Current Events Watch

Okay, my bad for thinking I knew it all. In a previous post about the folks in the black community “having their panties in a bunch” over the soon to be raised Martin Luther King Memorial on the National Mall being contracted to a Chinaman rather than to one of their own, I wrote:

“I just find it bizarre that those who should most appreciate the wrongness of racism would be so up-in-arms about having a China guy, Lei Yixin, assigned the task of memorializing the legacy of the one man who without question did the most to advance civil rights. No Chinese allowed? Seems rather racist to me.”

But … what if I was hoodwinked? What if the media spinmeisters played a race card that ought not have been in the deck in the first place? Certainly always a fail-safe approach for stirring up a bit of controversy, no doubt, and doesn’t suck for garnering ratings, either.

That might just be the case here. Of course, I know there are two sides to every story, and while I always have my own opinions, I do also indubitably respect the right of others to differ, no matter how misguided they may be.

I’m only human, though, and may have been duped this time into believing that those within the African-American community are all astir because they think that, to quote myself, “only black can do black.” Could I have possibly been mislead? Read on.

I pointed out, too, that the majority of members on the selection committee was black, and that black sculptors and architectural firms were also involved with the project, all of the important details. Details that, as it turns out, seem to have been selectively cherry-picked by the network bigwigs and, of course, duly reported by the talking heads.

Here’s why I have reason to think so. I received a comment in response to my previous article from one Clint Button. Granted, he is himself a long-time granite artisan, and industry liason to the King Is Ours protest organization, so understandably may have a biased opinion about the issue.

But if you read his comment, there seems to be enough credible evidence to suggest that, despite the media’s spin, the hullabaloo really might not be so much about race after all. Abridged excerpts follow, emphasis is mine. You can read the comment in its entirety here if so inclined.

“While the simplistic interpretation of our protest is viewed as race-based, our true protest is based on the process that denied all Americans a fair opportunity to participate in this project. On Nov 8, 2007, the Barre Granite Association sponsored a press conference featuring King Is Ours. In front of a 24′ tall granite statue, Gilbert Young spoke surrounded by a dozen Master Sculptors and Carvers - including the three who actually produced that 24′ statue.

“In June 2005, the MLK Foundation received $10 Million Federal to fund the MLK Memorial. In May 2006, they visited Barre, meeting with one sculptor for 15 minutes and one manufacturer for 10 minutes. Both assured the MLK Memorial Foundation they could handle the project. Neither was ever allowed to bid or even see project specifications. Foundation members even refused to tour the manufacturer’s plant, where several of these Masters were and still are carving.

“Elberton, GA’s granite industry - in size, several times that of Barre - was never contacted at all. Claims by the MLK Memorial Foundation to have ’surveyed several quarries’ at Stone Mountain on a Sunday afternoon in June 2007 fail to expand that all quarrying operations in the Stone Mountain area ceased in the 1970’s. There are also no granite quarries in America that operate on Sundays.

“In June 2006, the MLK Memorial Foundation spontaneously visited St. Paul, discovered Lei napping on the lawn after completing the only carving he admitted to had ever done completely ‘on my own.’ Lei didn’t understand the scope of the project or of Dr. King until after returning to China, all per his interviews in the LA Times and stone industry publications. But he left St Paul with a check for over $140,000.00.

“Due Diligence has not been served. Federal Monies mean an open bidding process. That NEVER Occurred. No US Entity, granite company, artist, artisan or other ever was allowed a viable chance to participate. Equality has been realized. We have all been denied. Color did not matter.

“As a result, Dr. King will be transfigured into stone, quarried and carved under near slave labor conditions. Reportedly, per edict of MLK Memorial Foundation Executive Architect Dr. Ed Jackson, all references to race- including the word ‘Negro’ - are to be expunged from Dr. King’s writings when inscribed on the Memorial. That is a dangerous corruption of history.

“Personally, I was pursued, invited and then uninvited from a CNN broadcast panel discussion in Aug 07, being told verbatim, ‘This is an African American Issue. You will not be needed for tonight’s show.’”

There are some other minor things I’d still dispute, both in Clint’s full comment as well as on the front page of the King Is Ours‘ website. But the additional information has indeed been eye-opening, and well worth perusal. I encourage you to check it out, particularly since I may have botched the abridgement above. I just selected some key points that I thought were particularly worth mentioning. He really does have more to say on the matter.

Mass media’s methods of information propagation aren’t really so surprising, but I must say that I am disappointed in my Dearly Beloved’s coverage of this as well. Et tu, NPR?

martin luther king, king memorial, king is ours, chinese sculptor, national mall memorial, lei yixin, racism, mass media

I’m a certifiable NPR whore. Morning Edition, Fresh Air, All Things Considered … as soon as I hear the first few notes of these programs’ theme music I get sprung. Yeah, I’m weird. And don’t get me started on Sylvia Poggioli! Every time she speaks I go weak in the knees. I do love my public radio.

