During our visit to Arlington Cemetery, one part really impacted me. I had gone in eighth grade, so the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Kennedys’ gravesite with the eternal flame was still pretty fresh in my mind. I don’t have any family buried in Arlington, so my first trip of walking aimlessly around the different gravestones was a bit different from this past Wednesday where a few of my classmates and I were looking for a specific gravestone from a fellow Explorer’s family.
While we were searching for it, we happened to be walking in a section that was all “Iraqi Freedom” gravestones. This was the part that really upset me- some of the birth years were 1987- the same age as my sister. It was so weird to see a) the burial places of soldiers from a war still going on and b) seeing soldiers as young as twenty dying at war. I’m not sure which part disturbed me more- the fact that it had somewhere made the current Iraqi War more tangible by seeing actual gravestones or that soldiers who were my sister’s age have died fighting for their country. It made me realize that my sister and I are not kids anymore- we are old enough now to go to war and even die in it.
This Arlington Cemetery visit was truly an eye-opening experience, and I hope to go back next year for Veterans’ Day and possibly even see the memorial service this time! (Darn you, Obama!)
Wow! You really said exactly what I wanted to say in my post but a lot more clearly. I also walked past the same section of graves and I was deeply disturbed when I realized that my sister, who is older than me by two years, is the same age of some of the people who have died at war. It is crazy to realize that we are now considered old enough to go to war and risk our lives. Even though we are technically considered old enough to go to war, do you really think we are?
ReplyDelete