"War memorial over reacting?" Topic

Respite rooms at the war memorial.

Now I've heard everything.

As ridiculous as safe spaces at scary old Comic Con?

Probably.

Not looking forward to the next war. If you need a respite room just looking at a museum, how are people expected to go in a real battlefield?

Oh, yeah, that's where counselling comes in.

We're done for.

About 20 years ago I got to see the Pearl Harbor memorial. As I watched the movie about the WWII attack I began to tear up and, well, cry over what had happened. Because of that I decided not to go to the Arizona memorial to avoid embarrassment. I did not directly lose anyone in the attack but the sacrifice needed for the war affected me emotionally. The memorial area was pretty open and I wanted somewhere to "dry up". I don't know what "respite room" means, but I would have used one that day. I was born in Nov. 1950, but I grew hearing stories and feeling that the war was "yesterday".

My game room is painted in a color from Sherwin Williams called "Respite." The room is my respite from life. I don't see the problem with a respite room at the memorial--a place to relax and contemplate. We're not escaping reality, as with safe spaces. Just my opinion.

I was born in 1946. When I was ten I had been reading a book about Wake Island and quoted to my grandmother their line about "send us more Japs" which I thought was cool. And she burst into tears, crying oh those poor boys. Which was the point I realized it was REAL, not just a story, and she had lived it. It was a pivotal moment in my education as a historian.

Until I visited Auschwitz, I would have agreed with you, H man. That broke me. I can relate now to why folks may need respite rooms. Everyone's break point is different.

I was fortunate that my Dad caught malaria during jungle training. He was a chindit. His unit went in on the Broadway glider landings. After a week there were 12 men left out his company. All his friends who he'd known for 4 years died. Pretty sure he suffered survivor guilt but I never had the heart to press him on it.

War is awful.

Whatever.

I thought respite was implicit in war memorials. If you don't want to think about the war, don't go there, o rdon't read the plaques. Or leave. You go there to revive appropriate emotions, right? Is someone forcing people to visit the memorials? You can't just leave? Are they somehow aggressive?

But this is how we do things today. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's always been true of a lot of things.

We live in a strange time. Soon it will get stranger.

I'm not sure how I'd define respite but I defy anyone to stand and read the names and see the oil at the Arizona memorial or read a friends name at the Vietnam Wall and not feel a sense of loss and waste that is almost painful.

I went to the November 11th ceremony in downtown Vancouver on a rainy day, standing on a grassy slope. I had a wide umbrella and a woman, a complete stranger, took shelter beside me under my umbrella. Not a word was exchanged. During the ceremony she was quietly weeping. I said nothing but wondered who she was weeping for? Was it someone in particular or the horror of war at all? When the ceremony ended she turned to me and said thank you and walked off into the crowd. I never saw her again but I did do a mini-comic about it which was set to music: YouTube link

Exactly.

Now imagine if all these stories were hidden in a back room for no one to know about.

What a sterile emotionless place a war memorial would be. Hardly an accurate portrayal of things.

"Public displays of human emotion, no, can't have that."

I suspect they would always have seats or benches, bathrooms too.

A respite (which I've always attributed to the care of the elderly) rooms would have to be more private to be effective, judging by comments above. Private rooms for the emotionally distraught could prove.., problematic.

Stranger?

On site counselling? AI lost soldiers?

Lots of good comments, wasn't sure of the outcome, thanks.

PS

Onsite counselling by AI lost soldiers!?!

"Respite rooms at …"

"Conveniently located next to the snack bar and souvenir shop…" ;-)