Controversial memorials

The controversy over the Flight 93 Memorial has turned a new corner as the father of one of the victims has complained about the islamic overtones and demands having his sons name removed from the memorial. It is another reminder of how difficult it can be to balance the complex desires and demands of the families and others mourning the loss being memorialized.

When the World War II Memorial opened Slate.com offered some commentary on that controversy. In that case designers were complaining about the design that was created at the request of the survivors and families. And the authors do a good job of pointing to problems elsewhere on the Mall:

Would you like to see what a truly kitschy war memorial looks like? I invite you to walk down the Reflecting Pool from the World War II Memorial and take a gander at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1995 and obviously intended to be the anti-Vietnam memorial. As with Lin's memorial, there's a black marble wall, but instead of names, it has pictures of soldiers, and in front of these are rows and rows of sculptures depicting individual soldiers. The effect is as though someone grabbed your collar and shouted, "I dare you to question whether the Korean War was worth fighting."