The boondocks of Gettysburg was settled in 1780, and by the get-go of the Civil State of war boxing that occurred at that place in 1863, it contained a population of around 2,400 people. The boxing changed everything. Not only was the boondocks transformed into the symbolic marker of the turning point of the war, but information technology became the site of ane of the greatest speeches always given: the Gettysburg Address. When you visit today, the entire town is geared towards its Civil War history.

Gettysburg is too constrained by the limits of the battlefield that surrounds it. Yous can't develop that land — it's all historical sites. Homes in Gettysburg that are incredibly old aren't torn downwardly. They're restored. The town is trapped in fourth dimension because of iii traumatic days 151 years ago. The whole thing's become a war memorial.

I live in DC, about an hr-and-a-half drive from Gettysburg, and I'm surrounded by war memorials, likewise. They're everywhere hither. They were everywhere in my previous habitation of London. I saw them everywhere when I traveled Europe. They're everywhere period. And there's an art to visiting war memorials. These sites demand more attending than fleeting glances and awkward gestures of respect.

How to look at the memorial

You tin usually tell how the state of war ended past looking at the memorial itself. The World War II Memorial on the National Mall in DC is covered in monolithic granite pillars with two behemothic arches on either side and a fountain in the middle. It'south a memorial with the pomp of a conflict won. The Vietnam War Memorial is much more than somber; information technology almost sinks into the ground, strangely self-effacing for an object whose sole purpose is to exist viewed. It'south a single hue of reflective rock with a unproblematic list of names. In that location are no signs of victory here.

In Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Vietnam, there'due south a memorial museum called the War Remnants Museum. Information technology used to be chosen the Museum of American War Atrocities. The message at that place is articulate: We won, but the scars haven't healed.

Many memorials volition have lists of the war dead. If you don't know someone on the listing, endeavor to pick a single name and embrace that that person had a full life, family, kids maybe. One time y'all feel similar you lot understand that, step back and await at the whole list.

The final exhibit at every memorial is the people visiting with you. Spotter them. In DC and in Normandy, for example, you lot'll often come across veterans at the site. They're the almost fascinating to both watch and talk to because the memorial's history runs parallel to their own. While you should plain exist respectful and feel out each situation, I've ofttimes establish that vets want to talk about their experiences.

Observing the other visitors, I'm fascinated past trying to intuit how they feel about the war in question. Are they crying? Exercise they seem angry? Proud? Baffled?

How to feel nigh the memorial

In Hamlet, Hamlet says to Horatio, "There are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Try to keep that quote in heed at the state of war memorial (or anywhere, really). This is a place for humility. Regardless of what your opinions are about the state of war — whether it was just, whether it was a tragedy, whether it was glorious — they're allowed to exist felt, simply they shouldn't be imposed on other people. Everyone is allowed to limited acrimony or defoliation or sadness or shame here. It's not your concern to judge.

War is usually depicted in reductive terms, which is moronic. War is ane of the most all-encompassing, complex human phenomena there is. To convince two or more groups they demand to impale each other, so to go them to act on that conviction, takes a lot of forces working simultaneously. The force of history is behind every war, and the politics and the morality and the economics and the technology of that time all manifest themselves in the conflict.

War memorials, on the other hand, aren't meant to be acted on in any way. They're meant to be absorbed, then processed, then learned from. They aren't places onto which you lot should project your own philosophy; instead, concentrate on assuasive them to impress their message — whatever that may be — onto y'all.