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Old 2012-04-27, 04:42 AM   [Ignore Me] #29
Figment
Lieutenant General
 
Re: I have no words.


I just like to think of crusifiction sized crosses as commemorating 6.000 dead slaves crusified along the Via Appia. Everyone's a Spartacus!


Though I understand the sentiment to put a cross on there, at the same time it does not represent everyone else.

The question here is, is it about respect for the religion of the makers of the monument or is the monument there to respect the religion of all those who have fallen?

Considering the goal of the monument is the latter, paying your respects by planting your religious symbol on everyone's grave to some is like confiscating and monopolising the memorial in the name of one religion.

If the graveyard is exclusively christian, I'd have no problem with it in the least. If it's shared by others, it's not a... very good choice to put on top. It's more or less saying these are the fallen (heroes) of a crusade. There are a lot of neutral things you can put up there that respect every fallen regardless of religion without at the same time promoting/worshipping a specific god or a specific variant of said god. I mean, if there's any Orthodox Christians in there, they're not represented either.

That may not concern the ones who are represented and they might feel it's impacting their freedom of expression or religion, they may even feel it's not respectful to them. Especially because it's been there for a while, but that's a rather arrogant position to take as well as they forego thinking of anyone else. Does it really matter in the end? Meh. If religious symbolism being present is enough to indoctrinate, you don't have much of a strong will of your own anyway. If it's a private community, it should stay. If it's a public memorial and graveyard, it's far less appropriate.




Still, the best war monuments look like this:



But, as you can see, there's unfortunately a misplaced statue on top.

Ancient coins indicate preliminary plans to top the column with a statue of a bird, probably an eagle, but after construction a statue of Trajan was put in place; this statue disappeared in the Middle Ages. On December 4, 1587, the top was crowned by Pope Sixtus V with a bronze figure of St. Peter, which remains to this day.
I'd be in favour of restoring the monument with a statue of emperor Trajanus up there and putting the St. Peter statue somewhere in the Vatican. After all, it was emperor Trajanus who conquered Dacia for the then pantheon gods worshipping Roman Empire. Though an eagle would do as well being a symbol of the Roman Empire.
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