D.C. Trip

Today our class took a trip to Washington D.C. to view a handful of the memorials discussed earlier in the semester. The trip allowed for us to walk around and fully embrace the viewing experience associated with each monument. 

My favorite part of the trip was the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. In researching the memorial I came across articles surrounding the controversy of a paraphrased quote: “I was a drum major for justice peace and righteousness”. The paraphrased quote is scolded for making MLK seem arrogant. The arrogance becomes clearer after reading the original quote: “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice, 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”. As a result of the conflict the memorial is considered unfinished. The quote was supposed to be removed in March or April of 2013. When we visited today, in May of 2013, the quote still remained on the sculpture.

 

Although we did not visit the memorial, another memorial I found powerful was the Washington Memorial. Everywhere we went on the trip, you could always look up and see the obelisk.

If I had to pick a memorial that proved disappointing, I would look towards the Vietnam War Memorial.  To me the memorial was too plain. I see how powerful the memorial would be to someone whose love one name was on the wall but I had no personal connection to the 

memorial.

-Chris