D.C. Adventures- Megan Fricke

I have to admit; I was a little apprehensive as we crammed into our mini van, equipped with raincoats and snacks for a long and rainy day in D.C.  The rain was not remorseful as it beat against our cars, and especially as we embarked towards the famous Lincoln Memorial.  My parents met and wed in D.C., my mother’s best friends live in D.C., and my dad currently commutes weekly to D.C. from our home in Atlanta.  Needless to say, I have been to Washington D.C. before and had already seen many of the sights that were visited today.  However, I truly appreciated visiting these memorials and monuments after listening to many of my fellow classmate’s presentations.  In regards to the Lincoln Memorial, I did not previously notice the use of columns to separate the 3 chambers within the memorial, nor did I notice that the outside columns were built at a slight angle in order to avoid the “bulge” look. 

After the Lincoln Memorial, we walked across the National Mall in the somehow sideways rain to the Vietnam War Memorial.  This memorial is very significant to me, as my grandfather fought in this war.  Thankfully, he survived the war and returned home without any injuries, but names etched into this wall were his dear friends and fellow soldiers.  I have seen how emotional he becomes in discussion of the memorial and his experiences at Vietnam and was reminded of this as we walked along the wall.  One detail that I noticed almost immediately was my reflection off of the stone, with seemed to make me one with the soldiers.  It serves as a reminded that their sacrifices were for ME, who walks today in remembrance and thankfulness in front of their names.  After reading Carried To The Wall, I was more aware of the tokens left in honor of the fallen soldiers.  I noticed many crosses and letters left at the foot of the wall.  However, what stuck out to me the most was walking by a grieving couple who huddled under their tattered umbrella in front of a panel of names.  Their eyes were puffy and red from the tears and as I walked by them, I couldn’t imagine the paint that they were going through.

We then walked to the WWII memorial, which unfortunately seemed to be under a bit of construction.  We briefly walked around in the rain, which seemed to be pouring harder, which I didn’t think was possible.  I stood underneath the Georgia state pillar and was, like always, surprising by the curved wall of stars: the Freedom Wall.  There are 4,048 stars and each star represents 100 soldiers who lost their lives in the war.  The inscription at the foot of the wall states: “Here we mark the price of freedom”.  I think that this is a powerful way to honor and represent the cost of the war.  We then went to the MLK Memorial, which I didn’t particularly like.  Although it is in a beautiful location, right on the basin, I think that MLK Jr. looks almost mean and sinister, and somewhat cartoonish and the rock used for the memorial looks almost like cheap plastic.  I like how the architect depicted MLK Jr. as a rock of hope in a mountain of despair, but I think it could have been executed in a different manner.

Next we found ourselves in Arlington Cemetery and luckily the rain briefly stopped for this visit!  We hightailed it to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, seeing many living memorials and Robert E. Lee’s house on the way.  We got to see the changing of the guard ceremony and a wreath ceremony at the Tomb, which I had never before witnessed.  It was really cool to see different members of society, a Fire Department and a Middle School, come together to place wreaths in front of the Tomb in honor of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to our nation.  I was so thankful that it was not raining, because we got to spend a lot of time observing and enjoying the ornate and traditional ceremony.  This really demonstrated the importance of ritual in many memorial sites.  We also saw many gravestones with individual tokens of the remembrance, such as rocks and flags, which makes the uniform graves unique and shows the involvement of family members in the memorial sites of loved ones.  After Arlington Cemetery we went to the Iwo Jima Memorial, but it was once again raining and we didn’t get to spend much time in front of the memorial.  However, I was able to truly take in the size and splendor of the memorial, a detail that cannot completely be depicted through pictures and books.

Overall, I really enjoyed our experience today.  I think that our trip demonstrates the true meaning of memorials.  It brought together people, the students in our class, as well as other tourists visiting the sites, in a place of reflection and thankfulness.  As you can see in the above picture, the visit to the memorials brought me together with other members of the W&L community in an opportunity to reflect on the legacy left by President Lincoln.  I think that this trip really taught me this detail about memorials, and their importance in reflection and remembrance.  I wish that we could have seen the Lee House at Arlington, but there is so much to do in D.C. that it would take days to fully cover everything.  However, I really think that next year, the class should make a trip to the Pentagon Memorial of the 9/11 attacks.  I think that this would have a strong effect on students, as this commemorates an event that happened during our lifetime.  It is also rather recent and many students probably haven’t seen it before.