The new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., was just unveiled, but it's already engulfed in controversy. Poet Maya Angelou says the monument distorts King's memory because an inscription in the stone mangles his words. In one of his last sermons, King said, "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." The inscription reads, "I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness." Angelou says the shortened version makes the humble civil rights leader sound like "an arrogant twit." Is the edited quote really that bad?
Angelou is absolutely right: You just can't leave out the "if" clause, says Rachel Manteuffel at the Monterey, Calif., Herald. King was telling critics who accused him of being "an attention-craver — a puffed out drum major" — that he didn't mind as long as they recognized that he was "doing it for the most noble causes." This inscription makes King sound "like something he was not: an arrogant jerk." So let's get out the chisels and correct the mistake.
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