Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

For the past I-don't-know-how-many years, there have plans to erect a memorial to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., in the District of Columbia.  The official unveiling of the long-awaited memorial was to be on Sunday, August 27, but that ceremony has been postponed due to that biotch Irene, who is making her presence known along the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern corridor of the United States.

Since the monument itself is no longer hidden behind a partition, DC-area media and bloggers have already provided ample commentary on the design of the memorial, and it is not pretty.  Among the arguments are the fact that the Reverend looks angry, with his crossed arms and defiant stance.  By almost all accounts, Dr. King was a calm and respectful pacifist, and many critics do not feel that this memorial is an accurate portrayal of the man himself.

Says memorial architect Ed Jackson, Jr. in a NYTimes.com article:

The design [gives] form to a line from Dr. King’s “Dream” speech — “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope,” said Mr. Jackson. In the memorial, he noted, Dr. King is seen emerging from the stone of hope. The two towering mounds set slightly behind him, forming a sort of passageway to the statue, are mountains of despair.... Some visitors said they did not like the fact that Dr. King was facing the Jefferson Memorial, not the Lincoln Memorial....

To add insult to perceived injury, Dr. King is misquoted on the monument (see photo of the quote, below).  Makes you wonder who approves and fact-checks these things, eh?