What are the ethics of skateboarding in a death camp or over graves of people that died fighting fascists? What's the skateability of Dachau? Does Treblinka need a half pipe so it's not forgotten?
Well, actually it was not trivial at all and we had big internal discussions on how to do that properly and respectfully, taking the chance to let our readers (that follow skateboarding) know what lays behind these monuments.
I do really understand what you write, but I am also grateful for having been able to discover history in that way.
I can see the risk of damage to the monument and getting in the way/risk of collisions with other visitors being respect issues, but (having not read the article) I imagine they could be worked around.
Respect at play here was about the 'memory', that's what the discussion was focusing on when we were discussing the article. The aftermath was that many young people from a different audience got to know what is that concrete building and why it is there.
Isn't this one of the purposes of a mounument in the first place?
I suppose it depends if you think taking sexy Instagram photos in Auschwitz, organising a paintball match around the 9/11 memorial, or tagging a fresh grave is disrespectful. In the abstract no one is hurt, but it's an important symbol to some/many people, and there are plenty of other places to do those activities, so to me it's a bit of a narcissistic dick move, leaving aside damage.
