‘Living Memorials’ Are All Around Us

Re “Panel to Reconsider Site, Design of D.C.’s World War II Memorial,” May 4: Having lived during WWII, I support the idea of a memorial. Statuary, fountains, gardens--they deserve their place of honor. But all around us, for the last 55 years, we have daily walked among other memorials to the Allied victory over the endless horror the world would have suffered if Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito had enslaved all of civilization.

These memorials are the millions of men and women--living and dead, military, scientific, industrial, agricultural, educational and domestic--who fought and labored against such an extinction of humanity. Our living memorials include the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to win those bloody battles.

They also include the polls, no matter how faulty sometimes, where we can still help our country make decisions about our lives and the lives of those to come. The churches, free to offer worship of our choice. Schools where our skills and energy can be led into productive enterprises for the health and welfare of the whole world. Homes where--if we choose--we can teach our children to honor the values that made that victory worthwhile. Statuary, fountains, gardens? Absolutely. They will outlast us all. But there are other memorials that will far outlast marble and bronze. We walk among them daily. And they will be ours for just so long as we cherish them.

Lowell Dabbs

Santa Barbara