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Essay by Addie Nicole Merans

Why do we build memorials to commemorate those who give their lives for their country?

     When we die, so much is lost.  Our conversations, our dreams, our nightmares, our tears, and our hobbies—everything is lost.  We fade into oblivion, names lost to the scourge of time.  Unless we are one of the lucky few who manage to make a difference, our lives are not recorded, and everything vanishes. 

     In war it is even easier to fade away.  Casualties become numbers, faceless and impersonal.  A person turns into a statistic, hopes, dreams and personality fading away to be morphed into a number.  When deaths mount into the thousands, picturing the number as a chain of one plus one plus one…all the way to the end, is nearly impossible.  But, that is what the numbers are, a slow build up of individuals, who died trying to do the right thing.  A pile of fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, lovers and friends.  All dead, all degraded into numbers.  What is overlooked is the fact that each individual has a web of connections, and that single death hits all of those people.  The people who survive are forgotten. 

     When one soldier dies, everyone who was close to that person must live with grief.  The soldiers who fought with him or her must live on, to fight another day.  The death can rattle hundreds.  When two die, the number doubles.  The list of casualties is more than a list of dead; it also represents the people who must constantly struggle with sadness.

     The trauma of the living makes memorials important.  The physical manifestation of the courage and honor the noble soldiers showed is evident in most memorials.  The memorial is a work of art, sanctified to the memory of the fallen soldiers.  On a large scale, they are a tribute to the country, showing how many loved their country enough to die for it.  However, on a smaller scale, they became even more important. 

     A small memorial, dedicated to those who died in a certain area, demystifies the large number of casualties.  The smaller list of names makes it more conceivable.  The list of names of the fallen soldiers is easier to read.  Seeing the list of names helps turn the large numbers one memorizes for class into a tangible concept.  From being an abstract thought, the deaths become real.  These people died; these families suffered.  The numbers turn into names, which in turn become people, people with hopes and dreams, who belonged to a family.  A smaller-scale memorial offers more comfort to a family, where they can see their loved one’s name endure.  

     Memorials make the list of fallen soldiers immortal.  By carving them onto a stone slab, or a sheet of metal, the names live on, for all to see.  This makes the memorial doubly important to the family of the deceased and to the soldier.  The soldier fell, protecting us from danger; the bare minimum they deserve is their name on a plaque.  It is a testament to their courage, and allows them to live on in memory.  As we survive the late soldier, this memorial will survive us.  When we fall to the scourge of time, the memorial will live on.  The soldiers will continue to be a blessing.  

     A memorial honors a fallen soldier as well, for it records their noble sacrifice for posterity.  While they may have died, the memorial allows the community they lived in to remember them.  They become an inspiration to us, and future generations.  These soldiers stand for honor, and courage, and loyalty, traits we are in dire need of.  The memorials are an indicator good exists in the world, proving there are people who are selfless.  The soldiers fell to protect people they didn’t know, showing a kindness and love of humanity.  The soldiers stood up for humanity, for morality, for goodness. 

     This is why memorials are so vital, the way they are a standing witness to the good within people.  A memorial stands for the devotion people feel for their country and the fact morality is still alive.  We commemorate our dead soldiers in honor of what they represent—a person rising above basic human decency to become a shining paragon of goodness.