Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Today I was huffing and puffing up a storm while I was jogging in the heat. I took a rest stop next to the Aquarium and did something I've been meaning to do for quite some time. I took a close look at the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial. The memorial consists of nine acrylic pillars painted with what appears to be stained-glass patterns in the center. The edges of the pillars facing the river are painted different colors, while the edges on the other side are painted black. When you go to the plaque explaining the memorial and look at the pillars, you see a yellow star of David on a black background. Walk around slowly, and the star of David disintegrates, eventually into blackness. Continue walking around, and eventually a multicolored menorah appears. Continue further, and rainbow colors appear.

I found the memorial moving. Despite the darkness of the Holocaust, Jewish culture and faith has survived. Also, I love the way the memorial was put together. It's very cool and not dark and depressing. I think we need to be reminded of that terrible chapter in 20th century history; this is the kind of thing that can't happen again. I say that knowing that we've had the killing fields in Cambodia, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and the slaughter in Rwanda.

Also interesting was that the Archdiocese of New Orleans contributed money to build the memorial. Yesterday I read an article by Elie Wiesel praising Pope John Paul II for improving Catholic-Jewish relations.

5 comments:

Ann said...

Down by the aquarium? Riverside?

Randy said...

The Aquarium and the memorial are on the river, across the tracks from the French Quarter. Technically speaking, they may be inside the Quarter, I don't know. The memorial is in Woldenberg Park, just outside the IMAX theater.

Randy said...

La Quinta? I always thought of Dave as the type who would take a suite at the Fairmont. There's a new La Quinta downtown that looks pretty nice. There are scores of other hotels around here too. Hotels proliferate like cockroaches in this town.

Miranda said...

Jo can come visit you southerners as long as she comes to Detroit first. I called dibs first, LOL.

Ann said...

Oh, man, this so rocks! October is BEAUTIFUL here, it's still summer, but not in the 90s (high 70s low 80s) and the time hasn't changed yet so the evenings are good. Randy and I can carpool. Heather, you MUST come! It's only a six hour drive unless you have to stop every two hours.