The MLK statue was revealed and it was discovered the artist who created the statue decided to change the wording of Martin Luther King's quote. The statue reads "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness" The quote comes from a speech just before his death, where he had imagined what his own eulogy would sound like. The artist, Lei Yixin decided to remove the word "if " from the quote and incorrectly quoted Dr. King, making Dr. King sound arrogant. If someone is going to be quoted, the quote should be exact. Apparently, Lei Yixin missed that lesson in school. If they had hired an American Artist to create the statue, they would know the importance of not changing a quote. The artist shouldn't take it upon himself to remove words from the quote. The quote is supposed to read,
"If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice," King said. "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."
I was disappointed to read that an artist from China was hired to create the statue and a handful of men from China was paid to come and help with the statue. The statue stands as a memorial of the great Dr. King who fought for the rights of not only the African Americans, he fought for equality of everyone. An American Artist should have been chosen to create the statue. Can't anything be made by Americans or are Americans incapable of creating anything? What ever happened to made in America, by Americans? Instead of employing Americans to do the job in this poor economic times, they bring over an Artist from China and his workers, when there are plenty of capable artists right here in the United States.
It is very disappointing to read that someone from China built this statue and changed the quote. How could they possibly understand what Martin Luther King means to us? We are giving all our jobs away to china, when our economy needs these jobs. Prices continue to rise and jobs seem to be disappearing. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThank you! That is exactly how I feel. You hit the nail on the head :)
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the disappointment in finding out that someone who isn't an American made this statue, but as you state in your post
ReplyDelete"The statue stands as a memorial of the great Dr. King who fought for the rights of not only the African Americans, he fought for equality of everyone."
Dr. King fought just as much for immigrants just as much as he did for anyone else.
Don't get me wrong here. I am a firm believer that as a country, we need to be much more supportive of the people who live here by buying products made here, creating jobs here, etc etc. I just don't think that Dr. King would have as much of an issue with where the person who made the statue came from.
As for the misquote....that part is just plain sad. Was no one in charge of overseeing this project to make sure it was done correctly?
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I was wondering what the fuss was. I don't have a TV so I hadn't heard. I can see your point, it seems more and more of our business is going to China or other nations - why? The almighty dollar.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wished they would of put the entire paragraph you quoted above in your post. Now, that would of stood out a lot more!
Tina "The book Lady"
Great post!
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The fuss is he incorrectly quoted Dr. King. I am sure he was paid a pretty penny to create the statue and he didn't even quote the MLK correctly. If you take words from a quote, it changes the meaning of a sentence. Most people know, when your quoting someone. It is a rule not to change the wording or it is no longer a quote. Thanks for stopping by & following. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it wouldnt have been an issue of where he came from. If he was chineese and lived in America that would be different. But, the artist lives in China, him & his workers were paid to come here and create the statue. Its not an issue over race. Its about not using an artist who lives in the United States. The United States is a Melting Pot of Nationalities. The United States is in extreme poor economi times. It's about putting faith in Americans to do the job and do the job right. Too many companies turn to oversees for cheap labor. Our products are poor quality and too many people are out of work all so big corporations can save a few bucks. It has come to Americans paying a lot of money for poor quality. The statue shows the poor quality of hiring someone from overseas to do the job with the artist incorrectly quoting Dr. King. No offense taken. I believe in our country and want to see Americans go back to work and we never had so many product recalls in the past when products were made in the United States. Baby formula, baby bottles, water bottles and so on are no longer safe, because of poor quality. Even our meat is imported from Mexico.
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