One of my other faves is Day to Day. So I tuned in this afternoon and heard this report about how some folks in the black community have their panties in a bunch because a Chinese dude was the finalist chosen to chip and chisel the 30-foot memorial sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr. planned for the National Mall in D.C.

This will no doubt be the mother of all MLK memorials, and the first on the Mall honoring an African-American. At long last, after decades of planning for this massive erection (get your mind out of the gutter), things are scheduled to get underway next April. Finally.

Too bad about the Chinaman, though, one Lei Yixin. In fact, some of those who have pushed hardest for the memorial to be built are now saying that electing Lei amounts to a “slap in the face.”

I don’t know why. He is a master sculptor, with several examples of his work on display in China’s National Art Gallery. He’s gotta be good, so what’s the problem? Here’s the slap.

“It’s an insult. This is America and, believe me, there’s enough talent in this country that we do not need to go out of the country to bring someone in to do the work,” says Gwen Moore of the California Chapter of the NAACP. “Basically … to have a country that has one of the worst human rights records be in charge of the monument is a slap in the face.”

Sorry, but give me a break. The design committee chose Lei because, well, he was apparently the best man for the job. What does it matter if the selectee is of the Asian persuasion? And why is it a reflection on him that his country just happens to have “one of the worst human rights records?” Good Lord, I’m an American, and just look at us! I’d hate to be automatically dismissed out of hand because I happen to live under Bush’s dictatorial regime. Please.

Ten of twelve on the committee who chose Lei are black. He is also working closely on the design with two black sculptors in the U.S., and the overall project is being directed by a black-owned architectural firm. Plenty of checks and balances, I’d say, and really no need to worry that the guy might at the last minute decide to memorialize Dr. King holding a Chinese take-out box and a pair of chopsticks.

Yet many are in an uproar.

Gripe number 2 is all about aesthetics. Apparently only black should do black. One of the African-American sculpting contenders (loser), criticizes the proposed design because it makes Dr. King look like a giant Chinese Negro. One who, by the way, never stood or dressed that way in real life. Disgraceful.

“Dr. King never stood like that, nor wore clothes like that, nor did he look like that. It is a shameful tragedy,” says Ed Dwight, an African-American sculptor who submitted a model for the project that lost out to Lei’s. “Even a Chinese critic said the design looked like a very big Chinese black man.”

Hmmm. Maybe Dwight didn’t get the job because he didn’t do his homework. Stance? Check. Wardrobe? Check. Chinese black man? Perhaps.

I just find it bizarre that those who should most appreciate the wrongness of racism would be so up-in-arms about having a China guy assigned the task of memorializing the legacy of the one man who without question did the most to advance civil rights. No Chinese allowed? Seems rather racist to me. Our loyalties must transcend race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective - or so said Martin Luther King, Jr.

martin luther king, king memorial, racism, martin luther king memorial, lei yixin, martin luther king sculpture, national mall

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007, 8:46 AM. George W. Bush observed a moment of silence in commemoration of the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That’s cool. Any time Bush is silent, that’s a good thing. Even if for a moment.

Of course, later in the day he was babbling about why we need to be in Iraq because of what happened on 9/11. Doesn’t everyone know by now that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with what happened six years ago? I would certainly hope so. Still, I suppose it’s worth a shot to try to convince the ignorant with a 15 million dollar media campaign to justify the mess that is Iraq. What’s another 15 mil when you’ve already spent over 450 BILLION on the war? That’s nothing, I guess it’s worth a shot. Some people might be stupid enough to believe it.

According to the Washington Post:

The television commercial is grim and gripping: A soldier who lost both legs in an explosion near Fallujah explains why he thinks U.S. forces need to stay in Iraq.

“They attacked us,” he says as the screen turns to an image of the second hijacked airplane heading toward the smoking World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. “And they will again. They won’t stop in Iraq.”

Every investigation has shown that Iraq did not, in fact, have anything to do with the Sept. 11 attacks. But the ad, part of a new $15 million media blitz launched by an advocacy group allied with the White House, may be the most overt attempt during the current debate in Congress over the war to link the attacks with Iraq.

Sorry about the soldier losing his legs and stuff. If not for Iraq, he might be training for an upcoming marathon, or at least would be able to walk to the fridge for a midnight snack. Blame George. But that same soldier apparently has lost more than his legs, he has also lost his mind! To even consider being part of such a Bush propoganda campaign, to make the statement, “they attacked us” in reference to Iraq, well, legless or not, he’s an idiot. Perfect spokesman, though, I suppose, for the target demographic of this media blitz.

