Who decided to get the MLK statue made in China?

[Alameda]

Who decided to get the parts for the new San Francisco Bay Bridge made in China? I was having a talk with a Republican yesterday and he told me it saves money. How can it save money when we have millions of unemployed people to outsource jobs? What other government projects/jobs have been outsourced? I can't keep up with it. BTW having the MLK statue made in China by a Chinese sculptor with Chinese materials seems like treason to me. Don't we have US sculptors? I know we do, so what is it?

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Alaska is planning to put up a made-in-China bridge, too.

A lot of people here are pissed off about it.

http://www.adn.com/2011/08/20/2023911/us-businesses-jobs-dry-up-as-our.html

[Alameda]

58. Disgraceful....my father worked on the SF Bay Bridge...and

my grandfather worked on the Golden Gate. He worked on many such projects, which allowed them to buy a homes and have a middle class lives. That is not possible now. You don't want to hear my father's opinion about it.

[Alameda]

92. I really want to know who approved it? We need to dig around.

Thanks for the information on that....here are some quotes about the SF Bay Bridge.
"Despite the American union complaints, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, strongly backed the project and even visited Zhenhua’s plant last September, praising “the workers that are building our Bay Bridge.”

"Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.

“It used to be $9 a day, now it’s $12,” he said Wednesday morning, while polishing one of the decks for the new Bay Bridge. “Everything is getting more expensive. They should raise our pay.”

From this article....
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[marions ghost]

2. YOU ARE KIDDING!

I cannot believe that. There are so many sculptors in this country who would have loved the chance to do it.

That's just too much. America does not really support the arts or artists.

[Booster]

9. And they would have done a better job also. To me, the statue

just doesn't catch Dr. King's empathy and compassion. Maya Angelou said it first and I agree with her.

[marions ghost]

14. No it doesn't capture him at all

I was wondering why when I caught a glimpse of the picture of it last week that it looked like somebody else.

Sad. WHO is responsible for this?

[Safetykitten]

20. Has a totalitarian feel to it. Very disturbing piece.

[marions ghost]

23. yeah

terrible. I wish people of any color would get together and demand its removal.

[JPZenger]

40. The Sculptor specializes in statues of Chairman Mao

Yes, it makes sense that it has a totalitarian feel to it - because the Chinese sculptor specializes in making statues of Chairman Mao - who was one of the 3 worst mass-murderers of this Century, after Stalin and Hitler.

[Cherchez la Femme]

93. To me, quite frankly, if one didn't know him

recognized him for who he was & what he did,

he looks like an angry black man <----the white man's anathema.

Arms crossed defensively, almost a scowl on his face,
seems that his Negroid (used as opposed to Caucasian) attributes such as a heavy brow, thicker lips are almost deliberately caricatured.

And to be permanently set in that immovable object, stone,
--whereas he had base principles which were indeed in stone because they were right--
with that posture and attitude, to me it gives nothing of the warm, graceful animated personage of which Dr. King was naturally gifted.



That statue, in every respect, is an embarrassment.

[glinda]

21. As an artist, I do not like it. I was shocked when I first saw it.

[Alameda]

52. I don't think it's America, it's "what" special interests doing this?

.....and it's not just artists, anything that CAN be outsourced is being outsourced....so it seems.

edited to put quotes around "what"

[Parker CA]

3. Is that a true claim? MLK statue made in China?? Seriously? nt

[xxqqqzme]

8. Yep, Chinese granite

and Chinese labor. It was assembled in the US.

[Romulox]

10. "It was assembled in the US." True--BY IMPORTED CHINESE WORKERS!

True story. :wow:

[Cherchez la Femme]

95. For Free -- no charge, n'est ce' pas?

i.e. SlAVE LABOR??


That's what I read regarding some of the Chinese laborers, anyhow.

[Life Long Dem]

85. So much for the granite state of New Hampshire.

China is the new granite state. What a bunch of BS.

[snagglepuss]

4. From what I've read the Chinese worker's did it for free. If that is the case,

I'd like to know it those workers were in anyway coerced to 'volunteer' their labor.

