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Thursday, March 1, 2007
Who do we honor?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Among my modern-day political heroes, or in this case heroines, a special place is reserved for Margaret Thatcher.
The British Parliament last week unveiled a bronze statue of her in the member’s lobby of Parliament’s Palace of Westminister. She stands in the finest of company, facing Winston Churchill, Britain’s two most important figures of the last century. She served as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. The statue, the Associated Press reports, “shows her in a typical lively and swashbucking posture, as though she is addressing the House of Commons, with her right arm outstretched.” (Thatcher’s words to the father after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 are appropriate today to the son: “Don’t go wobbly on me, George.”)
Great leader, Mrs. Thatcher, who is now 81. If ever a likeness should be unveiled to the living, she’s a deserving honoree.
The honor prompts a question: In Georgia, who living or dead is deserving of a monument on the Capitol grounds? The House has passed a resolution suggesting former Governor and U.S. Senator Zell Miller. While I’m a great fan of Zell as U.S. Senator, I have a problem erecting a monument to a governor who invited Georgians to engage in behavior that could be harmful to them and their families, as gambling is. Every message from government should be to encourage citizens to behave responsibly and to act in their family’s best interest.
So who would warrant space on the Capitol grounds? Martin Luther King Jr., though he never served in public office, should be there. So, too, should U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I’d put former U.S. Rep. Carl Vinson , who served in Congress more than 50 years, there too. And I’d probably get rid of some, moving them to the state history museum that I hope will someday exist.
Today’s political quiz: Is Zell deserving of granite or bronze? Is anybody in the last 100 years who’s not already there: Richard Russell, the Talmadges, Jimmy Carter and Ellis Arnall?
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