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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Al Graudian: Stop Building World War II Memorials |
| 2012-05-24 |
| I enjoy checking out the Guardian website from time to time. It's like spending a few minutes on a planet where the sky is green. Recently the Guardian's editorial crew directed their attention to a really pressing issue: an excess of World War II memorials. This summer another second world war memorial, this time to Bomber Command, will be unveiled in central London. Even if this were an uncontentious subject of scintillating design, 2012 is far too late to be building memorials to those involved in a war that ended nearly 70 years ago. OK, so those young British aircrews suffered roughly a 40% KIA rate: what have the survivors done for us lately? Bunch of geezers, they are. The war is reduced to being another chapter in Our Island Story, England alone, the last bastion of freedom. It is becoming Britain's foundation myth, and the way it is remembered is as important as the fact of remembrance. The aggrandising of conflict misrepresents and diminishes the truth. It's almost ... patriotic! Their memorial, surely, is the NHS, social welfare and free education. I can see it now, the Seventh Armored Division Memorial Dole Queue. And a commenter chips in with this: I agree with this editorial. WWII is well and truly over. While we're at it, can we say enough is enough regarding Holocaust memorials? No, you jerk, we can't. But I do suspect that the Guardian could find the willpower to support a tasteful memorial to the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War. |
| Posted by:Matt |
| #6 They're just pissed off the national socialists lost. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-05-24 16:35 |
| #5 The people those memorials honor are the reason the Guardian is not published in German. And yeah, what Frank said in #2. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2012-05-24 15:59 |
| #4 I recently purchased Aldon F. Ferguson's brilliantly done book entitled the Royal Air Forces Burtonwood. From the forward: Burtonwood was probably the largest military base in Europe during World War Two, processing over 11,5000 aircraft between 1941 and 1945 alone, but beyond that it was responsible for the support of initially the 8th Air Force, then additionally the 9th and ultimately the 12th and 15th Air Forces as well. Over 35,000 men were under the direct control of Burtonwood with 18,500 on the base itself. Nothing was too big or small, from rebuilding battle damaged bombers to manufacturing valve springs for aero engines, manufacturing timber packing cases or converting gliders into powered aircraft. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-05-24 15:14 |
| #3 The real question is what took them so long to build the memorial in the first place. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2012-05-24 14:56 |
| #2 you KNOW that if it were a celebratory memorial to the Communists, they would be front-paging it |
| Posted by: Frank G 2012-05-24 08:06 |
| #1 "QUENTIN CRISP" WAR MEMORIAL ... versus * NEWS KERALA > UK DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER [Nick Clegg] DECLARES SNOBBERY ["class attitudes"] AS NATIONAL RELIGION OWING TO [types/kinds of upper-paying] JOBS DENIED TO THE POOR. [QUADROPHENIA, HOW THE IRISH [repeatedly] SAVED BRITAIN here]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-05-24 00:31 |