With the end of World War II now more than 50 years in the past, Washington's civic planners have narrowed to two the possible sites for a memorial to that conflict.
One site would be at the foot of the Reflecting Pool, midway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The other is some yards north of there, adjacent to a small ornamental lake called Constitution Gardens. Both are close to the Vietnam and Korean war memorials.With a handful of exceptions - the Vietnam Memorial with its inscribed names and endless visits being a heartbreakingly vivid one - monuments tend to become anonymously decorative features of the capital landscape.
No design for the World War II memorial has been chosen, other than it should be "an open, celebratory memorial." One day the monument will be built, and we hope it fulfills the high demands of history and aesthetics.
Dale McFeatters
Scripps Howard News Service