[DaveJ]

15. I was also wondering who actually got the money

I know there are costs, but it ultimately comes down to money trading hands. I'm sure it was not the labor, so I wonder who has it.

[Alameda]

18. nothing is free!

[yellerpup]

5. Greatest page for you!

Parts from China did not build America and make her great. I hope the Chinese government deducted at least a couple of million from our debt for using a Chinese sculptor, because otherwise I'm getting nothing out of it. We CAN work! We want jobs! :kick: & Rec.

[WinkyDink]

16. "Parts from China did not build America and make her great." Actual Chinese laborers, however, did:

http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese.html
By the summer of 1868, 4,000 workers, two thirds of which were Chinese, had built the transcontinental railroad over the Sierras and into the interior plains. On May 10, 1869, the two railroads were to meet at Promontory, Utah in front of a cheering crowd and a band. A Chinese crew was chosen to lay the final ten miles of track, and it was completed in only twelve hours.

Without the efforts of the Chinese workers in the building of America's railroads, our development and progress as a nation would have been delayed by years. Their toil in severe weather, cruel working conditions and for meager wages cannot be under appreciated.

[yellerpup]

45. No argument here.

We used and abused them and it's all in the historical record. But, I believe that Americans did forge the steel and make the spikes and fittings--hopefully not with slave labor.

[Romulox]

94. Not a good model for either American or Chinese workers, going forward. nt

[Alameda]

33. Yes, yellerpup, it's a real disgrace! What would FDR have done?

made in China by a Chinese artist. I don't have anything against China, but we really need to support our own people more. Geeze, with the millions of unemployed we are still sending stuff to be made in other places.

[yellerpup]

46. I have nothing against the Chinese, either.

I support jobs going to American workers, including Chinese-American workers.

[jberryhill]

36. "Parts from China did not build America and make her great"

Not only did the Chinese build much of the western part of the transcontinental railway, but we enacted laws to kick them out when they were done.

[yellerpup]

47. Immigrants were exploited as laborers

and they worked their hearts out because they wanted to belong and become American. The way they were treated after we used them is shameful.

[Jmaxfie1]

6. I think MLK is weeping in heaven right now.

MLK so loved this country. Even when people refused to treat black people as equal he always believed that it was the destiny of America that all people would be free. He believed that this country and its people were good and that they must respect black men and women. I've read King speeched that have made me cry because of this. King thought this was the greatest country in the world, it only needed to live up to its principals. Before I keep going on, I just want to say that this is a disgrace to a great man's image.

[rfranklin]

7. that explains why it looks like chairman Mao

Though not quite as warm hearted

[marions ghost]

12. It DOES look like Mao

:wow: You are right!

-------------

Check out the model:

http://mommylife.net/archives/2008/05/martin_luther_k.html

From the link:

"First of all, they hired a Chinese sculptor best known for his statues of Mao Zedong. What's up with that? Second of all, they hired a Chinese sculptor best known for his states of Mao Zedong. Third of all, they hired a Chinese sculptor best known for .... well, you get the point.

Have you ever been to the National Mall - where all the memorials are? They're beautiful, serene, lovely, thought-provoking, reverent.

This jarring statue is planned to be 28 feet tall. That's right - 28 feet tall!!! Larger than the statue s of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. It is so out of keeping with the proportion of the other memorials on the Mall, it's alarming.

I love the idea of a memorial for Martin Luther King, but they need to go back to the drawing board on this one. And hire an American - I don't care what color his skin is. But I support those who think a black artist would be best."

[WinkyDink]

17. They never get the Occidental eyes right.

[jmowreader]

59. MLK wasn't Occidental

He's African.

[marions ghost]

28. dupe

[Romulox]

11. I've never seen anything as symbolic of our time as this statue--

outsourced, ill-conceived, changed at the last moment, "paraphrased"... Looks like a left over cast of Deng Xiapeng.

It's become a monument to our mediocrity, not the least of which because our age has produced no men who could stand eye to eye with the likes of Dr. King.

[marions ghost]

13. ditto

yes --symbolic of the times. I wonder if it can go the way of that one of Saddam Hussein.

