Think about What You Saw.

The second day of walking Washington D.C. and viewing the memorials. We practically walked the whole day covering the Washington Monument and many other various memorials like the World War II memorial, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial so on so forth.

Its been a day of poignant reflections and the meaning the memorials carry sure places its weight on you, leaving you heaving and breathless, both literally and figuratively.

Commemorating the war dead and the forefathers of the country, those lives that the very foundation of this country was literally built upon, is quite hard to fathom for the Singaporean whose independant history just spans 42 years.

For the U.S., with its values of liberty and equality and freedom, epitomised by famous characters such as Thomas Jefferson and artifacts like the Declaration of Independence, from Lincoln to commemorating the war dead from the Korean and Vietnamese wars, America must be one of those countries that has that rich of a history to lay claim to purport these abstract values that strike a chord in your heart. At least, for those who believe, or those who have studied the significance of the historical impact of such values, and dying for them.

That being said, we even saw a mini demonstration outside the White House renouncing Bush and nukes, and even informing tourists of the organisation of a peaceful march outside the White House. There were also those who responded to these demonstrators by showing their support for Bush by saying how he is protecting the country, and for some it degraded to a shouting match between 2 or 3 people. Freedom of speech: you air your views, and you are shouted at it to shove it. You would never see that in sunny, SAFE, conservative Spore. Somehow it makes you think, what exactly IS the best way to get your politcal message across?

Of course, on one hand, you wonder if Singapore would ever have that form of an immortalization, what's with all the memorials and monuments being concentrated in Washington, whereas that is impossible in Singapore. Also, I'd prefer not to be a war dead.