Posted on 08/28/2011 5:56:34 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Post Columnist Says King Monument is Stalin-like
A Washington Post columnist has criticized the new Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, while his paper is publishing a 24-page special supplement hailing the unveiling of the Stone of Hope in the memorial that includes the 30-foot tall statue of the civil rights leader.
Black columnist Courtland Milloy writes, Lets face it: There really is something peculiar about having an artist from communist China sculpt the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue. And, yes, it would have been fantastic had an African American sculptor been chosen instead.
He adds, The sculpture is based on a 1966 photograph of King taken in his office in Atlanta, standing at his desk, with a picture of Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi on a wall in the background. In it, King has soft eyes and an open face that conveys the blessed assurance of a man who walks by faith. Lei Yixin has turned those eyes into something of a steely squint. The result is a stern colossus, dressed no less in a style of suit similar to ones found on many statues of Stalin.
Milloy goes on to complain about the fact that the sculptor and the monument are from China. He writes, the fact remains that Lei hails from a country that oppresses ethnic minorities, exploits its workers, and jails human-rights activists and the attorneys who try to defend them. In their day, King and civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall would likely have been taken by the Red Guard and never heard from again.
The Red Guards were Maos representatives who would beat and kill people and destroy property in the name of revolution. One of their slogans was, Smash the old world; build a new world.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
Hmmmm ...
The two laborers seem to be displaying their deferrence to the Great Leader. It looks as though re-education camp really does work!
Mao
Brezhnev
Giant head of a young Mao (look at the tiny people on the scaffolding in front)
I like these best:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away". ~ Shelley
Yes. It’s also interesting that Mao and MLK are both clutching “papers” (what he was supposed to be holding?), the eyes are made similar, the Soviet style suit and the general overall look of utilitarianism makes him look like a Communist rather than a Christian. And why the Egyptian looking rocks?
Mao has a statue holding his little red book. It would have been nice to have seen MLK holding his Holy Bible.
My favorite Lenin Statue.
LOL! Lenin better lay off those beans.
It’s true, when you look at the photo, King looks humble and diminutive, even perhaps with a little fear.
The statue on the other had looks positively dictatorial, not to mention Asian...
I like those best as well. Put out to pasture, armless and legless, all can do is blather about who murdered the most people.
More Mao like to me.
REVERAND Martin Luther King.
Minister (clergy) has a memorial on U.S. Government property; and paid for and maintained by the U.S. Government.
My question is this - where are the “separation of church and state” people. I do not hear a proverbial PeeP out of those folks!!!
I would file this under sad...a great American hero depicted in such a trite and ugly fashion.
Martin Luther King was a conservative and woulda voted for Sarah Palin
/s
Eureka!
someone who gets it....they should just hang a Viet Cong banner from it
and place Glenn Beck’s photo at the bottom at his feet...where Beck normally is when he speaks of King in hushed reverence
I hadn’t thought about it but maybe he was in the Muslim Brotherhood - a lot of them are Commies. It could be why they gave him that Egyptian look and it’s where it all began. I’m fascinated about this sculpter, they tell a story and this one isn’t telling the story we’re all familar with...
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