IT 'MAKES HIM LOOK LIKE AN ARROGANT TWIT'

That's what famed poet Maya Angelou supposedly said about  Martin Luther King Jr.'s partial quote used at his (& DC's newest) memorial.

It seems MLK's original words (taken from a sermon given a few weeks before his death):  

'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.' 

were edited to : 

'I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.'

Hmmmm.

Obviously there's a reason for this poets rhyme.

Believe it or not, the official excuse for this bastardization was -

'Uh, the original was too big to fit'. 

And then they chiseled the shorter version into the side of a 30' statue of the man.

Double hmmmm.

Ok, questionable rewrite aside, does this August opened memorial sully the man's memory?

I must say - 'no' - but it could be improved.

You enter through a space between the very tall & very white 'mountain of despair'.

After entering the first thing you see is a 'a stone of hope'.  A 30' white slab that - if you could slide it backwards - would fit perfectly into the 'despairing mountain's' open space. Very clever.

This is written on the back of...

...the statue of the man, himself, looking out at the Tidal Basin.

Behind MLK is a 450 foot granite 'Inscription Wall' filled with 14 famous King quotes (hopefully unedited).

There's plenty of space to wander, mull & remember.

On the whole it is a respectful, visitor friendly memorial.

So how could it have been improved?

He could have been given a happier, less stern face. But maybe it  was because he's forced to look - for eternity - across the basin...

... at slave owner & slave bedder Tom Jefferson's tonier digs.

And is this the stance & posture of Dr. King or Ed Sullivan  (after watching Senor Wences' never changing act for the zillionth time? That was never "S'all right" for any of us.)

And why are the 14 Inscription wall quotes not in chronological order? Aren't Americans already sufficiently 'history' ignorant?

Ok,  ok, these changes would be very expensive, may be a bit 'nit picky' & will probably never happen. But there is something much less costly that would be worth every extra penny spent:

Hire someone with a chisel - who doesn't charge by the word - & replace the abbreviated 'drum major' quote with the original.

It will 'un-twit' Martin's memory & make Maya oh so happy.