When gun violence comes to a public place like a church, school or store, a delicate question lingers afterward: What should be done with the buildings where blood was shed and lives were upended?
Students, teachers, victims' families and passersby watch, Friday, June 14, 2024, as crews start the demolition of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. Officials plan to complete the weekslong project before the school's 3,300 students return in August from summer vacation.
The most obvious example in recent history is the decision to preserve the concentration camps run by Nazi Germany during World War II where millions of Jews and others died — an approach consistent with the post-Holocaust mantras of “never forget” and “never again.” But that was an event of global significance, with meaning for both the descendants of survivors and the public at large.
“Denying such opportunities for those who celebrate the persecution and deaths of those different from themselves is a perfectly sound reason to tear down buildings where mass killings occurred,” Daniel Fountain, a professor of history at Meredith College in North Carolina, said in a email. In Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a fence masks the site where the Tree of Life synagogue stood until it was razed earlier this year, more than five years after a gunman killed 11 people in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
To some, keeping a building standing is the ultimate defiance: You are not bowing to horror nor capitulating to those who caused it. You are choosing to continue in the face of unimaginable circumstances — a robust thread in the American narrative.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
When violence and trauma visit American places, a complex question follows: Demolish, or press on?Parkland.
Read more »
When violence and trauma visit American places, a complex question follows: Demolish, or press on?Parkland.
Read more »
When violence and trauma visit American places, a complex question follows: Demolish, or press on?Parkland. Uvalde. Columbine. Sandy Hook. A supermarket in Buffalo. A church in South Carolina. A synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Read more »
When violence and trauma visit American places, a complex question follows: Demolish, or press on?Parkland.
Read more »
Cars.Com American Made Index Reveals No All-American VehiclesI’ve been covering the auto industry since 1989, first as CNN Detroit Bureau Chief, then as the National Auto Writer for the Associated Press, General Motors beat writer at the Detroit News and video reporter at Automotive News.
Read more »
The American Legion weighs in on upside-down American flagsMegan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Read more »