A memorial is meant to remind people of a certain past and can play a role in how people view government action. In Washington DC there’s a long black granite slab with the names of 58,000 men and women who gave their lives to the Vietnam war inscribed upon it. The memorial’s purpose is to forever support and raise awareness about the Vietnam War. This idea of aesthetic purpose is about bringing people and communities together around objects in time; the Vietnam Veterans Memorial does this, but it is also permanent. It is an object ever-recalling a political, militant, and social time in history. Furthermore, it alludes to a chaotic, scary, and mournful era, or a state of society that is not particularly desirable. By locating the memorial in DC there is an amount of acknowledged political responsibility captured in its existence. This simple and powerful stone educates younger generations of a serious war-time and the society at large how to learn for its own mistakes.