[former9thward]

19. I think the statue is very unattractive. It has a cold feel to it.

[Xithras]

22. It may be the worst memorial in DC

I tend to agree with Maya Angelou's take on it. It's a terrible tribute that does nothing to inform visitors about the man. It blatantly misquotes him to make him sound arrogant, and presents his image in a style that is normally associated with communists like Lenin and Mao. I doubt that was unintentional.

They should pull it down and start over.

[godai]

31. "pull it down"? Seriously?

I'd suggest getting used to it, since it will be there for hundreds of years.

Check out the Lincoln Memorial. Abe looks kind of cold, even angry but no one thinks of that when they see the memorial. Same will be true with the MLK memorial. I'm sure a lot of thought went into the design and they're still millions short in donations.

[Romulox]

34. The sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial obviously was much more skilled.

You picked a bad example to compare the MLK sculpture against, imo. Compare Lincoln's garments to Kings, for example. A tremendous difference in skill level is evident.

[godai]

49. My comparison is of facial expressions, not sculptor expertise. n/t

[Romulox]

80. Right. The MLK sculpture is of much lower quality than that of Lincoln.

I'm sorry that you chose an example so detrimental to the point you were *trying* to make, but here we are. The Lincoln Memorial is simply rendered with an order of magnitude more skill than the MLK Memorial. Even if we disagree with his choices, Lincoln's sculptor has placed *exactly* the expression he wanted to on Lincoln's face, whereas MLK's sculptor failed to capture the likeness of character, apparently out of ineptitude.

No, you couldn't have picked a worst comparison for the point you're trying to make; the Lincoln sculpture is objectively a superior rendering. :hi:

[godai]

82. Amazing that you can read the minds of the Lincoln Memorial's sculptors.

So, they got the expression (looks stern, even angry) 'exactly' as they wanted it. Interesting that you 'know' that.

[Romulox]

83. We are judging the *SCULPTURE*, not the thoughts of the *sculptor*

"So, they got the expression (looks stern, even angry) 'exactly' as they wanted it. Interesting that you 'know' that."

You don't seem to understand plain English: the rendering is objectively less realistic on the MLK sculpture as compared to the Lincoln Sculpture. This is evident in the rendering of the expression, the likeness and the garments. Where you get a discussion about "read(ing) the minds of...sculptors" is beyond me.

Methinks you've dug a hole and have no intention of extricating yourself therefrom. :hi:

[godai]

86. See post 49. n/t

[Romulox]

88. See the definition of a "discussion forum".

Two or more people talking = two or more points of view.

[Alameda]

89. MLK's face is frowning and he is squinting

his arms are crossed over his chest, a sign of hostility and arrogance. This is NOT a good representation of King.

[Romulox]

90. Look at MLK's suit compared to Lincoln's. It ain't just the face that's poorly rendered!

MLK's suit is mostly flat and dimension-less, and his right arm looks unfinished. Lincoln's clothes, on the other hand, almost move in the breeze...

[polly7]

96. I hate to say this, but my fist thought on seeing it was it looked like

a propped up coffin photo.

[Xithras]

42. Yes. Seriously.

King deserves a better memorial than this made-in-China-by-forced-labor insult, with it's half-Mao, half-Disneyland design.

I like the semicircle along the riverbank idea, but the statue and the cheesy "mountains" should be scrapped and started over.

[godai]

48. $120M spent. No money remains to do this. MLK's son disagrees with you.

Dr King's son, Martin Luther King III, has defended the outsourcing.

"I have seen probably 50 sculptures of my dad, and I would say 47 of them are not good reflections," he said, to USA Today."This particular artist: he has done a good job."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8715823/Martin-Luther-King-memorial-made-in-China.html

[Broderick]

87. 120 Million?

I am in the wrong business.

[Romulox]

24. "The colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre..."

"The colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries."

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has put the brakes on the planned $100 million Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., asking the foundation overseeing it to modify the centerpiece of the proposed design-a three-story granite carving of the slain civil rights leader--to be less "confrontational."

<snip>

"The original concept showed an image of Dr. King that was asymmetrically composed, dynamic in stance, meditative in character, and modeled as if emerging from the Stone of Hope," the letter stated. " the development as shown now features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character-and appearing as if it had been affixed to the surface of the Stone of Hope."

