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Monuments today serve as a way for society to reflect, remember or appreciate people or figures

in the past when creating certain monuments. The response is not the same for everyone meaning

different backgrounds of people can find problems that creators forgot to consider. Oftentimes

this can lead to people feeling offended or degraded from their personal beliefs. To ensure that

monuments effectively memorialize historical events or figures, it is important for groups and

agencies to carefully consider the location and its surrounding audiences potential reactions.

Many monuments today stand with the best intent of honoring historical figures, often

overlooking the significance of their placement which creates controversy over the structure.

When looking at the US most prized and memorable monument; Mount Rushmore, people are

struck by its size and beauty. However, nobody considers that the monument ultimately

disregarded Native Americans as white men “drove them from hills, they still hold sacred”

(Source C). This means that the U.S. isn’t fully achieving its goal to remember the U.S.

presidents, as it infuriates many people who are empathetic towards the native communities

affected culturally and physically. Thus, the location of a monument is something to consider

because it can negatively affect the surrounding area's audience, ultimately not achieving the

intended goals of honoring those in the monument and instead associating them with the

ignorance of its builders. Another reason why people can’t overlook the surrounding area is due

to the fact that many people who live there might not even appreciate or desire the monument put

in place. For example, “the Savannah Memorial Park could be moved to make way for a future

development” (source d). Meaning if the surrounding area is not chosen carefully, then the

monument being put in place will not receive the honor it deserves, as people don’t always want

to give up space to memorialize an issue they don’t feel connected to. Therefore in order to
effectively memorialize the surrounding locations people and significance must be factors taken

into consideration.

Although of historical significance, when creating monuments, it is crucial to acknowledge the

possible negative reactions they could create, because ultimately if this happens, the monument

fails to achieve the goal of memorializing and honoring. When only considering the positive

upbringings the monument will create and not the downsides the audience may have, the reaction

of viewers won’t treat the monument respectfully as they should. For example, “a statue in main

was vandalized, repaired and ended up as a house where it was eaten by rats.” Though defacing

public property isn’t moral, it serves as a way to demonstrate what can happen if people don’t

care for the monument. Consequently, in order to prevent this in the future, considering the

negative reactions the monument might alter, could protect it from being harmed. In Washington

D.C the area is notorious for its monuments that attract all sorts of people who share different

points of view. One of the views that wasn’t taken into consideration is the questioning of how

purposeful the monuments truly are, asking “why make a pilgrimage to a site with no historical

significance?”. This proves that creators only focused on celebrating previous historical leaders

rather than demonstrating a purpose to honor them and as a result not honoring the leaders with

the respect they deserve. Due to the fact that the negative reaction of people is able to point out

the lack of significance in a monument, it is important to consider the downsides of placing a

monument, because if not, the public rejection will do a disservice to those who should rightfully

be honored.

Throughout our country there are many examples of monuments that had goals to memorialize

people, but weren’t considerate of others in the process, believing that everyone is accepting of
the monument being put in place and happen as a creed to negative association with something

people wish to remember positively, proving in order to Positively memorialize something the

area and the people surrounding it are always factors that should be considered first.

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