V-Grams

V-Gram 42

May 9, 1997


A Monument to Divide

Whether or not FDR was the greatest president in this century is not the issue here. Many will say so, and evidence exists to support their particular belief. The issue is that our nation's capital should embody visible testimony to the "more perfect union" our Constitution set out to establish. Accordingly, the great edifices we see from the air as we come in to land, the monuments millions come to visit every year, need to reflect our shared beliefs.

As the men they honor, monuments and memorials to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln represent events and ideas which live in the hearts and minds of every American. By contrast, the Roosevelt Memorial was erected to set in stone recently fashionable views of history espoused by one generation - that of the 1960s - and the disintegration of America into groups. Instead of eternity, we are treated to fads.

By no stretch of the imagination has sufficient time elapsed to see FDR's place in history with any degree of clarity. Worse still, the memorial takes up an arbitrary selection of Roosevelt themes to flaunt the deep divisions between the designers and millions of potential visitors. Watching the dedication most likely through the smoke over his obligatory cigarette holder (which has been suppressed by the designers), the real FDR will always live in history. Those who continue to split us into groups will live in infamy.