More than 1,000 people have signed a petition to Nix The Tank and additional public consultations about the future of the park are set for the coming months.
While this was obviously badly organized, putting a cenotaph from the local legion with a military relic, in a park literally called “Memorial Park” isn’t particularly offensive. The problem is just the fact that they decided to replace an existing (recently installed) garden without even informing the volunteers who maintain it.
There’s many ways to memorialize. Personally I find the the giant metal hunk of killing and destroying machine in a park context offensive, aesthetically as well as ideologically. But others may take a different view of course.
The fact that it is a giant metal killing machine is there to highlight the service of those lost, and the conditions those lost served in. We’re remembering the sacrifice that comes with war, fighting with weapons like that, or even the fact that many practically lived in these vehicles. In the same way, we often depict soldiers in combat, or with other combat gear - it provides far more context to what these men went through and how they served than just a name on a plaque.
While this was obviously badly organized, putting a cenotaph from the local legion with a military relic, in a park literally called “Memorial Park” isn’t particularly offensive. The problem is just the fact that they decided to replace an existing (recently installed) garden without even informing the volunteers who maintain it.
There’s many ways to memorialize. Personally I find the the giant metal hunk of killing and destroying machine in a park context offensive, aesthetically as well as ideologically. But others may take a different view of course.
The fact that it is a giant metal killing machine is there to highlight the service of those lost, and the conditions those lost served in. We’re remembering the sacrifice that comes with war, fighting with weapons like that, or even the fact that many practically lived in these vehicles. In the same way, we often depict soldiers in combat, or with other combat gear - it provides far more context to what these men went through and how they served than just a name on a plaque.
I’d like to memorialize important human sacrifices, not killing machines, arms trade, and their glorification