Somewhere, a Smithsonian employee is weeping.

December 20, 2004

Man, things have gotten slow around here, haven’t they?

The last time I went to Bristol, Virginia Sarah and I walked around a bit downtown. Downtown Bristol is much more lively now than it was when I was growing up there, but it wouldn’t have taken much to accomplish _that_.

One of the stranger additions to downtown I saw was a Cobra attack helicopter mounted behind the Veteran’s memorial and aimed directly at the outdoor concert stage. I took some photos which I think “clearly demonstrates the unfortunate placement”:http://images.thudfactor.com/gallery/bristolnov04/P1000043.

I can’t help but think mounting an attack helicopter in this park is a mistake. I know some people object to it simply on the grounds that it turns what had been a more generalized veteran’s memorial (all branches, all modern wars) into an Army memorial, and I certainly think there’s some truth to that.

But also: aircraft do not “survive very well outside”:http://tinyurl.com/5c4ub without regular maintenance. They are not statuary. I mean, would you take an old “Edsel”:http://www.edsel.com/eoc/, weld it to a pylon, and stick it out in the rain and snow? I doubt it. But people always seem to be surprised when their statue turns into an eyesore.

Posted in Diary