This I Believe

I believe that people of today need to see the world from a different view or perspective. The way our society remembers and memorializes the vast amounts of human conflict in the past need to be understood and analyzed to better comprehend the conflicts that envelope the world today. When I visited Washington D.C. there were numerous memorials for the fallen heroes of our various involvements in armed conflicts around the world. The World War II memorial gave me a perspective of how our country full united in this devastatingly critical conflict that drastically changed the world. It gave the feeling of a grand, respected, and glorified engagement. The names of all the states made me see our full support in this war. On the other hand, the Vietnam Memorial deeply affected me when I saw all the names of people who died. The names gave a much more personal feeling to this memorial. I realized that even though few people respected the reasons for this war, people are starting to respect those who served. My view then traversed to the Korean War Memorial. It sometimes seems like a forgotten war, but the memorial almost places one in the middle of the action. The First World War was described as the war to end all wars, but the memorial seems deserted and in disrepair. It was small and tucked away, hidden behind overgrown trees and bushes. Upon closer scrutiny it had a deeper meaning and an understated dignity. The last tribute to human suffering I experienced while at D.C. was the Holocaust Museum. The amount of human suffering displayed in this exhibit opened my eyes to the incredible depths of what humans are capable of inflicting and surviving. It was even more deeply personal for me because I have Jewish heritage and have had ancestors live in these areas of the world. I could not understand how such drastic steps towards the annihilation of a people could have taken place and few tried to prevent it. This view also makes me think: How could such an event happen without people knowing? In Elie Wiesel’s book Night he described his feelings and personal story of surviving the Holocaust and he wondered how could such an event happen and nobody tried to stop it. The different perspectives I experienced changed my view on life, human conflict, and the devastation caused when humans seed to destroy each other. Perhaps we need to understand that all conflict leads to tragedy no matter who is destroyed or the reasons why.