The letter from the commission went on to criticize the technique represented by the statue, saying, "The colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries."

The commission "recommended strongly that the sculpture be reworked, both in form and modeling, to return to a more sympathetic idea of the figure growing out of the stone with increasing detail and emphasis of the upper part of the figure."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_23_113/ai_n27500696/

[marions ghost]

26. Debated back in 2008

looks like somebody got their way...over-rode the commission

[trackfan]

25. Even the body language of the statue is bad.

It's like, "Please go away, and don't bother me".

Not really a sentiment we associate with MLK.

[Bluebear]

35. Agreed. It's Chairman Martin, not man of peace Martin

[csziggy]

62. That's what bothers me the most - MLK should have open arms

Not folded arms, closed off from people. The face does not look anything like MLK, but the stance is even less like him.

This statue is more of how I think of Dr. King than that monstrous statue:


I went through pages of Google images of MLK and there is not ONE SINGLE picture of him with his arms folded in any way similar to that in the huge statue. A few show him with his hands clasped in front of him, but most show him with open arms, gesticulating to make a point or welcoming people.

[War Horse]

27. Unreal

And it looks nothing like MLK.

How depressing...

[marions ghost]

29. The only thing I DO like

Is the idea of using the "stone" concept:

"The 30-foot-tall monument’s inspiration came from a line in King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered 48 years ago on the National Mall during the March on Washington: “Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”

Visitors can walk to the main memorial through the “Mountain of Despair,” a large rock cut in two. At the center of the memorial stands the “Stone of Hope,” with a statue of King on the far side, overlooking the Tidal Basin. Encircling the monument are marble walls on which 14 of King’s most famous quotes from his speeches, sermons and writings are etched."

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/08/maya-ange... /
-----------

But I still don't like the actual image of King.

[Politicalboi]

30. They have to sell all that

Steel from the WTC's. After they altered the evidence, it's now safe to bring it back to the US of A.

[Alameda]

32. Any steel things made post 911 give me the creeps, I wonder???

where that steel came from. Sheesh!

[atheistprogress]

37. Free trade only makes sense

if you have a unified government above both parties.

[Obamanaut]

38. One of these really old DU threads suggests MLK Foundation commissioned

the work. Some of this is several years old.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2746225

Construction Of MLK Memorial Outsourced To China

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3478458

Race row hits memorial for Martin Luther King

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3267953

Against 'Confrontational' Image, U.S. Panel Says: Rework M.L.K. Statue

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2731474

MLK Foundation commissions statue to be made in- China

[JPZenger]

39. Chinese stone, Chinese stonecutters, Chinese assemblers on the Mall, and WHITE Marble

The Foundation overseeing the monument insisted on using Chinese despite formal protests at the time from Sen. Leahy of Vermont and the Vermont stone industry.

Not only was the stone from China, but the sculptor, the stonecutters and the persons assembling it on the Mall in DC were all Chinese citizens.

It also is kind of strange that the Foundation decided to use brilliant White stone for the country's most important Black man.

[KamaAina]

41. I believe it's actually pink granite

then again, the people usually referred to as "white" are closer to pink in color, just as "black" people are various shades of brown.

[Xithras]

43. The commision that built the memorial had thee audacity...

...to publicly say that the Chinese stone was of a higher quality than anything available in America.

The memorial is an insult. If King were alive today, he'd protest the thing himself.

[KamaAina]

44. Well, does any American granite have melamine in it?

That's what gives it that pinkish sheen. :sarcasm:

[Marrah_G]

50. I love that there is finally a statue of him there

But I am very angry at how it was made and I think the end result is a statue that does not look like him or convey the man he was.

This statue is an example of why we are in the position we are in. Inferior work made from cheap labor and the ones who made money were not the workers.

[hunter]

51. Hmmm....

Made in the U.S.A....

*

Made in China...

*


I'm not saying U.S.A. artists couldn't have built a an appropriate monument, but that U.S. Americans get too full of themselves and these threads gather a stink of "yellow peril" racism and xenophobia about them.

