Trump’s arch insults America’s history |
This year Memorial Day comes steeped in controversy. President Trump is proposing a 250-foot arch (50% taller than the Arc de Triomphe) to celebrate America’s birth. Americans in turn are being asked to accept his arch, like his enormous East Wing addition to the White House, as the new architectural norm for Washington. The memorial was pushed one step closer to becoming a reality when on Thursday it received the approval of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.
And that’s the problem. America at its best has honored its past with modesty, not bragging. What this modesty says about us becomes clear when we compare the Lincoln Memorial, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, to the memorial that Trump is proposing — an Arc de Triomphe on steroids.
Can anyone imagine King giving his speech standing beneath the memorial Trump wants? King, like any speaker trying to be........