What was your most patriotic event you've attended in person?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

We have to drive past Gettysburg on the way to the DC Temple. We need to stop there sometime and check it out.

Take one of the Tours there. The guided tours are well worth it.

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Take one of the Tours there. The guided tours are well worth it.

The Cold Harbor battlefield in Northern VA is a sobering Civil War site. Trenches, bullet riddled trees and finding an occassional bullet fragment mark this hallowed ground.

[nikuman]

Ground Zero, every morning.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by nikuman

Ground Zero, every morning.

I know that's a moving experience for people, but for some reason it doesn't approximate the other battlefield experiences for me. It's eery, but it doesn't feel as sacred.

In a battlefield, people knew they would be fighting and dying but still fought knowing death was possible and in many instances probable.

Ground Zero is the result of unexpected death. As is OKC. So I perceive weirdness, as if it's a disconnect. Perhaps I'm disconnected.

Does anybody else experience that, or am I alone?

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I know that's a moving experience for people, but for some reason it doesn't approximate the other battlefield experiences for me. It's eery, but it doesn't feel as sacred.

In a battlefield, people knew they would be fighting and dying but still fought knowing death was possible and in many instances probable.

Ground Zero is the result of unexpected death. As is OKC. So I perceive weirdness, as if it's a disconnect. Perhaps I'm disconnected.

Does anybody else experience that, or am I alone?

No, I agree with that. It's a very patriotic experience, but there is an overwhelming sense of meloncholy in that these people are not those who chose to give their lives for freedom. Rather, I think of it as an experience that bonded us as a nation. I haven't been to battlefields, so this is the best I can do. The effect is somewhat trivialized by the daily repetition, I might add.

[Black Diamond Bay]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I know that's a moving experience for people, but for some reason it doesn't approximate the other battlefield experiences for me. It's eery, but it doesn't feel as sacred.

In a battlefield, people knew they would be fighting and dying but still fought knowing death was possible and in many instances probable.

Ground Zero is the result of unexpected death. As is OKC. So I perceive weirdness, as if it's a disconnect. Perhaps I'm disconnected.

Does anybody else experience that, or am I alone?

I've never been to either place, but in my head the sentiments are the same, and it makes perfect sense what you just said. Gettysburg was a very sobering experience IMO.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I know that's a moving experience for people, but for some reason it doesn't approximate the other battlefield experiences for me. It's eery, but it doesn't feel as sacred.

Well we're talking about different things. I didn't liken Murrah building to a sacred battlefield. And yes, it's beyond eerie to be there now.

For me, seeing what remained of the building awakened me to how safe we really are. Which I suppose is somewhat ironic. But that's the impact it had on me.

Now, the memorial to the USS Oklahoma, or reading of those that died at Normandy, something like that instills an entirely different kind of patriotic respect.

[MikeWaters]

I don't think 9/11 has bonded us as a nation. We have an assinine president who due to his policies as a result of 9/11 have divided and demoralized the nation.

And that is the irony. We are more divided and less respected since 9/11.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I know that's a moving experience for people, but for some reason it doesn't approximate the other battlefield experiences for me. It's eery, but it doesn't feel as sacred.

In a battlefield, people knew they would be fighting and dying but still fought knowing death was possible and in many instances probable.

Ground Zero is the result of unexpected death. As is OKC. So I perceive weirdness, as if it's a disconnect. Perhaps I'm disconnected.

Does anybody else experience that, or am I alone?

Visiting Ground Zero I was definitely moved. It was more a general somberness and reverence feel than a patriotic feeling. Gettysburg was the most moving of any battlefield I've visited. Bunker Hill was the most patriotic feeling of any battlefield I've visited. But Ellis Island gave me the most patriotic feeling of any site I've been. Maybe it was because I had recently watched Gangs of New York and had listened to U2's These Are The Hands That Built America about 50 times.

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I don't think 9/11 has bonded us as a nation. We have an assinine president who due to his policies as a result of 9/11 have divided and demoralized the nation.

And that is the irony. We are more divided and less respected since 9/11.

Let me rephrase: bonded us for a short time.

Personally, I thing Ground Zero is a circus right now. People selling all sorts of wares, family bitching and moaning about how they don't like this or that in the plans, tourists all over the place. It's certainly not a place of solitude and reflection like it once was, back when I moved here.