MONUMENTALISM ON THE MALL

Jon Wiener writes: The week the movie Pearl Harbor opened, Congress and the President ordered construction to begin on the proposed World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, exempt from existing law and oversight. The new legislation nullified the lawsuits challenging the design and prohibited federal agencies from further deliberations about it. The House vote was a lopsided 400-15, and it zipped through the Senate without debate or objection. The courts had agreed to consider whether the plan violated the Environmental Policy Act and the Commemorative Works Act, which protects the Mall from ill-considered projects. The National Capitol Planning Commission had scheduled new public hearings for mid-June. Critics (see Wiener, "Save the Mall," November 13, 2000) had argued that the site near the Lincoln Memorial would break up the nation's number-one location for protest demonstrations where Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed "I have a dream." Others criticized the design for a grandiose, triumphalist style inappropriate for honoring the men and women who defeated Hitler. Now we'll have a memorial with architecture more suited to Nazi Germany.

DUNCE GETS DOCTORATE

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.