Evaluating the Merit of Historical Monuments

At times it is difficult to fully comprehend whether a person or event deserves recognition. People and events equally are complex, and possess multiple different positive and negative attributes that altogether make them whole. Prior to memorializing an event and creating a monument, a group or agency should consider the full impact an individual or an event had on society and whether their or its most significant contributions are deserving of remembrance. Christopher Columbus is known to be a complex figure who happened across the Americas, and led multiple people from Europe to unfamiliar land now known as the Americas. In Easton, Pennsylvania there is a monument of him that expresses a heroic stance shown from his posture as he gazes

This monument preserves history and the remembrance of those who are often forgotten which essentially is what monuments need to achieve. Those who moderately criticized this monument definitely have more opposition for the Columbus monument based on the fact not even an attempt at honoring the Native Americans is presented in the monument in Easton. The Easton monument has much more faulty representation of history than The Crazy Horse despite its minor limitations of characterizing a leader that has never been photographed (Downes). However, most of these limitation are made up for when viewing the full impact this memorial can have on future generations where people are becoming aware of American history instead of ignoring some of its realities. The Crazy Horse memorial allows people to end this trend of forgetting those who loved this country first and matter the most. The group that chose to create the Columbus monument did not consider the effects Columbus’s history with Native Americans would later have in surrounding and distant

Lin creates a famous design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., and expressed how she made her best attempt to highlight all complexities of her steps in creating a memorial(Lin). She mentions that “the design must be apolitical, harmonious with the site” and that it also must be “an additive rather than a combative force” (Lin). This expresses that the procedure of creating memorial needs to be critical, and the different impacts that a memorial can cause need to be examined carefully. There needs to be a way that a memorial is pleasing to those who view it, but also contain some realistic history along witth memorialization which Lin accomplishes inn her memorial design. There needs to be a deeper meaning behind the memorial itself, and it must fit the atmosphere it is placed in. This deeper meaning being the way that those who view the memorial are left creating some of their own interpertations while also understanding the reality of the event. This way the significance of the event can be viewed by others without it expressing any possible oppositions of one’s opinion. Some express their concerns about the cost of memorializing an event or person. In Washington DC, The Maine Lobsterman structure