As a tourist
I placed my personal safety among my most prized habits. I am unlikely to find myself anywhere where death is an ongoing option. Of course most of the places that a tourist can visit have already been taken and sanitized. The really nasty stuff has been removed from the equation. Earlier today I re-watched a video of some people exploring a former military installation. Something from the last century which involved coastal guns. And I said to myself that I have been there and at no point did I feel that my life was at risk. If I been in the area half century before I might have found myself in the middle of a battle but not anymore all we have left are the large reminders I imagine that removing a multi ton cannon was more trouble than it would be worth. Easier for the authorities to remove the dangerous bits and place some safety railings which they have done there was little chance of my dying in a spectacular way. All I could do was to go into the vault look around turn around and leave. As I think about it almost everything I have visited as a tourist fits in that category. The cool bits are gone. We just have a chance to imagine what a place was like when life was going on there. Probably for the better because some of us do not watch what we’re doing as well as we should. But it would have been interesting to hear those large cannons fired and to watch the method of the soldiers getting things ready for the next big moment. Old photos and movie clips do not give the whole story. We have some movies but because we cannot compare them in the then and now way, we have to imagine how the film people did their job. And when we as tourists visit old installations we have to remember that the people in charge of the site have already been over it carefully looking for all the things that could hurt the stupid people. There are a lot of them.
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