FULFILLMENT   Military Monuments     Jennifer Gonzalez     Towns across the USA     Wennamucca, Nevada I stopped to ask directions of some folks at an agricultural supply store. They told me that the war memorial was right down the road on the left. Couldn't miss it. I took the opportunity to ask them what they thought of their memorial. The guy sitting behind his desk laughed and said that it was better looking that it was a few years ago because the town had cleaned it up a lot but it still sort of looked as though we lost the war. Then everyone agreed that they loved their monument. Evanston, Wyoming In Evanston, Wyoming I spoke to two women in an SUV who had no feelings about the war monument near city hall. However they didn't like the newly installed 911 memorial because "it was leaning." I spoke to two adolescent girls who had no feeling about the war monument but they were frightened at the prospect of the United States going to war. I spoke to James who was sitting in his truck in front of the war monument. He loves the monument and thinks that it serves as an important commemoration of all those from Uinta County Wyoming who've died in all of the wars that the United States has had. Fort Bridger, Wyoming There wasn't anyone around to speak to about the Fort Bridger monument. Laramie, Wyoming In Laramie, Wyoming I spoke to a police officer who thought that the war monument was placed in a very appropriate place at the courthouse. I also spoke to an archivist who informed me that the monument used to sit in a main street downtown. In fact it acted as a physical boundary marker. People and horses used to walk by and around the monument. She felt that this was a better place for the monument to be because it was truly in physical public space and had to be considered and thought about. Moving it to the courthouse removed it somewhat from being public sculpture for the public to being a more removed sign of power for the government. However as a war monument she had no feelings about it. Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln has the most extensive war memorial park I have seen so far on this journey. It is located in Antelope Park. Chad who worked in the archives of the Nebraska Historical Society directed me there. He said that he really liked the style of the Monument to the Great Wars. It is romantic and sentimental. He thought that the Monument to World War One was really ugly and therefore not as powerful. The Vietnam War memorial in the Veteran's War Memorial Park reminded him of certain soldiers he met during his childhood. His parents lived in a farmhouse on one of the main roads leading to the military bases of California. Newly drafted and enlisted soldiers would travel by on the way to these bases before being shipped to Vietnam. Sometimes during the winter, these young soldiers couldn't drive any further and Chad's parents would take them in, feed and put them up until the storms passed. Chad recognized some of their names on the engraved bricks that comprise this town's expanded and modified version of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. This recognition always made him sad. West Virginia Veterans Memorial I went to the West Virginia Veterans Memorial with my sister Anne. It is located behind the state capital. Anne commented that it is very moving to see the names of Roger Castle and Thomas Christian, (one was my sister Nancy's fiance and the other my cousin Pat's), while we were so close to being at war again. I still remember Roger, even though I was very young during Vietnam. We forgot to look for my mother's favorite cousin Omar Thomas, who was killed in World War II. It is especially affecting to be visiting and photographing these monuments right now. All I can think is that another war means that more and more granite walls are going to be covered with names of young brothers and lovers and fathers and sons and sisters and lovers and daughters and wives and dear friends. It is enough to make one weep while protesting. Then we went to the front of the capital. There were memorials that illustrated some of the inherent contradictions of West Virgina. One monument of a Union soldier and another of Stonewall Jackson. Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Memorial I was originally taken to the Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Memorial by Kate this summer after telling her about this request for the project. She showed me this memorial and told me that it was a sentimental site from her childhood. She especially loved playing in the cannon balls. Gettysburg These monuments and the battle fields at Gettysburg remind me of the terrible amount of the blood that has been spilled in anger and war. We are walking where very angry people fought. Angry people have walked everywhere. Arlington It is amazing that anyone could have envisioned designing a military cemetery which could be as beautiful as Arlington National Cemetery. It's meaning is one of a huge loss of life and ideology and it holds a great deal of sadness. Richmond The monuments on Monument Boulevard represent the profound conservatism of Richmond, Virginia. I am not into the Confederate Heritage that these statues represent although I do love many other aspects of southern culture. In that I don't agree with what the monuments symbolize, I have no feelings for them. Desert Monuments We passed the first tank after looking at Michael Heizer's "Double Negative." The other was in the middle of the Armargosa Valley. No one that I was with really thought much about them.