At least he’s still alive, as are so many other needlessly maimed and wounded victims of Bush. Others weren’t so lucky, both American and Iraqi.

iraq war, george bush, american soldiers, wounded soldiers, 9/11

I was going to write today about Bush and Hitler. I was going to title this one “Bushitler.” Has a nice ring to it, I think. Well, at least I thought it was clever. Bush, and Hitler, and the combo kind of sounds like a dyslexic “bullshiter.” Bushitler. Get it? Okay, I’m too easily amused. Never mind.

So many similarities (neither won their elections but somehow ended up in power, terrorist attacks at Reichstag and WTC, possibilities or probabilities that their own administrations allowed or were responsible for said attacks, identifying immediately the attackers, Communists and Muslims respectively, the subsequent Hitler’s Enabling Act and Bush’s Patriot Act, both enacted to take away civil liberties, monitor all communications of regular citizens, keep detainees imprisoned without charge or representation, on and on…). So anyway, history repeats. This article does a better job than I would have done anyway, if you’re interested in more details. And he does it without my manic ranting.

But while I was writing excessively, no doubt, my ever-so-clever “Bushitler” post, I got an email notification that Miles Levin died yesterday, six days before his 19th birthday. I’ll admit, I cried when I read that. He knew he was going to die, he kept us all posted on his blog which he maintained from his hospital room. He had a rare type of pediatric cancer (alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer that strangles the muscle tissues…I had to copy and paste that, I couldn’t begin to remember how to spell it), but his blog was somehow inspirational. Miles blogged on the Web site of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, and talked about his emotional and physical ups and downs, but he always had a sense of humor and an obvious appreciation of the life he had, even when he knew it was to be short-lived.

When he started the blog in 2005 it was simply to keep his family and friends informed of his progress. He turned into some sort of cancer celebrity along the way. I obviously became a fan.

I set out on a 19-month course of treatment, chronicling the journey on an online blog. Little did I know that my little Web site intended to keep extended family and friends informed would find readers all across the country and even the world, including such countries as Japan, Australia, Germany, Brazil.

Now he’s gone, much too soon. But the following excerpt from his blog kind of sums up his perspective, and is why he was an inspiration. Written in May 2007. Indeed, as I quoted him in the title of this post, “Whatever We Get Is Bonus”. Probably better than the “Bushitler” title anyway. The bold font in the following block is mine, not his. I just thought some things really stood out about what he had to say.

A recurrence of my kind of cancer has been hitherto incurable, although I still cling to a slim ray of hope. But in all likelihood, I am in the last few months of my short life.

Unlike many cancer patients, I don’t have much anger. The way I see it, we’re not entitled to one breath of air. We did nothing to earn it, so whatever we get is bonus. I might be more than a little disappointed with the hand I’ve been dealt, but this is what it is. Thinking about what it could be is pointless. It ought to be different, that’s for sure, but it ain’t. A moment spent moping is a moment wasted.

I accept what is to come, but I cannot rid myself of a deep mourning for all those experiences — college, marriage, children, grandchildren — that will probably never be mine to celebrate. What solace I do find is in the knowledge that I have done everything I can to transmute this terribleness into something positive by showing as many people as I can how to endure it with a smile.

I don’t believe you can ask for any more, but if I could ask for something, it would be to be able to go outside into the glorious spring air, feeling healthy and blissfully clueless as to how lucky I was for it, if only just for an hour.

miles levin, cancer survivor, george bush, adolf hitler, tributes

I’m afraid of bridges, always have been. When I was a kid, a section of a bridge we crossed every Sunday on the way to church collapsed, fell right into the river. Well. That didn’t make me so comfortable on the way to Sunday School. Particularly while they were making the repairs, and we would sometimes have to stop on the bridge while they were diverting traffic. Bridges shake. I remember that.

So in the aftermath of the Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse, a tragedy, my question is why bother to have inspections if no one pays attention to the reported problems, before they lead to a catastrophe like we witnessed last Wednesday? This is 2007. In 1990, seventeen years ago, inspectors were reporting fatigue cracks in that same bridge, calling it “structurally deficient.” The bridge is 40 years old, really no surprise, I guess. What is a surprise is that nothing was done about the problem at that time.

300,000,000 vehicles are driving across 73,000-plus “structurally deficient” bridges every day. Of course it would be expensive to repair them all, apparently $188 billion dollars. Lots of money. But I’d rather my tax dollars go towards that $188 billion, keeping me out of the water on my way to or home from work, than to the $450 billion spent, to date, on the war in Iraq. Okay, I’ll shut up, that’s another story.

