by CHRIS ROGERSThe etching reads, “POW, you are not forgotten.” The boom box declares, “Stacy’s mom has got it going on.”

This is the scene in Winona’s Veterans Memorial Park on a Monday night. A couple dozen people are standing around or sitting in the grass. Several are camped out in lawn chairs, and more just stroll around. They talk and laugh, but their heads are often craned down. They are not — for the most part — reading the names of veterans engraved in the bricks beneath their feet. They are trying to catch Pokémon.

Veterans Memorial Park is both a tribute to those who lost their lives in war and one of the best places in Winona to play the new, wildly popular smartphone game, Pokémon Go. Winona City Council member Gerry Krage and some other Winona veterans have a problem with this. On Monday, he said that playing the game next to the war monuments was disrespectful and suggested that the city ban the game and games like it from Veterans Memorial Park. Work is already underway to craft an ordinance that would do just that, according to Krage.

Veterans Memorial Park is one of the best places to play Pokémon Go because there are three “Poke stops” right next to each other.

In Pokémon Go, players are required to go to various real world places in order to play the game. Players try to capture creatures called Pokémon, assemble a stable of the creatures, and then pit their Pokémon in battles against other players’ Pokémon. “Gotta catch ‘em all” is the game’s manifesto, and Poke stops are where players go to catch them. When San Francisco-based game makers released Pokémon Go on July 6, they set up virtual Poke stops in communities all across the U.S. There is a string of Poke stops on Saint Mary’s University campus, the Winona Public Library is a Poke stop, there is one at the Deer Park on Prairie Island, and many more are scattered throughout the city. Players’ smartphones recognize when they are close by to a Poke stop and then players can capture Pokémon that randomly appear at the Poke stops. Player’s smartphones show an image of the virtual creature they are trying to catch against a background image — from the smartphone’s camera — of what is actually in front of them.

For the most part, Poke stops are spread out so that players have to travel around from place to place to play the game. Only one Pokémon appears at a time. If players already have that breed of Pokémon, they may want to move on in search of rarer ones. However, at Veterans Memorial Park, there are three Poke stops clustered together in a triangle. Players can sit in the middle of the war monuments and be within range of all three at once. It is a great place to catch Pokémon. Plus, there are other Poke stops nearby in Lake Park and a “gym” where players can challenge each other in Pokémon battles. Within days, Veterans Memorial Park became the epicenter of the Pokémon Go phenomenon in Winona.

Some real world locations are all too happy to be virtual Poke stops. It can be a boon for businesses, and the Winona Public Library touted their status as a Poke stop with posters and social media posts. The library even organized a running game of “Pokémon Go Bingo” in which Pokémon players can pick up a bingo card from the library. Each square has a different Pokémon on it. If the players have those Pokémon in their virtual stable, or “Pokedex,” they can get a coupon for fries and hash browns at a neighboring restaurant.

That is great, but memorials to veterans are not the right place for this game, Krage said. The Holocaust Museum and Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., had similar problems with Poke stops, but those places were large enough to get the attention of game makers and have the Poke stops removed, Krage stated. The city of Winona has not been successful, he said. If game makers will not remove the stops, the city should consider banning the game, Krage argued.

What is wrong with it? Krage talked about people sitting on monuments, bringing their dogs, putting up hammocks in Veterans Memorial park, leaving trash, and falling asleep, but for him, the bottom line was that it is not appropriate for a memorial to veterans to become a video game hot spot. “It’s just disrespectful,” he said.

Krage is a veteran and so is city manager Steve Sarvi. Sarvi urged Winonans to be safe while playing Pokémon and added, “There seems to be quite a gathering down at vets park, and we would really ask that people doing this would respect the park, respect the monuments, the people that are there to observe that sacred space.”

No one was sitting on any of the monuments Monday evening, though a pair of young men momentarily set their cooler down on top of a granite marker etched with rows of crosses and the epitaph, “May they rest in peace.” People were standing around in front of the monuments or sitting in groups beside them. There was not any obvious litter. Gabe Tullis, of Winona, laid in a hammock strung between the short trees on the east side of the park. His portable boom box played '90s music, a tribute to the decade that spawned the Pokémon franchise.

“As long as I’m not vandalizing the statues, sitting on them in appropriately, or breaking anything, I’m not disrespecting them,” Tullis said.

At first, Winonan Nick Gabriele reacted as though Krage’s concern was a good point that he had not given serious consideration before. As he thought about it more, he responded, “If people are being courteous and not ruining anything, why not?” He added, “As long as you’re not messing stuff up — it’s a city park.” Fellow player Katie Hampel said, “We’re just sitting in the grass and trying to have fun.”

Krage acknowledged that Veterans Memorial Park is in the middle of heavily used parts of the park. “It’s right next to a playground, right next to the bandshell, right next to the ball field. It was meant to be surrounded by laughter,” he said. He continued, “Even when you have thousands of people down there for Trinona, it seems that they understand the significance of that park. But evidently when you’re trying to catch them all, you lose sight of that.” Private donations helped pay for the monuments and continue to fund upkeep at Veterans Memorial Park and many volunteers have donated their time to improve and maintain it. Now, Pokémon Go players have practically turned Veterans Memorial Park into a campground, he said. “It’s hurting a lot of feelings,” Krage stated.

Is there a respectful way to play Pokémon Go at Veterans Memorial Park? “No,” said Krage. There is no respectful way to play at the Holocaust Museum, there is no respectful way to play it at a cemetery, and Veterans Memorial Park should be treated the same way, he continued. “If you have to explain to them, they won’t understand,” he stated.

When asked about Krage’s concerns, Jeremy Roberts and Shawn Sweningson said they saw young men in military uniforms playing Pokémon Go at Veterans Memorial Park.

Several Pokémon players said that because the game encouraged them to spend time at Veterans Memorial Park, they paid more attention to the monuments than they ever had before. “Isn’t the idea of a memorial to have people go to it?” Tullis asked.

Roberts and Sweningson also talked about coming to the park for Pokémon and staying for the Winona Municipal Band concert. “Everyone was respectful for that national anthem,” Sweningson said. "Everyone shut up and stood up.”

Krage and Tullis agreed on one thing: in a couple months the Pokémon Go craze will die off. However, there are going to more games like this in the future and Winona and other cities need to figure out how to deal with them, Krage said.

If the city enacted on a ban on Pokémon Go and other GPS-based “augmented reality” games in Veterans Memorial Park, the trio of Poke stops that have attracted crowds would still exist there. Krage said he believed that Winonans would respect the rule if one was passed. Tullis was not so sure. “They would have to have police stationed here 24/7,” he said.

“I don’t know how we are going to do this legally, but a handful of us are looking very hard to try to stop that area from being used for this,” Krage stated.