Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope
By Luann Mostello
On September 2, 2011, I visited the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.
I had read about the choices to engage the sculptor, Lei Yixin, from the People’s Republic of China, to quarry the granite in China, to fight the licensing battles with the MLK estate, to paraphrase the drum major quote and to allow the finishing by the Chinese stonemasons at the site. What could I expect to come out of this mountain of controversy surrounding a tribute to a prominent American?
My impression is that works of art often can transcend physical and historical issues. A visitor comes through a portal flanked by two roughly carved boulders. Once inside the plaza, it is not difficult to visualize that the thirty foot granite block, from which the statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges in high relief, once was the center of these boulders. The quote on one side of the statue, taken from the “I Have a Dream” speech, is “Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope.” This inscription and its artistic execution are powerful messages. I must believe that every visitor can receive them in an emotional way, and perhaps, even in a spiritual way. The statue embodies strength and leadership, which stand in contrast to the concept of despair which can encase people’s aspirations. The statue faces southeast to the Jefferson Memorial where that president’s words about the equality of men are engraved; behind it to the northwest is the Lincoln Memorial with its legacy of the great emancipation and of major civil rights’ events. This placement of the MLK memorial can work as an American tableau for some viewers where emancipation pushes the stone out of the mountain and the black man now can seek life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, I believe that this leader of the civil rights movement rose above these connections. He was inspired by his faith and was strengthened by the philosophy of other non-violent resistors. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American, but he was an American dissident, speaking truth to power.
Along the back of the plaza a long wall of granite evokes the image of a tombstone with fourteen MLK quotations as epitaphs. These inscriptions are mainly disappointing not only because they poorly capture the magnificence of his speeches but because they fail to resonate his non-violent confrontation with racism, poverty and war. I would have preferred to have seen the following:
1)“Racial injustice around the world. Poverty. War. When man solves these three great problems he will have squared his moral progress with his scientific progress. And more importantly, he will have learned the practical art of living in harmony.” 2)“Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.” 3)“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” 4)“It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”
I would urge everyone to visit the MLK Memorial because the artistic presentation is quite moving but don’t spend time reading the wall. Take along a copy of the speech, “I have a dream”, and be inspired.
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”…With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
(Recently, there have been several very good articles about the MLK memorial. Colman McCarthy has a column in the September 30, 2011 edition of the National Catholic Reporter.)
Luann Mostello is the Treasurer for Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore.