Despite the extensive media attention given to the Minneapolis tragedy, know, too, that there have been several incidents of other bridges inspected and reported to be structurally deficient that have also collapsed in recent years.

If they’re not going to fix the problems that the inspectors identify, I would like to suggest bendier bridges, like the ones built back in the day. Remember the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse? The bridge also known as Galloping Gertie? I don’t either. It was 1940, even my parents weren’t alive at the time. But we’ve all seen the videos. And although the bridge was apparently more screwed up than the existing 73,000 structurally deficient bridges we drive across every day (Galloping Gertie only lasted for four months, from opening ceremony to collapse), at least it managed to maintain “the wave” for a full hour before collapsing. It finally collapsed, of course, due to those 42mph winds. (Good Lord, who hired the engineers for that project?) But, they apparently built it so that it was very bendy. I’ll give them credit for that. I didn’t know concrete and steel could be so flexible. Watch the video below, it really is quite amazing.

If the powers that be are going to completely ignore reported inspection results, and allow the nation’s bridges to get to the point of collapse without doing anything to solve the problems, and just cross their fingers and hope for the best, the least they can do is build them like Gertie, so I might stand a chance of making it to the other side without making a big splash. Or splat, depending on the bridge. The structurally deficient one.

A dog died in the Tacoma incident because he was afraid to get out of the last car on the bridge. Other than the pup, though, no fatalities, everyone else had time to make it to the other side. However wild the trip may have been.

I want bendy bridges like Gertie. Just in case, since nothing else is apparently being done. And yes, bendy really is a word.

bridge collapse, minneapolis bridge, tacoma narrows, government expense, iraq war

George Bush is five polyps lighter. Dick Cheney didn’t launch an attack anywhere in the world during his two-hour Presidency. So all is (relatively) well, which gives me a chance to pay homage to Tammy Faye today.

I loved Tammy Faye. Bakker, Messner, whatever. Don’t care much for Jim, don’t care much for Roe, so I’ll just call her Tammy Faye. Her men, her make-up, probably not the best choices, but if they made her happy, God bless her. Roe is now a neighbor, though, since he and Tammy had just recently moved here to Kansas City, so I should be more cautious about what I say. He could show up at my door at any time, and he kind of creeps me out.

Seeing Tammy Faye on Larry King Live last Thursday was very disturbing, and it was obvious she didn’t have much time remaining. But who expected she’d pass away the next day? In retrospect, I really believe she knew it was her time, which is why she wanted to do that final interview.

Those of us that loved her, though, loved her simply because she, too, loved. She embraced everybody, without judgement. Unconditional love and acceptance. Remember her stint on The Surreal Life a couple of years ago, with porn star Ron Jeremy being one of the other members in the house? The porn star and the evangelist, and yet they somehow, despite their very obvious differences, bonded.

She was just cool, in a Jesus sort of way.

Rest in peace, Tammy, and enjoy the burgers and fries in heaven! With lots of ketchup.

tammy faye, tammy faye bakker, tammy faye messner

Charleston is a personal city for me. Growing up in upstate South Carolina, I enjoyed trips to what Carolinians often call “The Holy City.” We’d shop at the City Market, and enjoy walking along the Battery where old homes and inns bring history to the forefront. My husband and I spent a week in Charleston on our honeymoon. For many years my brother owned a small place on one of the islands near Charleston. My family spent many summer vacations there. When I read about the nine firefighters who lost their lives Monday, I felt a great sadness wash over me.

My father worked as a firefighter in the Naval Shipyard in Charleston when he was a young man. He was my grandmother’s only son to serve stateside in the war; her two other sons served in the United States Army and were stationed overseas. I still have the buttons from my father’s uniform. He was proud of his service as a young man.

We don’t often stop, on a daily basis, to think about men and women who are willing, for modest salaries, to rush into a burning building in hopes of saving lives. That’s exactly what happened in Charleston this week. The State (Columbia) newspaper described one of the fallen firefighters, James Earl Drayton, who had retired two years ago. He’d served the Charleston Fire Department for 30 years. But firefighting was in his blood, and he rejoined the force. Drayton, who was 50 years old, gave his life doing what he loved, for one of the most honorable causes a human can embrace. He gave his life for another human being, returning to an inferno after rescuing a person trapped inside.

The furniture store on U.S. 17 lacked sprinklers. The building was originally used for a grocery business.

Had it not been for the Charleston Fire Department, many more might have died Monday. We can thank and honor nine brave men for enabling others to make it out alive. And although I now live in Florida, the Holy City will always be a part of me. The city’s loss stretches beyond Charleston’s borders—such losses touch us all, because we know that some of the best among us are gone. (photo City of Charleston site; text by Kay B. Day)

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