SocraticGadfly: Debate on Ike memorial misses biggest issues

March 23, 2012

Debate on Ike memorial misses biggest issues

There's yet another newspaper op-ed debating the proposed D.C. memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and conflict over the memorial's design.

Missing from the Eisenhower memorial debate, in this column as in others, though, are two issues.
 
A. Do we want more clutter on the Mall? 
 
B. Is Eisenhower worthy of a presidential memorial?
 
On A, I say no, and I say no to more National Park Service units without more budget.
 
On B, although it's not specifically identified as a presidential memorial, I say no. His famous "military-industrial complex" comment aside, post-Brown, he was a huge foot-dragger on support for desegregation. And, worse about it yet in private.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you're ignorant about Ike's huge civil rights impact . See Thurgood
Marshall Jr's discussion on C-Span and "A Matter of Justice" by Prof David Nichols

Gadfly said...

Well, we'll probably agree to disagree. I see a president who at places like Little Rock, deliberately delayed enforcement of Brown. A president who did little post-Brown to hire more blacks in the federal government. A president who certain had Brown as part of the reason he said naming Earl Warren as chief justice was his worst decision ever. There's plenty of other material, including Ike's golf buddies and more, to show he wasn't so enlightened. Even if Thurgood Jr. claims otherwise.