‘Another victim of the internet, ‘The Monument of Unknown Heroes’ is now little more than a field of pedestals and a handful of cement feet. Whoever once went about the task of researching and sculpting those unappreciated devotees to good has returned to demolish the likenesses of those people whose identities have been revealed, making them ‘too known’ (we must assume).
‘The Monument of Unknown Heroes’ was a flash in the pan, as far as Wayside destinations go. It had been populated to nearly 50 statues by the time it was discovered in 2021 and it took only six months for a visitor to identify a statue of someone they knew (a volunteer fire fighter). The first demolition took place three days later which initiated an almost-friendly-but-probably-quite-bitter hunt for more IDs. As the movement grew in size, statues were being ID’d nearly every other day and the keeper of ‘The Monument’ was so busy demolishing statues that they managed to produce just one more before all of the likenesses were matched. ‘The Monument’ was abandoned by May 2022 with a note in stone reading:
‘There are no more good people.’
This strikes the author as more than a little dramatic.’
I spend a long time looking down at some cement shoes, carefully comparing them to mine. They’re a dead match to my beat-up sneakers. Same generic branding. Same smudges and tears. It’s one of the older statues, according to internet lore. The sculptor started in the northwest corner of the clearing and moved east in an expanding grid. These shoes would have belonged to the third or fourth statue and I think it was me.
So, do people know who I am? Or did I just stop being a good person sometime between now and then?
-traveler