While we were in Washington, D.C. last weekend, we took Katie to the Lincoln Memorial - I have always considered it to be the most important and inspiring monument on the Mall. To get there, however, it was necessary to walk past (and because of the nonsense for this weekend’s dedication, far around) the Washington Monument and we were practically forced to view the World War Two memorial.

It is an ugly, monstrous, disgusting-looking thing, that doesn’t belong where it is.

I cannot tell you how much I hate this thing. Where there were once clean lines along the reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and Linoln Memorial, there’s now this noisy, touristy thing slapped down below the slope of the Washington Momument’s once-graceful earthen mound, a place for multicolor-shorted people with camera straps around their necks to remove their shoes and lounge with their swollen feet in the water of the giant fountains throwing water into the air for…no good reason whatsoever other than to destroy any sense of peace and reflection that used to be a part of the mall. Gaudy columns vaguely reminicent of Stonehenge encircle the fountain wading pool adding to the circus-like atmosphere. Visually, aurally, it’s noisy and disruptive.

Should there be a memorial to those who perished in World War II, those more and more described (rightly or wrongly) as, “The Greatest Generation?” Certainly. Does it belong on the mall itself? Absolutely not. This thing is just plain ugly, destroying the beauty that was once there.

I am becoming more and more convinced that Congress needs to stick everything possible between the Capital and the Lincoln Memorial. Congress cannot stand having the contemplative image of Lincoln watching them make a mockery of the republic he held together by sheer force of will, so they stick everything they can think of between it and them. Maybe next they’ll shove a really tall ice cream stand in the middle of the reflecting pool next.