Monumental

We have a new monument on the National Mall, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. It is, as we're being told at length, the first Washington monument to an African American and the first on the mall to a non-president.

I think such a monument is absolutely "deserved" - whatever that means, and for what my opinion is worth. But I always wonder what we are to make of such monuments. Clearly people want to see such things - they clamber all over the Lincoln Memorial; they read names and leave offerings at the Vietnam wall. What are people thinking as they visit such places? What, exactly, are we remembering? What about places like Mt. Rushmore, or the statues of Confederate heroes in Richmond, Va.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/us/23mlk.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=martin%20luther%20king%20jr.&st=cse