Seeing such evil is a profound experience. I can't imagine anyone walking through those exhibits and thinking that the Holocaust was a fantasy perpetuated by the Jews (hello Pat Buchanan) or simply not as bad as people say it was (hello Aryan Nations). Last Monday I witnessed the absolute depths of human suffering and evil.

I left the museum utterly exhausted and emotionally wrung out. As we walked up the street to find a place to sit and rest...we were silent. How do you talk about those disturbing images and seeing that humans are capable of such darkness?

And then we did something else that also had a profound effect..we decided to visit the World War II War Memorial:

After having seen the film of the Holocaust that morning it was especially meaningful to view this Memorial.

I've heard that many critics don't like this particular memorial..considering it "clutter" because of it's location between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. I strongly disagree. It's beautifully situated and extremely well done.

The Memorial honors the sacrifice of the various states and territories whose citizens served during WWII from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

It also includes some of the quotations made by the great leaders of that time:

From the depths of human suffering to the soaring height of courage, sacrifice and service.

Each of the stars represents 1000 dead soldiers. They honored us with their sacrifice..we honor them by remembering. Not just their deaths....but the fact that they kept the ultimate evil and suffering from our shores. They protected us. They kept us whole.

(x-posted at PK)