Call For Photos For A Worthy Cause
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has launched a huge undertaking — a nationwide campaign to collect a photograph for each of the 58,272 men and women whose names are inscribed on The Wall in Washington, D.C., which has become the single most-visited memorial in the capital.
The photographs will be displayed in a future education center at The Wall and also will appear online on the memorial fund’s virtual Memorial Wall.
As it is, I shepherded a Pulitzer Prize-nominated project at the Philadelphia Daily News in 1987 to put together a special section with biographies of the 630 men from the city who died in Vietnam. We managed to find photographs of all but 62 and that effort will now be reopened with the Call For Photos campaign, which is underwritten by the History Channel and in which Yours Truly is involved.
Call For Photos events will be held in Atlanta on October 25 and Chicago on November 3.
Click here for more information.
4 Responses to “Call For Photos For A Worthy Cause”
This is a great idea, but where are the comments. Of course this isn’t a standard tribute, why not a silly statue that birds can crap on. Even monuments at Bushnell in Florida aren’t safe from those damn birds.
rudi:
One of the biggest battles in getting Congress to approve The Wall was the insistence of Maya Lin, the architect, and Jan Scruggs, who spearheaded the effort to build The Wall, that there be no war imagery whatsoever.
The Vietnam Womens Memorial, dedicated about 150 yards from the Wall in 1993, is a statue but there are no rifles or other arms.
Shaun:
I’m aware of this, just poking fun at the lame Republicans who demanded a conventional statue near the Wall. The pictures are for real, my father’s buried at Bushnell. Are you familiar with Willie Nile? Here’s a great song about statues from the 1980 self titled album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jTebmUJgO8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Nile_%28album%29
The lyrics, not Journey:
The Wall is a national treasure without “The Three Soldiers.”
rudi:
Amen. And may your father always rest in peace. The events of Thursday and Friday are great steps in that cause.