MLK Statue Washington - First non-white, first non-war monument there

"Now that he is safely dead Let us praise him, build monuments to his glory, sing hosannas to his name. Dead men make such convenient heroes: They 
cannot rise 
to challenge the images we would fashion from 0their lives. And besides, it is easier to build monuments than to build a better world." Carl Wendell



Lei Yixin born ca. 1953, is a prominent Chinese sculptor ...

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial is located in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., southwest of the National Mall. The Memorial is located at the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin near the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. The memorial is a result of an early effort of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated to erect a monument to King.

Covering four acres, the memorial opened to the public on August 22, 2011, after more than two decades of planning, fund-raising and construction


King was a member of a fraternity,  while he was attending Boston University King remained involved with the fraternity after the completion of his studies, including delivering the keynote speech at the fraternity's 50th anniversary banquet in 1956.

The centerpiece for the memorial is based on a line from King's "I Have A Dream" speech: "Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope."
A 30-foot high statue of King named the "Stone of Hope" stands past two other pieces of granite that symbolize the "mountain of despair."
Visitors literally "pass through" the Mountain of Despair on the way to the Stone of Hope, symbolically "moving through the struggle as Dr. King did during his life."
A 450-foot inscription wall includes excerpts from many of King's sermons and speeches.
On this crescent-shaped granite wall, fourteen of King's quotes will be inscribed, the earliest from the time of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama, and the latest from his final sermon, delivered in 1968 at Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral, just four days before his assassination.

MEANWHILE

Glenn Beck Holds Rally in Israel Denouncing United Nations, Human Rights Organizations

Former Fox television host Glenn Beck has declared he is forming a new Texas-based global movement to defend Israel from the United Nations and international human rights organizations. Beck made the announcement while addressing roughly 1,000 American Evangelical Christians and right-wing Israelis in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Beck, a born-again Mormon, showered praise on Israelis and the Israeli state.

Glenn Beck: "In Israel, there is more courage in one small square mile than in all of Europe. In Israel, there is more courage in one soldier than in the combined and cold hearts of every bureaucrat at the United Nations."

Beck's appearance in Israel was the first stop in his worldwide speaking tour entitled "Restoring Courage," which will take him to South Africa and South America before a major event in Texas on Sunday.

Conservative Website, Brooklyn Rabbi Blame Earthquake on Declining Morals, Same-Sex Marriage

The publisher of the conservative website WorldNetDaily has published an editorial blaming Tuesday's earthquake on the East Coast to what he sees as the nation's declining morals. Joseph Farah writes, "Washington, D.C., deserves more than the wallop it got today. It needs a much bigger shaking up than it got." Meanwhile, a Brooklyn rabbi named Yehuda Levin, who has ties with the National Organization for Marriage, recorded a YouTube video blaming the earthquake on the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage.

Yehuda Levin: "The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that one of the reasons that God brings earthquakes to the world is because of the transgression of homosexuality. And the Talmud states, 'You have shaken your male member in a place where it does not belong. I, too, will shake the Earth.' So, to those who sent out the email, yes, there's a direct connection between earthquakes and homosexuality. There was in Haiti, and there is here in New York and Washington, D.C., where they passed homosexual legislation and ordinances."

Secret U.S. Diplomatic Cable Reveals McCain Promised to Provide Gaddafi with Weapons

A U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks on Wednesday reveals Republican Sen. John McCain, former 2008 presidential candidate, promised to provide arms and military gear to Col. Muammar Gaddafi during a meeting in August 2009. Also attending the meeting was Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman and Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins. The leaked cable reads, "Lieberman called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting that common enemies sometimes make better friends."

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