Monument to a Belief System

We often think of monuments as large scale objects set in the landscape for a given viewing public. Indeed, this description fits the majority of monuments one encounters. But the etymology of the word "monument" is in fact derived from both the Latin "monumentum"--meaning literally "memorial"--and the French "monere"--meaning literally "to remind." Monuments then--needn't be "monumental" (as in "massive"). They often serve as an aid to memory. Monuments may also serve as identifying marks, as signs, as evidence, as boundary or position markers, or even as burial vaults.

Consider for a moment the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.. Here's a description right off the Internet:

The Mall's most prominent feature, the Washington Monument, is an unadorned marble obelisk built in memory of George Washington, the first US president. At 555 feet it's the tallest all-masonry structure in the world. Volunteers started work on it in 1848, but various internal arguments, and later the Civil War, so disrupted construction that it wasn't completed until 1884.

The monument memorializes not only George Washington the man, but it has come to be associated with fundamental American values such as freedom of speech and the right of assembly. It was these latter principles that were tacitly invoked when the controversial Reverend Farrakahn, a black activist, used the memorial to our first president as a focal point of the recent "Million Man March." This march, in which "a sea of black flowed from the Capitol to the Washington Monument," was staged to demonstrate solidarity within the black community. Ironically, George Washington was a life-long slave owner.

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