AJC.com > Opinion > Opinion Talk > Archives > 2008 > May > 13
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Will Bob Barr hurt McCain?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Will former congressman Bob Barr’s third-party presidential candidacy hurt Sen. John McCain’s chances? Barr, a former Republican, announced Monday that he is seeking the Libertarian Party nomination, “to let the American people know that they are going to have a choice” of a candidate who would shrink the size of government and start bringing home troops from Iraq. Could Barr’s candidacy tip the race to the Democratic nominee in a close race?
Permalink | Comments (38) | Post your comment | Categories: Forum
MLK statue: Dream or nightmare?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Writes Marc Fisher, a Washington Post columnist: “The road to the [Martin Luther King Jr.] memorial has been difficult from the start. It has taken decades to raise the money, select the site and create the design. But of all the battles over how to remember King, this latest round is the most disturbing. As work continues in China on a model of the 28-foot-tall statue, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has issued a harshly worded denunciation of the image of King that is being carved out of foreign granite.”
“Far from the original concept of a King, who is ‘dynamic in stance, meditative in character,’ the sculpture now being built ‘features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character,’ says a letter from the commission secretary, Thomas Luebke.”(Read the full column) Fisher writes:
“The centerpiece of the memorial, known as the Stone of Hope, has gone completely off the rails. The solution is to start over.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese sculptor crafting the controversial statue of King, says he feels he is being subjected to the sort of prejudice and cultural bias his subject stood against. “I wasn’t trying to express that King was confrontational but that he was thoughtful,” Lei told Cox international correspondent Craig Simons in an interview. “I just want to focus on King’s ideals.”
(See image of centerpiece below)
Should the King memorial design be scrapped and started over?
Permalink | Comments (36) | Categories: Forum
