Tragedies remembered, but for whom? Does the media focus excessively upon tragedies? Where are the celebrations of greatness?
I know of the several memorials, including The Viet Nam War, Columbine, Oklahoma City bombing, Lincoln Memorials.
Memorials to events (wars, national events, etc.) serve patriotic ends. Memorials to great people (FDR, JFK, etc.) serve to identify greatness.
The Viet Nam War, political bombings and school shootings are horrific and real tragedies. They involve various groups such as military, innocent victims, and perpetrators. The individual victims of these tragedies would not have been victims if they had not been members of the targeted groups.
Recently designed memorials focus on the individual victims by using names on walls and the 168 empty chairs in Oklahoma City. Personalized memorials distract from the greater struggle of ideals. Innocent victims should not be the focus of tragedies — as sad as it is for families and friends. It can be destructive for a society to constantly look back and focus upon tragedies.
Memorials to wars and political bombings should memorialize the events and struggles — rather than focus upon individual victims. It is inappropriate to build memorials to horrific acts perpetrated by sick individuals (such as school shootings, mass murders, etc.)
Memorials are meant to commemorate the actions of groups or individual heroes. Therefore, it can be said that the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial commemorates the work of bombers McVeigh and Nichols. And the Columbine Memorial commemorates those sick shooters of children.
Why has the U.S. entered The Age of Sadness where its citizens are fixated upon celebrating tragedies?