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Jewish World Review
March 8, 2012/ 14 Adar, 5772
Here's an easy fix for King monument quote
By
Michael Smerconish
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT)
I thought I had an easy fix to a National Park Service conundrum. At issue is the newly unveiled Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington and a quote etched on the Stone of Hope: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."
In August, Rachel Manteuffel of the Washington Post opined that the quote "makes King look like something he was not: an arrogant jerk." She said the quote was "awfully self-aggrandizing for a man who so often symbolized the strength in humility."
Worse, it is not what King actually said.
The origin of the quote is a speech King delivered at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1968, two months before he was assassinated. King's remarks were really about the inner drum major in all of us. He spoke of a human desire to be out front but cautioned as to how that impetus can be misguided and used for ill purpose. In other words, it's important to be a drum major for a worthy cause. After sounding that theme, he said:
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
Supposedly, for space considerations, those words became "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness" on the new monument.
How did it happen? Congress authorized the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation to design and build the memorial, as is necessary when a project on the National Mall is undertaken. The foundation decided on the design and worked with a number of historians to determine the quotes that would be used. The initial design contained the full "drum major" quote. After the plan was approved by the National Park Service, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the U.S. Fine Arts Commission, a permit was issued. But the foundation then decided to paraphrase the quote.
Ed Jackson, chief architect of the memorial, defended the quote to Elizabeth Blair of NPR, saying the abridged version captures "the essence of the statement." Jackson also noted that visitors to the memorial did see much longer quotes from King as they approached the statue.
"By the time the visitor engages with the Stone of Hope, the profile of Dr. King, they're beyond the point where they're interested in reading a lot of detail," Jackson told Blair.
But the kerfuffle continued, and now, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced there will be a fix. The question is, how? Will the portion of stone bearing the quote be replaced with something that (hopefully) matches and is a more accurate representation of what King said, or is it possible to reduce the surface and recarve?
To me it's a no-brainer. Simply take off the quotation marks and replace I with He, so the side of the monument would read: He was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.
That would seem to defuse the argument that the truncated quote takes King out of context and sounds self-serving. In its place would be a flattering statement about King based on his own words. And, presumably, this fix would not only be the most honest, but the cheapest.
According to Carol Bradley Johnson, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, I was not the first to propose this solution. "Although your idea of changing the 'I' to 'He' was considered, ultimately a decision was made not to go that way because it would not be Dr. King's words, which the family thought was very important," she told me in an email. "And although changing the 'I' to a 'He' may seem like an easy fix, changing one word would be more obvious than cutting the stone along the joint lines and re-engraving."
In the end, as Salazar announced, the misquote would be replaced with the exact quote.
It's a logical, though seemingly more expensive, solution. Somebody is now on the hook for replacing the stones bearing the paraphrased quote. The Park Service hopes philanthropic support will enable the completion of the work in time for the celebration of King's birthday in January 2013.
I'd have preferred the simpler fix, preserving as much of the original design as possible.
A guy can dream, right?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here. Michael Smerconish writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Previously:
02/28/12 Valor-medal lie as free speech
02/21/12 Now we know: Van Halen's M&M rider was just a test
02/14/12 Life inside the (class) bubble
02/09/12 Rethinking paths to wealth
01/17/12 Romney must face his work history head-on
01/11/12 Don't let those gift cards be a gift to retailers or the state
01/03/12 Headlines hoped for in 2012
11/09/11 Romney, beware: Cain may bob through the straits
11/02/11 Where there's ad smoke, there's … what?
10/20/11 After husband is murdered, 30 long years of phone calls
10/13/11 Black women should only marry out of their race?
08/31/11 Some political gaffes really say something
07/27/11 An overture of candidates' theme songs
06/28/11 Where's the app for common sense?
06/02/11 Over-scrutinizing lives costs us potential leaders
04/19/11 Taking a chance to say, Hi
04/06/11 Race policies should be altered to reflect new demographic reality
11/10/10 Delaware's independent, but short-lived, voice
11/03/10 Papers should leave endorsing to others
10/21/10 Media help to hype perception of bullying
09/23/10 Officer down, killer hyped up
08/04/10 Documents highlight Pakistan's shortcomings as a U.S. ally
07/06/10 On taking back Sept. 11
06/29/10 Name elite corps to develop energy independence?
04/21/10 New account reinforces a serviceman's valor
03/11/10 Medical profession must police itself better
02/18/10 One-trick athletes
02/09/10 Active, retired law officers should be able to carry guns on planes to help stop terrorists
02/04/10 How to bring tech up to speed
01/28/10 Campaign donations must be fully and immediately disclosed online
01/07/10 The flying emperor still has no clothes, and no one is willing to say so
12/24/09 A law to mandate college football playoffs?
12/17/09 Cheney's abuse of freedom of speech
11/26/09 The true cost of freedom from anxiety
10/27/09 If GOP wants to win in 2012, it must reshape its primary process
10/08/09 It's time to get smarter on extended school day
09/03/09 What a summer of eulogizing flawed public figures reveals about society
08/12/09 It's time for cyclists and motorists to reconcile
08/05/09 Faces have changed, but vitriol remains
06/25/09 Fair comment or foul? Warm up the Muzzle Meter
06/08/09 Believability is key in crime-hoax villains
05/14/09 Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?
04/20/09 Let's give killers their due: Anonymity
03/12/09 Uninsured who can't afford medical care lose a lot more
02/06/09 My debate with Musharraf on hunt for bin Laden
01/29/09 Torture must remain an option
01/15/09 Making a case for suing Madoff
12/22/08 A difficult but rational chat about plans
12/17/08 Facebook epidemic: More than 120 million have joined, many too old for this nonsense
12/01/08 The high price of downsizing the news biz
11/14/08 Prescience on greed, arrogance of a system
09/29/08 Closer look at party lines
08/26/08 Obama's pick creates GOP opportunity
08/21/08 Fishing with the Angry Everyman
07/31/08 The perils of e-mail: Ponder, then click
05/22/08 Two very different sides of the Internet
02/12/08 Sublimely ridiculous suits
11/28/08 Cell phones cut out secondary circle of kinship
09/26/07 What do we owe those who have died in Iraq?
08/30/07 A Navy SEAL's gut-wrenching tale of survival
07/30/07 First it was a faux pas, now it's a new word
© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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