National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, VA
There’s a scene in “Saving Private Ryan” that absolutely wrecks me every time I watch the film. And I couldn’t keep that scene out of my head the day I visited this place.
Category Archives: Modern Monuments
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Fifty years on from its end, many of the wounds from the Vietnam War have finally started to heal. Perhaps surprisingly, given its early controversy, the memorial wall has helped that healing process along.
JFK Presidential Library and Museum
The JFK Library and Museum is like a physical evocation of Kennedy’s “New Frontier.” The whole place so evokes the optimism of that period in American history that I found myself wishing I could be transported back in time to see it for myself.
Greensboro Lunch Counter
Lunch counters seem like a quaint piece of early 20th century Americana, and I have long loved them for that. But as with so much of the iconography of Americana, the ugly shadow of racism has tainted our memory of lunch counters and their place in the culture. And when I say lunch counters, I’m really thinking about one lunch counter in particular: the one that once stood in the Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Freedom Trail
I love the Freedom Trail. It’s basically just a red brick path that runs through historic Boston, but its existence transforms the visitor’s experience of that city. It’s very cool, and very Boston.
Martin Luther King Memorial
Whenever I see photos or newsreel footage of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, I’ve taken a moment to wonder about the identities of the park rangers standing next to King. That also got me thinking more about King himself.
Dougie Does Monuments 