The general decline in standards today

[pawineguy]

While this may or may not be staged, I have seen this at least a dozen times on my last two trips to D.C. monuments. Kids, teenagers, foreign tourists, you name it... either climbing on memorials or being otherwise disrespectful. It's not an isolated occurrence.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't disagree -- as I say, I used to see kids skateboarding on a war monument. I don't think it's a particularly recent development that kids do such things, though, and the further back in history the event being commemorated, the less people seem to care. We have a Spanish-American War monument in the middle of town here, and all summer long you can see tourists planking their fat backsides down against it as they eat hot dogs and gawk at each other. The difference is that there are no living Spanish War vets to get upset over it, so nobody cares.

I've also seen enough phony stuff go "viral" on the Internet to be suspicious, to the point where I assume such things are phony unless proven otherwise. The Internet is nothing if not filled with people willing to do just about anything to make a point.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Yes, kids will skateboard on war memorials if their parents aren't teaching them that it's inappropriate and disrespectful. When I was a kid we would visit the cemetery where my grandfather is buried and I remember getting scolded by my parents when I accidentally stepped on one of the headstones.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My cousin and I used to play hide-and-seek at the cemetery, which didn't mean we were being disrespectful, we were just being kids. I learned a lot about my town's history during those games -- I read the headstones, and felt like I got to know a little something about the people in the process. To this day when I visit my grandparents at that cemetery, it's not a sad, mournful place to me, but a place of pleasant memories. I'd have never had that if my mother had grabbed my wrist and told me to shut up and be respectful.

As for war monuments, I'd like to see the veterans' groups put a little more effort into keeping them up around here. They figure sticking a flag and a plastic wreath on them on Memorial Day is good enough, but the flag is a tatter by August, and the skeleton of the plastic wreath stays there mired in the mud until the next Memorial Day rolls around. That's even worse than capering children, because the Legion and the VFW and the like all know better. (I just drove by that Spanish War monument on the way in to work, and last year's flag is still there, a filthy brown rag poking out of the dirty snow. Fine bunch of "patriots" we have in this town.)

 

[sheeplady]

Where I went to college, we had the first WWI memorial built in the U.S. (a long archway between two dorms had the names of all students and alumni killed in the war.)

It was a horrific reminder to read the class years of the young men killed. The rooms in these dorms were also dedicated to fallen soldiers, I lived in a room of a 19 year old who died in service.

It made me beyond angry that student groups would chalk their advertisements for events not only inside the archway (to keep them dry) but also on the walls right over and next to the names.

 

[jamespowers]

Where I went to college, we had the first WWI memorial built in the U.S. (a long archway between two dorms had the names of all students and alumni killed in the war.)

It was a horrific reminder to read the class years of the young men killed. The rooms in these dorms were also dedicated to fallen soldiers, I lived in a room of a 19 year old who died in service.

It made me beyond angry that student groups would chalk their advertisements for events not only inside the archway (to keep them dry) but also on the walls right over and next to the names.

:doh:

 

[2jakes]

Alamo Security

Say what you will...but this is one place you don't ever want to be disrespectful.
But don't take my word... ask the Alamo Security Guards.

 

[Stearmen]

I've also seen enough phony stuff go "viral" on the Internet to be suspicious, to the point where I assume such things are phony unless proven otherwise. The Internet is nothing if not filled with people willing to do just about anything to make a point.

Yes! The most famous fake story, that people still send to me, and has even been posted here, is the supposed PETA kid duct taped to a tree by Hells Angels. Sorry people it was staged, never happened in real life. Makes a good story, until you stop to think what real Biker Gangs would do to someone who threw red paint on their jacket, not to mention on their Colors!

 

[Stearmen]

Say what you will...but this is one place you don't ever want to be disrespectful.
But don't take my word... ask the Alamo Security Guards.

You should have told the early Texans that, before they tore most of the Alamo down, and added that hideous Parapet to the chapel! In fairness, as some one smarter then me said, "who in their right mind would want to stand in the original Alamo's court yard on an August day?"

 

[HudsonHawk]

In full disclosure to those who may not know: The "Don't Mess With Texas" is the slogan for the state's anti-highway-littering inititative. It's a simple request of motorists, not statewide swagger.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sort of like the unofficial Maine slogan, "Clean Up Your Own Damn Mess."

 

[HudsonHawk]

You should have told the early Texans that, before they tore most of the Alamo down, and added that hideous Parapet to the chapel!

That was the U.S. Army added the parapet in the 1850s.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The approximate location of the Alamo's original boundaries are in red.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The approximate location of the Alamo's original boundaries are in red.

Thank God there was room for a Jimmy John's.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The approximate location of the Alamo's original boundaries are in red.

By the way...just a couple of blocks west on E. Houston St. is the Majestic Theater:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Looking at Street View which is dated 2014, it looks like Ripley's Believe it or Not moved to where Jimmy John's used to be.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Looking at Street View which is dated 2014, it looks like Ripley's Believe it or Not moved to where Jimmy John's used to be.

Ripley's has been there a long time. The Jimmy John's is in the building, but around the corner facing E. Houston St.

 

[Edward]

Thank God there was room for a Jimmy John's.

Jimmy John's.... is that a chain?

In the heart of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China, there's a Starbucks. Harder to find now that it used to be. First time I was there, I stumbled across it - bang in the middle of this beautiful, ancient site, a whacking great Starbuck sign. That was back in 06. In more recent years, following a high profile campaign led by a television personality, they had to remove the signage outside, so it's still there but much more subtle now....

 

[HudsonHawk]

Jimmy John's.... is that a chain?

In the heart of the Forbidden City, Beijing, China, there's a Starbucks. Harder to find now that it used to be. First time I was there, I stumbled across it - bang in the middle of this beautiful, ancient site, a whacking great Starbuck sign. That was back in 06. In more recent years, following a high profile campaign led by a television personality, they had to remove the signage outside, so it's still there but much more subtle now....

Jimmy John's is a national chain of sandwich shops. The sandwiches are actually pretty good, and they deliver. And it's not like the Jimmy John's is actually *in* the Alamo shrine building itself...it's across the street on property that was once part of the mission property. What's left of the Alamo is right in the middle of downtown, so there's buildings all around it.

 

[jamespowers]

Jimmy John's is a national chain of sandwich shops. The sandwiches are actually pretty good, and they deliver. And it's not like the Jimmy John's is actually *in* the Alamo shrine building itself...it's across the street on property that was once part of the mission property. What's left of the Alamo is right in the middle of downtown, so there's buildings all around it.

You guys need to get Alamo Village back up and running. That is the only full size represenation left after they got rid of the original one.:doh: