It's hard to believe that more Americans have died from COVID-19 than died in the Vietnam War, Gulf War, and military engagements post 9/11 combined. Quarantine feels like a defining moment that will have a lasting cultural impact on how we interact with each other (i.e., social distancing). The last time I felt this way was after 9/11. Given the gravity of COVID-19, I wonder whether we will build a memorial to commemorate the victims.
How do we decide when to build memorials? Who starts the process? Do a certain number of people need to have died? Does a certain amount of time need to have passed? Does there have to have been an enemy? Does there need to be political consensus that it was a tragedy?
Regardless of whether one gets built, we need to heal, learn, and remember.