Memorializing War and Some Thoughts on Priorities

Earlier this afternoon, I was just starting out with my walk with a little side jaunt through Admiral Willard Park at the Washington Navy Yard.  There are a number of interesting displays of ordnance, armor, the titanium pressure sphere from the deep submersible Alvin, guns, and a propeller or three.  One of the major pieces on display is the Mk 1, 14"/50 caliber railway gun pictured below:

Mk 1, 14"/50 Caliber Railway Gun used in France during WWI around 1918

This gun is one of eight produced at the Washington Navy Yard of eleven Mk 1 naval railway guns built for service during WWI.  Five of these guns saw combat action in France near the end of WWI.  The other six guns were delivered to the Army, and were never deployed in combat operations.  

This gun, without a doubt is an impressive memorial to the engineering and production techniques that were employed near the beginning of the 20th century, but seeing it here caused me to ponder the things that we as a society choose to memorialize.  Washington, DC is a city that is full of memorials, and all of them are impressive displays of accomplishment.  I do think it's worth noting that many of these memorials center around keeping the memory of one war or another alive in the minds of the viewers.

This large volume of memorialization of activities and equipment associated with war is not inherently bad, but I think the sheer number may represent a level of imbalance that I'm not entirely comfortable with given some of my life experiences. 

While it is possible to find memorials to US accomplishments in the area of space exploration (for instance), one has to go searching for these memorials.  For the most part, they're located in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums (both the Jefferson Street facility and the larger hangar at Dulles Airport) and to a lesser degree at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  Again, this is not necessarily bad, but I do believe that our initial forays (and they are very embryonic at this stage of development) into space will likely prove more valuable in ensuring our security and survival of a species than their current under-representation in the public memorials currently recognize.

I can't help but wonder what sort of challenge is going to have to manifest itself for our country and international partners to renew and reinvigorate the pioneer spirit that contributed to the founding of this nation and once again truly stretch our legs towards the stars.

Like walking, this interest that I have with manned space travel just doesn't seem to be waning.  Like the walking, on the surface, this appears to be a relatively "crazy" idea for one person to choose to joust at windmills over.  Like walking, the idea just won't go away.  I'm concerned that it's a pretty big hill to climb, but I'm also concerned that it's getting to the point that I may have to do something about this thought...this notion...this crazy idea that just won't go away.