vietnam memorial.
It’s unlikely to obtain any distinction at all.
The Leland memorial lowers the bar to honor, and seems to have been designed to admit Guardsmen, and it will in fact do so. Its sole criteria is the completion of a military or National Guard tour of duty, and residency at one time within the Leland area.
This is a project rotten to its core.
There is no “honor” in the Leland wall. In fact, its very existence exsanguinates purpose and life from more meaningful military monuments everywhere. It is a disgrace because it cheapens and fetishizes military service. It reduces heroes to the commonplace of simply serving in uniform.
It’s understandable to want to recognize military service, snd it is done with monuments all across the country. Monuments and memorials are dedicated to the “men and women of the Armed Forces” or some similar wording.
The Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial in Boston honors the first black unit during the Civil War, but naming — or attempting to name — every single division or unit member runs counter to the ethos of selfless service that marks all U.S. military units.
There is so much wrong with the Leland memorial it is hard to know where to start and when to stop. It would be fascinating to know the workings of the minds of the three or four men who shepherded this undertaking to completion.
It is far too easy to suspect these were minds marked by a kind of cognitive immaturity — a lack of depth and range, certainly so, it seems, when it comes to military monuments.
But I also wonder if the answer to the obvious question of — ‘What were they thinking?’ – is obvious itself: Perhaps they weren’t. Thinking, I mean.
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