The town of Gettysburg was settled in 1780, and past the first of the Civil War battle that occurred there in 1863, information technology contained a population of effectually 2,400 people. The battle changed everything. Not only was the town transformed into the symbolic marker of the turning point of the state of war, but it became the site of one of the greatest speeches e'er given: the Gettysburg Address. When y'all visit today, the unabridged town is geared towards its Ceremonious War history.

Gettysburg is too constrained by the limits of the battlefield that surrounds it. Y'all can't develop that land — it's all historical sites. Homes in Gettysburg that are incredibly old aren't torn down. They're restored. The town is trapped in time considering of three traumatic days 151 years ago. The whole affair'south become a war memorial.

I live in DC, nearly an hour-and-a-one-half drive from Gettysburg, and I'k surrounded by state of war memorials, too. They're everywhere here. They were everywhere in my previous home of London. I saw them everywhere when I traveled Europe. They're everywhere catamenia. And in that location'southward an art to visiting war memorials. These sites demand more attention than fleeting glances and awkward gestures of respect.

How to look at the memorial

You can usually tell how the war ended by looking at the memorial itself. The Globe War 2 Memorial on the National Mall in DC is covered in monolithic granite pillars with 2 giant arches on either side and a fountain in the eye. It's a memorial with the pomp of a conflict won. The Vietnam State of war Memorial is much more somber; information technology almost sinks into the ground, strangely self-effacing for an object whose sole purpose is to be viewed. It'south a single hue of reflective rock with a simple listing of names. There are no signs of victory here.

In Ho Chi Minh Urban center, Vietnam, there'due south a memorial museum called the War Remnants Museum. It used to be called the Museum of American War Atrocities. The message there is clear: We won, but the scars haven't healed.

Many memorials will accept lists of the war dead. If you don't know someone on the listing, try to pick a single proper name and encompass that that person had a full life, family, kids maybe. Once yous feel like y'all understand that, step back and look at the whole list.

The final exhibit at every memorial is the people visiting with you. Lookout man them. In DC and in Normandy, for instance, you'll ofttimes run across veterans at the site. They're the nearly fascinating to both lookout and talk to considering the memorial's history runs parallel to their own. While you should obviously be respectful and feel out each situation, I've oftentimes found that vets want to talk well-nigh their experiences.

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

How to experience about the memorial

In Hamlet, Hamlet says to Horatio, "There are more things on heaven and globe, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Endeavor to go on that quote in heed at the war memorial (or anywhere, actually). This is a identify for humility. Regardless of what your opinions are about the war — whether information technology was just, whether it was a tragedy, whether it was glorious — they're allowed to exist felt, but they shouldn't be imposed on other people. Everyone is allowed to express anger or confusion or sadness or shame here. It's not your concern to judge.

War is usually depicted in reductive terms, which is moronic. State of war is one of the most all-encompassing, complex man phenomena in that location is. To convince 2 or more than groups they need to kill each other, and and 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 fourth dimension all manifest themselves in the disharmonize.

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