[Alameda]

55. get real, it's not about race, it's about US labor and products

and Made in the USA. We are in a serious economic disaster now. Millions of Americans of all colors, religions, ethnicities are unemployed..........get it?

[ellisonz]

79. This is why we need a WPA again.

[JoeyT]

56. Wasn't the great wall built using slave labor?

You might want to rethink that comparison.

[hunter]

60. The U.S.A. was built by slaves...

... and wage slaves.

The owners of this nation (not you and me, but a fraction of 1% of our population) have essentially killed the unions, they are dismantling the social safety nets of FDR, and have turned the entire U.S. economy into a company store and the U.S.A. into a company town.

It's really not up to us where we can shop anymore, or where we can live or find work. We've ceded that authority to the owner class. If the owner class decides to shut down major cities like Detroit, they do. If these owners decide to import bridges from China, or even monuments to the brave men they tried to destroy but could only kill, they do.

We, the People, could change that, but we don't.

What's on television tonight?

[EFerrari]

63. Black Men Built the Capitol, BookTv

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/MenBu

[marions ghost]

64. This is about NOT supporting American artists

Case in point--Maya Lin--The Vietnam Memorial. She is a Chinese American. But she IS an American. This is not about being anti-Chinese. It is about being pro-American artists and labor.

And secondly it is about the fact that it is not a representation of King that feels authentic. It doesn't capture his essence.

Essence is something beyond "likeness." It looks like him, but it does not get the spirit.

It is wooden and bombastic.

[tabasco]

53. All I can say is

unfuckingbelievable.

[Saphire]

54. It's ugly.

[MilesColtrane]

57. Apart from the fact that it doesn't look like him, I can't stand...

that he's depicted with his arms folded in a stand-offish way.

It's like the statue is saying, "Well, my job's done. Racism in America has been defeated" which is the last thing Dr. King would say if he were alive today.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

61. We have a friend who holds the patent to a bridge design that costs very little...

...and is more efficient than the ones we use now. But they don't use it, and we can't quite figure out why. He's an old Navy man. His name is Dave. We used to live in an apartment building with him. We parked on the same level. Dude, he could spin a tale. He's the only thing I miss about that place. But I digress...

[pampango]

65. Here's the info from wiki:

Sculptor and stone choice

It was announced in January 2007 that Lei Yixin, an artist from the People's Republic of China, would sculpt the centerpiece of the memorial, including the statue of King and the "Stone of Hope". The commission was criticized by human rights activist Harry Wu on the grounds that Lei had sculpted Mao Zedong. It also stirred accusations that it was based on financial considerations, because the Chinese government would make a $25 million donation to help meet the projected shortfall in donations. The president of the memorial's foundation, Harry E. Johnson, who first met Lei in a sculpting workshop in Saint Paul, Minnesota, stated that the final selection was done by a mostly African American design team and was based solely on artistic ability.

Gilbert Young, an African American artist known for a work of art entitled He Ain't Heavy, led a protest against the decision to hire Lei by launching the website King Is Ours, which demanded that an African American artist be used for the monument. Human-rights activist and arts advocate Ann Lau and American stone-carver Clint Button joined Young and national talk-show host Joe Madison in advancing the protest when the use of Chinese granite was discovered. Lau decried the human rights record of the Chinese government and asserted that the granite would be mined by workers forced to toil in unsafe and unfair conditions. Button argued that the $10 million in federal money that has been authorized for the King project required it to be subject to an open bidding process.

The memorial's design team visited China in October 2006 to inspect potential granite to be used. The project's foundation has argued that the quality of the Chinese granite exceeds that which can be found in the United States.

Young's King Is Ours petition demanded that an African American artist and American granite be used for the national monument, arguing the importance of such selections as a part of the memorial's legacy. The petition received support from American granite workers and from the California State Conference of the NAACP.

In May 2008, the CFA, one of the agencies which had to approve all elements of the memorial, raised concerns about "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed sculpture," noting that it "recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries." The commission did, however, approve the final design in September 2008.

