The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
It’s Probably Wise Not to Climb the Fence to Retrieve It
“Ultimate Frisbee Lands in North Korea”–headline, Associated Press, Aug. 31
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control
“Swedes Warned Over Looming Butter Shortage”–headline, TheLocal.se, Sept. 1
News of the Tautological
“Despite Popularity, Park and Ride Lots Still in Short Supply”–headline, KOMO-TV website (Seattle), Aug. 3
American Ego
“Poet Maya Angelou is taking issue with a paraphrased version of a quotation inscribed in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, saying it makes the civil rights leader sound like an ‘arrogant twit’ because it’s out of context,” the Associated Press reports:
The words were from a sermon King delivered Feb. 4, 1968, at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, two months before he was assassinated, about a eulogy that could be given when he died.
King said, “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”
On Tuesday, Angelou, who consulted on the memorial, told The Washington Post that a shortened version of the quotation at the memorial sounds egotistical and should be changed.
It reads: “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” . . .
the paraphrased version “minimizes the man,” said the 83-year-old Angelou. “It makes him seem less than the humanitarian he was. . . . It makes him seem an egotist.”
King would have never said of himself that he was a drum major, Angelou said, but rather that others might say that of him.
It seems to us Angelou has a point, if a small one, though it’s not clear why she’s bringing it up now when the statue has been in the works for 14 years. …
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below ”Today’s Columnists.
