Arlington Cemetery

This Wednesday, at the Arlington Cemetery, I couldn't help but feel that time had stopped. Walking around the lands, I kept forgetting that I was actually in a cemetery. The natural scenery around the cemetery was kept clean and neat. Grass was trimmed to perfection and tombstones were aligned in perfect angles. Because everything felt so meticulous, I have to admit that I forgot my history. I forgot that American history was not a perfect history. It was a history full of pain and sacrifice; a history where at times citizens of this own country fought against each other. However, the organized structure of the cemetery didn't seem to reflect any of this history. I guess it all had to deal with death and closure. When one dies, especially if one died during combat, one wouldn't want to be reminded of how that death occurred. One would want to be received in death by peace and rest, not by being reminded that death occurred through violent means.

Though the cemetery was beautiful, I couldn't help but think that I would not want a ton of tourists walking around and looking at my tombstone when I'm dead. I mean, I understand I'd be dead, so I wouldn't care at that moment who was looking at my grave. But still, is it correct to treat a cemetery as a tourist attraction? On one side, by people seeing graveyards like this, they can gain respect for the military. On the other, maybe by seeing graves, the idea of death and military service can become undermined. People can become so familiarized with the image of a grave that they take for granted the fact that these people died for the ideals that our nation upholds. Overall, I really enjoyed the cemetery, it was beautiful (even if it was raining like crazy) but the image of death was just not appealing to me. Well, now that I think about it, I don't think it's appealing to anybody.