In September 2010, the foundation gave written promises that it would use local stonemasons to assemble the memorial. However, when construction began in October, it appeared that only Chinese laborers would be used. The Washington area local of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsworkers union investigated and determined that the workers were not being paid on a regular basis, with all of their pay being withheld until they return to China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._National_Memorial#Controversy

[godai]

66. $25M donation from China explains a lot.n/t

[Zanzoobar]

67. A cartoon in stone.

It's similar to our new currency. It has no richness or depth when compared to the old, though it still serves it's industrial purpose.

[1776Forever]

68. Here's a good article from ABC on the MLK Memorial.........

Aug 31, 2011 12:52pm
Maya Angelou Upset Over MLK Memorial Inscription



....Lei Yixin, the sculptor chosen to mold King’s figure, is Chinese, not American, and some have taken issue with his depiction of King.

Ed Dwight, a sculptor who worked on the project, said Yixin’s design does not properly portray King’s peaceful nature.

“He totally missed the boat here. Dr. King didn’t look like that. He never wore clothes like that,” Dwight told ABC News last week. “People are upset about his arms folded, the very strong look he has on his face.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/08/maya-angelou-upset-over-mlk-memorial-inscription/

[Lorien]

69. I teach graduate level art courses. My students know far more about appropriate

body language and expression than the designer of this monstrosity does. It sends the wrong message in far too many ways.

[woo me with science]

71. Oh my god.

That is absolutely appalling.

[lonestarnot]

70. WTF are you kidding me! Hecho en China (Cheena)?

[trusty elf]

74. .......

[QC]

72. It's fitting in a way that America now outsources even its tributes to its own heroes,

if you think about it.

And the bit about unpaid laborers working on the project is just the cherry on top.

[Kablooie]

73. I just took a look at it. It looks like the frieze figures around Tiananmen square.

It has a monumental, communist worker style to the piece.

Geez.

They should have gotten a sculptor who was around when MLK was and whose life was affected by him.

Not a foreign artist who sees nothing but a historic figure.

[LeftyMom]

75. Whoever did it should be ashamed. That thing's FUGLY.

Completely aside from being a poor representation of the man's ideals and personality, it's just plain not attractive.

[tblue37]

76. And the sculpture has that "Stalinist" monumental quality to it, too.

Many people have complained that it looks like a Stalinist statue.

The artist actually has done some of the Mao statues in China.

[JVS]

77. Maybe they needed to find a way to save money after the King family demanded licensing fees.

[Sirveri]

78. I did all of those things.

Because I'm an asshole and I hate America. You're welcome!

[fasttense]

81. It is a very ugly statue

that makes me afraid of MLK. Really, that mean closed off look would make most people leave a man like that alone. The statue of Lincoln does not look mean so much as it looks sad.

This statue of a man would yell at me if I said good morning in the wrong tone of voice. It reminds me of a very bad boss I once had. Perhaps that was the ultimate goal of the sculptor - to make you afraid and to see MLK like a big bad boss.

And of course the quote about being a drum major makes him sound like a big bad boss.

King 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."

"On Tuesday, Angelou, who consulted on the memorial, told The Washington Post that the shortened version of those words sounds egotistical and should be changed.

It reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."

The phrase is inscribed on a statue of King without quotation marks because it is paraphrased. It is not grouped with 14 quotations from King that are part of the memorial plaza.

The paraphrased version "minimizes the man," said the 83-year-old Angelou. "It makes him seem less than the humanitarian he was. ... It makes him seem an egotist.""

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/maya-angelou-mlk-quote_n_943567.html

[Romulox]

84. I want to know why DU's "free trader" coalition hasn't dared to comment on this one?

:hi:

[demmiblue]

91. A terrible expression and his clothes look like they were made out of fondant.

This is a poor tribute to a great man. x(

[Romulox]

97. Lei Yixin's other works aren't very good, either. The stiffness and poor rendering is evident

in all of these works. In particular, the "Uncle Mao" scene looks like a cartoon. WHY was he selected???







http://treeofmamre.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/the-new-mlk-statue-is-a-fine-example-of-chinese-communist-iconography/

[cascadiance]

98. Ask him why he likes to get in to bed with communists?

... and endorse those in government who would let them "buy" our government in elections non-transparently (Citizen's United). That ought to set him off or help put his greed in to perspective!