“I know there’s been a lot of controversy lately about the quote on the memorial”

[bigtree]

“I know there’s been a lot of controversy lately about the quote on the memorial,” Obama, the nation’s first black president, said at a service project at a school in Washington in honor of today’s King holiday.

“If you look at that speech about Dr. King as a drum major, what he really said was that all of us could be a drum major for service, all of us could be a drum major for justice, and there’s nobody who can’t serve, nobody who can’t help somebody else.”


read: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-16/obama-says-quote-on-king-memorial-is-call-to-service.html


President Barack Obama tours the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., Oct. 14, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

[DoBotherMe]

1. WOW! What a powerful picture

I feel pride, sadness, and shame. Dana ; )

[LoZoccolo]

2. K&R

:kick:

[rfranklin]

3. I think that is a recycled Chairman Mao statue...

I don't see the hope in that visage.

The fact that the Chinese workers were not being paid was only discovered when the BAC sent an investigator to determine if they were being exploited. While they were given room and board and hoped to be paid upon returning to China, using free labor to construct Kings monument seems to fly in the face of what he stood for. “It is a crime for people who live in this rich nation to receive starvation wages,” King told the Memphis workers.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/26/305092/mlk-jr-memorial-statue-completed-using-unpaid-chinese-laborers/

[bigtree]

4. they said they expected to get paid when they got home and were fine with that . . .

from the WP: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112304298_2.html?sid=ST2010081705406


. . . They work for a sculpting company in Hunan province and have no idea what they will be paid for their work on the King memorial. They expect to be paid when they get home.

The translator asked: Why are the workers okay with not being paid until they return to China?

Because they are working for "national honor," the man said. "To bring glory to the Chinese people." He said the workers felt patriotic pride in having been chosen to work on the King project. He said they knew there were Americans who wanted their jobs, didn't get them and were mad that the Chinese did.

The man said the workers get free room and board, and lunch delivered at the job site. Their work breaks last only as long as it takes them to eat. When they had been in the United States for one month, they were treated to dinner at a restaurant. Like any good tourists, they planned to go to New York City over Thanksgiving and maybe Niagara Falls.

But he couldn't take issue with the apartment building, which has a 24-hour concierge, Olympic-size pool and fitness center. "At least we know their living conditions are good," he said.

[rfranklin]

5. You have relatives in Germa...uh...China?

That sounds fishy.