Silent Stones

Silent Stones

By Tom Secrest

When people think of Washington D.C. many things come to mind. Since it is the nation’s capitol you would expect it to be full of monuments reflecting the history of the nation, and it is full, full to the brim. Tributes to the best known presidents, the obelisk of the Washington Monument with it’s beautiful reflecting pool; the Pantheon-like Memorials to Lincoln and Jefferson, the National Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum can all be found within walking distance of each other. Of course there is the house at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue (affectionately known as the White House) and at the other end of the avenue sits the Capital, the home of the U.S. House and Senate. Considering the close proximity of these branches of government, Americans and perhaps others as well, stand in utter disbelief at how little actually gets accomplished.

In the spring, the city is awash with pink and white cherry blossoms, and in places it is possible to feel like you are taking a leisurely walk through colonial America. The monuments, museums, famous restaurants, these are all places worth visiting; but there is something else to see, something not always mentioned in the guidebooks, a place that is visited, but less than it should be.

Across the Potomac River are the bedroom communities of Virginia. And every day swarms of people cross a handful of bridges to go to work in Washington. One of those bedroom communities is called Arlington, Virginia. Arlington is perhaps best known as the home of the Pentagon, but the city itself is certainly worth a visit and still retains some of the old colonial charm of its past. But there is something else in Arlington, a cemetery, the Arlington National Cemetery.

For whatever reason, cemeteries are not popular tourist destinations. But this is not just any cemetery; it is the nation’s military cemetery. Beneath 2.5 km2 are more than 300, 000 sons and daughters, but mostly sons, from wars dating back to the American Revolution all the way through to Afghanistan and Iraq. Some died peaceful deaths; most died violent deaths, in distant countries on battlefields near cities, the names of which they could not pronounce. Some were famous, John F. Kennedy can be counted among the 300, 000, but some have no name, and for them there is a special tomb, a perpetually guarded tomb, the Tomb of the Unknowns. The tomb has four crypts; interred are the remains of an Unknown from WWI, WWII, and the Korean War. The forth, the Unknown from Vietnam was later identified and disinterred; the crypt has remained empty since. There is a strange serenity in this cemetery, and wherever you look you see things on which to reflect, which perhaps explains its lack of appeal to everyday tourists. Tourism is about looking to see things around you and this place is about looking to see things inside you.

So if you get to Washington, get on the blue line and take the short journey to Arlington National Cemetery. Go early, before others arrive, when it is silent and still, when you can stand alone among the dead and see the terrible price of both freedom and folly, but more importantly, listen – listen to the stones tell you their stories; stories of hopes and dreams, of wants and desires, stories of what they could have been, but never were, and never will be.

Glossary

* brim – naplnit až po okraj

* affectionately – duverne, laskave

* utter – naprostý

* disbelief – neduvera, neochota, pochybnost, skepse

* leisurely – klidne, nenucene, bez spechu

* swarm – hemžení, hejno

* handful – hrstka

* cemetery – hrbitov

* violent – násilný

* battlefield – bojište

* interred – pohrbený

* remains – ostatky, telesné zústatky

* disinterred – vyhrabaný