Design for Memorial Is a Model of Debate : Santa Monica: The proposed new veterans monument has created controversy and some anger.

That Santa Monica is not just another city becomes clear when the subject concerns matters of war and peace.

Take the process of choosing a design for the city’s veterans memorial. From the outset, it was a good guess that the monument would not embody the standard heroic themes found in the town squares and city parks of Middle America. Marines hoisting the flag on Iwo Jima, for example, wouldn’t be quite right in a city noted for its burgeoning arts community and quirky liberal politics.

Now on display at City Hall is a model of “Promises Kept,” by Venice sculptor William Tunberg, whose design was chosen recently by a city-appointed arts panel. It consists of a door that is locked and enclosed in metal bars with chain-link fence surrounding it. The other side of the door is unobstructed and has a downward sloping path with brass plaques representing the five military branches. An eternal flame sits in a window of the door.

Tunberg, 50, said he wanted to create something that would make people think about the sacrifices made by veterans. “I want people to see the monument, and say, ‘Whoa, that is heavy!’ . . . My idea was to express my true feelings, an honest assessment of what the veteran has done for the country.”

The feeling that some people get from seeing the model, however, is outrage.

Former City Councilwoman Christine Reed called it “that jail-door thing.”

“I think that a memorial to people who died for serving their country should be uplifting and ennobling,” Reed said. “I think it is totally inappropriate.”

“It reminds me of solitary confinement,” fumed Chester Hoover, a former Navy lieutenant. “I think it is absolutely outrageous.”

The City Council will make the final decision next month on the appropriateness of the sculpture. The new memorial is destined for a spot on the bluffs overlooking the ocean in Palisades Park and would replace one that was removed from the 3rd Street Promenade three years ago.

Tunberg and the panelists who selected “Promises Kept” from 11 entries are not surprised by the controversy.

“All good art is political and controversial,” Tunberg said. “Some of the criticism is appropriate. It means that people are not forgetting it.

“Memorials are usually placid, very pretty, then people forget about them,” he said. “But war is not pretty, it is horrible. People die. Public apathy over what a veteran goes through is appalling to me. This is not a war memorial, this is a veterans memorial. It has nothing to do with war, it has to do with the heart.”

Woods Davy, a sculptor and one of three jurors who reviewed the proposals, said public art should grab a person and take him out of his present world. “This was the best proposal,” he said. “It had the most feeling to it.”

“It was the most interesting and . . . thought-provoking of the all proposals,” added juror Thomas Rhoads, director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

Former Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Scully, who has lobbied vigorously for a new memorial since the previous one was removed, said he thinks the city should just rebuild the old monument. It consisted of three brick pillars whose purpose was to display the plaques of the five service branches and a sixth from the city.

“I could care less about the door,” Scully said of Tunberg’s design. “The monument should be to show off the plaques, not another man’s feelings.”