Seneca, Kansas, USA

How do we honor our veterans? Here's another method: We build an honor wall of names, one plaque for every veteran in our town or county. Before the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, honoring vets meant only one thing: sculpting a statue. Walls like this are far more personal. Remember: Today is Veterans Day. [2009]

Chesapeake, Virginia, USA

"Never Forget" honors the police and firefighters who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center is New York was decimated by terrorists. This is a piece of steel from ground zero. [2020]

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

April 19, 1995: The Oklahoma City bomber parked a van loaded with explosives next to the Murrah Federal Building, and committed mass murder. The explosion killed 168 people, including 19 children. The Murrah Building, now replaced by this memorial, looked like what we see today in Ukraine, where over 20,000 civilians have been killed by Russian forces. [2007]

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA

The first memorial to the Wright Brothers' (see them?) accomplishments was erected on the top of Big Kill Devil Hill. It's easy to guess when the design was authorized: 1930. It exudes the brutalism of the second industrial revolution: not light and airy like the flight itself, but dense and heavy. Conclusion: The designers were prisoners of their times. [2021]

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA

The "first flight" re-created on yesterday's post took place at this very location in 1903 when the tree-less landscape was nothing but shifting sand. Of the four flights that day (two for Orville and two for Wilbur), each one covered a longer distance. Takeoff is marked by the boulder; touchdowns are marked by four stones, the last one close to the trees. [2021]

New York, New York, USA

At 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, the first of the Twin Towers was hit by a highjacked aircraft. The second tower was hit at 9:03. Both collapsed. The footprint of each Tower is today memorialized by a sunken waterfall that encourages us and all future generations to reflect on their absence. Nearby is the new One World Trade Center. [2017]

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Maryland's 9-11 Memorial stands right beside Baltimore's own World Trade Center. On the marble plinth are inscribed the names of all Marylanders who lost their lives on 9-11-01. On top of the marble plinth are steel columns that were salvaged from the remains of New York's World Trade Center after the attacks. [2021]

Washington, DC, USA

Respected President + Prestigous Architect = Worst memorial on or off the National Mall. It was dedicated less than a year ago but seems anchored in the design ideas of the last century with some contemporary elements that just don't work. You'll have to visit to experience the full negative effect. Too bad for Ike (whose full name should be under the quote)! [2021]

Clarinda, Iowa, USA

♫ These Are a Few of My Favorite Things ♫ ~ Courthouses: There are over 3000 counties in the U.S., and each one has a county courthouse. County seats like Clarinda generally use their courthouses to brag about their past, their ideals, and their quality of life. They do this with eye-catching architecture and a plethora of memorials. [2019]

Hyde Park, New York, USA

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are buried here in the Rose Garden next to the "Big House," which he loved and she didn't. The humble tombstone was designed by FDR himself and cut from Vermont marble, the same marble used for the Washington Monument, the Supreme Court, and the U.N. headquarters in New York. [2019]

Hyde Park, New York, USA

More than three decades ago the eyes of the world were on the city of Berlin as the central symbol of the Cold War began to crumble. It is amazing how fragments of that wall made their way around the world as permanent memorials to the evils of division. The two colorful silhouettes that stand in back of the FDR Library were born of the Berlin Wall. [2019]

New York, New York, USA

Seven years after the event, the tiles affixed to a work-a-day fence in Greenwich Village were looking a little weather beaten. Hopefully, today they are all in the archives of the 9/11 Memorial Museum. It's been 19 years! [2008]

Oświęcim, Poland

The placid landscape and blue skies do not capture the horrors that took place here during World War II. This was Auschwitz, established by the Nazis for the purpose of vesting a Holocaust on Europe's Jews. Over one million were murdered here. [2004]

Moyock, North Carolina, USA

National unity followed the 9-11 attacks in 2001, and makeshift memorials sprang up all across the country. No such thing happened in 2020 following the ongoing coronavirus attacks even though the number of deaths has been 50 times higher. Why not? [2001]

Denver, Colorado, USA

It's gone. First vandalized, then removed. It happened just last week. In Colorado, no less. A Union soldier, no less. Yes, Colorado's Union forces fought against the Confederates, but then went on to perpetrate the Sand Creek Massacre in which hundreds of native peoples were slaughtered. What kind of public art do you want to take its place? [2019]

New Lexington, Ohio, USA

Let's use this Memorial Day to put the toll of coronavirus into perspective. As of today, Covid-19 has taken 100,000 American lives. That is the same number of deaths from the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined. Only the Civil War and World War II resulted in more American deaths. And, coronavirus has done it in a mere four months. [2017]

Jackson, Ohio, USA

Let's take a moment to honor the Governors of our fifty states for their leadership in bringing us through the corona virus pandemic. No matter how bad it gets, it would have been even worse were it not for these men and women and their able lieutenants. When this has all passed, perhaps we should build one memorial to all fifty. [2016]

Washington, DC, USA

Welcome to the first day of spring in Washington. The cherry blossoms are early this year and are probably at their peak right about now. Too bad you won't be able to congregate around the Tidal Basin to bask in their abundance as you have done so many times in the past. [2011]

Arlington, Virginia, USA

Six Marines raise the flag on Iwo Jima. Six young men stroll past in casual formation: Do they understand the sacrifices their grandparents' generation made to afford them a continuing legacy of freedom and opportunity? Today may be Veterans Day, but all year long we hear these words directed at those in uniform: "Thank you for your service." [2016]

New York, New York, USA

The attack on New York City and the attempted take-down of Washington, DC, on September 11, 2001, marked a threshold event that changed every aspect of the new century. Today is the eighteenth anniversary of those attacks; the flag above was photographed on the first anniversary. [2002]